Warning: Rant ahead!
Feb. 6th, 2005 09:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ambitious_wenchNote: This is in response to an article on BoingBoing which can be found here:
http://www.boingboing.net/2005/02/06/photo_quilt_made_by_.html
Dear Cory:
While the gesture of making a quilt out of a photograph of his girlfriend's face is certainly a worthy endeavor, and certainly a labor of love, try creating a counted cross stitch portrait. There are lots of programs that convert hard-copy images into coded charts for use with dyed threads to create stunning works of art.
And let's not forget the designers who actually chart their own designs for reproduction by focused and nimble-fingered needle workers around the world.
My personal favorite is Teresa Wentzler, and here are some pics of a piece that I made from her "Peacock Tapestry".
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ambitious_wench/sets/110210/
You can see more of her stunning work here: http://www.twdesignworks.com/.
I especially recommend "Celestial Dragon".
http://www.twdesignworks.com/Designs/cdragon_l.html
Here is an industry that pays artists for real talent, allows designs to be made into real art, and the sharing of information is compensated in a fair way.
Matthew's quilt is an example of craftsmanship, art and love. But let's not forget one of the oldest digital art mediums. It's an artform that was created by women in the western world, is horribly undervalued and yet requires a degree of skill that many fear mastering. Interestingly, it is a male artform in India, where men will embroider bolts of fabrics with repeating designs to be used by haute couture designers the world over.
I have been told by countless people (men and women alike) that they do not have the patience to do this. Patience has nothing to do with it. It depends on focus and the ability to read and follow directions, the ability to move from the abstract to the tangible. It requires the ability to work at very tiny levels, eye-hand coordination, and yet, it also demands a certain amount of body knowledge because you have to know where your hand is under the fabric to be able to bring your needle up in the right hole; keep in mind that in some cases, fabric has up to 40 threads per inch.
The images you see were worked on 28 count Lugana fabric. The embroidery floss list was over 50 colors. This is compounded by "blended threads", a technique that uses 2 or three different colors on a needle at a time. The symbol list was over 150 different combinations. Teresa Wentzler coded the chart *BY HAND*.
I don't want to disparage Matthew's work. It's beautiful, and he's improvised his own means of pixelating and that is truly ingenious of him. I encourage him to continue. But frankly, I couldn't let it slide that this is small potatoes compared to the work being done by cross-stitch designers all over the world.
Also, cross stitch has a rich part in cultural history. I once read an article on Abolitionist sayings worked into in samplers in 19th century America. Quaker schools used octagonal designs to teach basic math skills to girls in both England and America. Samplers were used to teach young women how to read. My grandmother told me of a piece she once saw in a museum that was faded and worn: "There was a time, that time is past when youth bloomed fair to see. A time will come, is coming fast, when you will fade like me". She said it was one of the most disturbing art pieces she'd ever seen.
Interestingly, in the southern states in America, stitchers took great pride in the neatness of their work, front and back. In the north, the backs were messy with long thread runs from stitch to stitch. That "rats nest" approach saved those works for future generations; the resulting mess of threads supported the fabric and preserved it. Southern works were done so neatly that there was little excess thread on the back of the fabric. Further, warm and humid conditions hastened the degradation of the base fabric, and they often crumbled after 50 years.
There are examples of Elizabethan blackwork that survive to this day because of the use of the use of silk threads on linen.
http://www.boingboing.net/2005/02/06/photo_quilt_made_by_.html
Dear Cory:
While the gesture of making a quilt out of a photograph of his girlfriend's face is certainly a worthy endeavor, and certainly a labor of love, try creating a counted cross stitch portrait. There are lots of programs that convert hard-copy images into coded charts for use with dyed threads to create stunning works of art.
And let's not forget the designers who actually chart their own designs for reproduction by focused and nimble-fingered needle workers around the world.
My personal favorite is Teresa Wentzler, and here are some pics of a piece that I made from her "Peacock Tapestry".
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ambitious_wench/sets/110210/
You can see more of her stunning work here: http://www.twdesignworks.com/.
I especially recommend "Celestial Dragon".
http://www.twdesignworks.com/Designs/cdragon_l.html
Here is an industry that pays artists for real talent, allows designs to be made into real art, and the sharing of information is compensated in a fair way.
Matthew's quilt is an example of craftsmanship, art and love. But let's not forget one of the oldest digital art mediums. It's an artform that was created by women in the western world, is horribly undervalued and yet requires a degree of skill that many fear mastering. Interestingly, it is a male artform in India, where men will embroider bolts of fabrics with repeating designs to be used by haute couture designers the world over.
I have been told by countless people (men and women alike) that they do not have the patience to do this. Patience has nothing to do with it. It depends on focus and the ability to read and follow directions, the ability to move from the abstract to the tangible. It requires the ability to work at very tiny levels, eye-hand coordination, and yet, it also demands a certain amount of body knowledge because you have to know where your hand is under the fabric to be able to bring your needle up in the right hole; keep in mind that in some cases, fabric has up to 40 threads per inch.
The images you see were worked on 28 count Lugana fabric. The embroidery floss list was over 50 colors. This is compounded by "blended threads", a technique that uses 2 or three different colors on a needle at a time. The symbol list was over 150 different combinations. Teresa Wentzler coded the chart *BY HAND*.
I don't want to disparage Matthew's work. It's beautiful, and he's improvised his own means of pixelating and that is truly ingenious of him. I encourage him to continue. But frankly, I couldn't let it slide that this is small potatoes compared to the work being done by cross-stitch designers all over the world.
Also, cross stitch has a rich part in cultural history. I once read an article on Abolitionist sayings worked into in samplers in 19th century America. Quaker schools used octagonal designs to teach basic math skills to girls in both England and America. Samplers were used to teach young women how to read. My grandmother told me of a piece she once saw in a museum that was faded and worn: "There was a time, that time is past when youth bloomed fair to see. A time will come, is coming fast, when you will fade like me". She said it was one of the most disturbing art pieces she'd ever seen.
Interestingly, in the southern states in America, stitchers took great pride in the neatness of their work, front and back. In the north, the backs were messy with long thread runs from stitch to stitch. That "rats nest" approach saved those works for future generations; the resulting mess of threads supported the fabric and preserved it. Southern works were done so neatly that there was little excess thread on the back of the fabric. Further, warm and humid conditions hastened the degradation of the base fabric, and they often crumbled after 50 years.
There are examples of Elizabethan blackwork that survive to this day because of the use of the use of silk threads on linen.