In case you were wondering what I did with all that embroidery, here are my finished porcelain pots:
The last few photos are from my display at Open Studios. The first weekend went really well, but it was very tiring! I’ll post more photos soon!
Beccy
I’ve been trying out something exciting for my current project! You remember these little porcelain pots I mentioned in this post?
Well, those little recesses in the top are going to house fabric embroidered with lines from love letters from the war.
I scanned the letters into photoshop and cut and paste the bits I wanted onto an A4 sheet. I bought some water soluble paper from Barnyarns which is perfect because I could print the letters straight onto it. I then stuck the paper onto some old linen with spraymount and proceeded to (slowly) trace the letters using my super duper embroidery foot.
What do you think? When I say slow, I mean slow – these two sheets took five hours over two days to sew. I’ve just started two more and the first one only took just over an hour so I must be getting quicker with confidence.
When I’d finished, I almost preferred the back!
The paper just washes off in warm water, although it took a bit of coaxing out from under the stitches with a nailbrush!
And the finished pieces…
Not perfect, but I prefer it to the way a proper embroidery machine would have done it.
I love the reference to going to the cinema to see ‘Major Barbara’ and having to walk home during the black-out!
It was really important to me that I not only used the content of the letters but also the actual handwriting too. It makes it more real, and although it was a lot of work I think it was worth it.
Shame I’m going to cut them up really!
Beccy
So, I had this idea and I wasn’t sure if it would work, or if it was even possible with my level of skill.
I’ve made a few prototype porcelain pots that look like this…
See those recesses in the top? Well, the plan is to fill those with embroidery. Specifically embroidered writing.
You see, I’ve always had a thing for love letters. Not ones I’ve received because, well, I haven’t received any. And anyway when you don’t know the back story or what happened next, a love letter becomes a fantastic, romantic story in itself. Did they live happily ever after? What happened next?
Love letters from the war are beautiful things. They are a strange mixture of sentiment and everyday banality. As though they'd love to write more of the sentiment but they need to pretend that everything is normal, everything’s ok.
I’ve bought a few from a lovely man on Ebay. I got quite obsessed with one couple for a while and had him scouring through his amazing collection for any letters between them. I’ve got about 20 from Vera to Fred between 1942 and 1944. Here’s one of them:
You should be able to to click to make them bigger.
My plan is to have some of the more everyday lines from the letters embroidered on the lid of the box, but something more loving printed onto decal and fired to the inside of the pot, like a hidden message. Both will come from the same letter and I might even include a copy of the letter with the box.
What do you think? I have wanted to combine my textiley hobbies with my ceramics for quite a while but it needed the right project and this could be it.
I’ve ordered some water soluble stabiliser and scoured my stash for some nice fabrics to practice on (pics to come later this week…)
If you’d like to see any more of my work you can visit my website here: www.beccyridsdel.co.uk, or my Facebook page here: www.facebook.com/beccyridsdel.
Well, some more letters just fell through the letterbox and they start “My darling treasure…”. Think I’m going to cry reading these.
Beccy
Today I finally had a few minutes free to play with my shiny Christmas present!
Heee! It’s a springy little embroidery/darning foot. I haven’t had chance to really play yet (especially since it took ages to get the tension right), but this is what I’ve done so far.
A flower, a chicken and a deformed goat. I’m secretly very pleased with the flower! Ok, not so secretly but it’s my first go and regardless of the results it’s pretty fun to do. It looks nothing like hand embroidery (although I’ve seen some amazing stuff online where people really know what they’re doing and you can’t tell the difference) but I love how much it looks like a line drawing.
I have plans to use some with my ceramics, perhaps some sewn writing? I haven’t worked it out yet but I think it’s about time I mixed up my ceramics with the textiley things I like to do, rather than keeping them separate. I need a lot of practice but I like how it’s going!
Beccy
can transform a boring skirt into something a bit special.
Take one 70’s stretchy skirt…
…add an old embroidery transfer…
…and play around with stitches you got from an old embroidery book.
It looks better on me than on the mannequin, but I never take photos of me if I can possibly help it! The stretchy synthetic fabric was the devil to embroider neatly and I should have used some stabilizing fabric to stop it puckering, but overall I think it’s pretty cute.
It is the same skirt as this one, just in a different colour….
…wait a minute! Unless my tagging system is rubbish (and to be honest it is a bit) I haven’t blogged the other skirt.
I just got an idea for another post :)
Beccy
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