The last couple days, I’ve shown the beautiful goldwork & pearl and beadwork frames embroidered by Larissa Borodich. Well, for the fun of it, today, let’s look at the artwork she framed.
Yep, I thought they were paintings or prints. Didn’t you? And surrounded by the sumptuous embroidered matting, I didn’t look that closely at the images themselves. Did you?
But when I started cropping the photos in Photoshop, I zoomed in on one of them. I couldn’t tell for sure what I was looking at: was the picture just slightly grainy? And then it occurred to me! So I whipped off an e-mail and got a response, with a few more photos. Here they are:
This is the first angel that goes with this beadwork embroidered mat. Remember yesterday when I mentioned that Larissa started out with counted cross stitch? Well, these pieces are worked entirely in tent stitch!
She worked the designs on 25 count linen, with two strands of floss, over one thread of fabric.
I really had no idea. My eyes were focusing on the mats, and though I admired the pictures they framed, I didn’t realize at first that they were also stitched!
All I can figure is that Larissa must have the patience of the angels she stitched!
Larissa acquired the patterns for these pieces through Golden Kite Advanced X-Stitch, which is a company that converts works of art, photographs, and so forth into charts for counted work. They recommend (and their kits come with) 18 ct. aida cloth for the stitching, but Larissa opted for a 25 ct. linen, and tent stitch instead of cross stitch.
Talk about tenacious stitching!
Thanks again, Larissa (& Anna of Talliaferro)!
Upcoming Stuff!
Ok, now… this it The Thing: While it’s been great fun looking at other people’s embroidery, and great fun reviewing books lately, and making patterns available, and pointing out Needlework Stuff found hither and yon around the internet —- the fact is, I’m dying to get back to blogging some sort of progress on my own needlework, writing tutorials, and so forth! (Selfish, I know!) So I’ll give you the run-down on what’s coming up:
1. The new Ask & Share section to Needle ‘n Thread should be up towards the beginning of this coming week! So look for that!
2. Today, I’m working on design for an ecclesiastical project, and I’ve been collecting the “ingredients” for that. I’ll begin working on it a week from Monday, but right now, I’m still in the design / collection stage. I’ll show you some of that!
3. Today, I must start a project, too! I don’t know what project, but it’s a project none-the-less, as I absolutely must get some stitchery into my hands. Since this is an in-between-while-waiting project, I’m thinking another quick monogram might be a good idea, or something to that effect.
4. I also want to get a “stitch-along” going, to feature on the “Ask & Share” section when it gets up and running. I’m thinking the Royal Persian Blossom design (for me, not the whole thing, but just a small element). Anyone else stitching any of those designs?
5. Goldwork has been beckoning me for about 6 months now. While the above-mentioned ecclesiastical project will help answer the call, I’ve also been dabbling with a series of small goldwork patterns that are kind of interesting. They won’t develop into something complete for a while, but daydreaming about them – and jotting notes, and working on design, and playing with supplies – is all kind of fun! I’ll share that with you in days to come.
6. And in here somewhere, believe it or not, I’m still filming embroidery stitches!
So stick with me over the next few weeks, as the summer vacation really starts to pay off!
Enjoy your weekend!
