The third workshop I took this summer was called Embroidery: An Exploration of the Stitch, and was definitely one of my favorites. I love to incorporate stitching into my books, but I never knew what I was doing. I would just freehand everything since I didn’t have any technical experience.
This class focused on stitching into surfaces other than fabric, such as wood / paper / plastic / whatever you can imagine. This is one of the pieces I made, I guess you could say I was getting a little homesick by the time July rolled around:
This is an example of an 8.5″ x 11″ embroidered photograph (this beautiful portrait was taken by my friend Ryan, who has the biggest sweet tooth the world has ever seen). I used a split stitch to embroider “Home is where your cat is” on it. This is something I discovered last summer while away from home for about a month and is possibly the truest thing I have ever said.
I didn’t actually make a lot in this class (embroidery takes a looooong time) but I did learn a lot (which is what counts, right?). Nick DeFord is not only a great instructor & person, but also a fantastic artist. I definitely recommend checking out his website and even catching a gallery show if possible.
