Playing Dress-Up

Just covering the bare essentials...and still working...

Lettering on Fabric

Yesterday, our Embroiderers' Guild held a Lettering on Fabric workshop with Canby Robertson. She is a fabulous teacher and shares so much of her knowledge beyond the "topic du jour".


Canby is a very accomplished needlework designer, teacher and artist. You will often see her work in the EGA National traveling exhibit. Here is a closeup pic of the piece which is touring now, The Rebirth of Venus. You can just see some of her lettering in the top of the picture.

Section from Rebirth of Venus by Canby Robertson

She has a lot more needle-life experience than me so I just enjoy being a sponge for the day and soaking up everything she says...about conservation, framing, printing techniques, you name it!

Our focus was on lettering and Canby has considerable calligraphy experience which she brings to her embroidery. Through trial and error, she has learned invaluable tips for letter placement, alignment, spacing, and stitch direction when applying hand-lettering techniques to the art of embroidery.

Lettering on piece by Canby Robertson

She asks, "Do you wish to make the stitched letters on your surface embroidery as professional in appearance as the lettering that enhances counted techniques like cross stitch embroidery and samplers?"

Another lettered example by Canby Robertson

Yes indeed, I do. In fact, she noted how often we stitch a gorgeous piece of embroidery, only to place an amateur-like signature in the corner...Oh, Canby, I am guilty of that...but never again after yesterday!

She has this very simple but nifty tip to underline the alphabet which you are going to use with black permanent marker -- and then use the line under the letters to get the proper alignment for your letters by drawing a line on your tracing paper and matching them up.


After aligning the letters, we traced our names onto our fabrics using a lightbox...


And began stitching the letters using one strand of cotton embroidery floss and a size 10 embroidery needle...


Following her tips and guidelines for stitch direction and shading...


We had a wonderful day!

Thank you Canby. Thank you for the techniques, the knowledge and the smiles of satisfaction. We're off to explore whole new worlds!


Now I feel confident in tackling some of those projects that I've wanted to letter and just didn't have the guts.

Oh, and I can't mention lettering without telling you about the series of tutorials on hand lettering that Mary Corbet is holding on her blog Needle 'N Thread. It's really a great series with lots of tips, close-up pics, and decision support for making your own lettered sampler. I am really enjoying it...especially the tip on how to dot an "i" without traveling the thread behind your work! Thanks to you too Mary~!

Mrs. Delany and Her Circle

Aren't they breathtaking? And their story is even more so...

• There are 1,000 of them made by the same woman.
• Her name was Mrs. Mary Delany and she made them over a decade, beginning her task at the age of 72
• They are paper collages using paper and gouache paint for effect, called "paper mosaicks" by their creator, all glued onto a painted black ground.
  
• They are all housed in the British Museum and they have made the images of them available online at this link.

I first heard of Mary Delany and Her Circle from this post on Needleprint blog (which I love!) where she mentions an upcoming exhibit at Sir John Soane's Museum in London 19 February - 01 May 2010.

I quickly became enamored with the life of Mary Delany (born Mary Granville), an aristocratic gentlewoman, married and widowed twice who lived from 1700-1788. During the course of her long, accomplished life, this dignitary of domestic life befriended poets and philosophers; excelled at gardening, painting, needlework, shellwork, you name it! She was a trusted friend of the royal family and, because she was a prolific letter writer, there is much known not only about Mrs. Delany herself but the social circle in which she traveled and the time in which she lived.


I want to meet Mrs. Delany. I know, I can't. She's dead.

But the closest thing I can do is go see her needlework, her collages, her paintings and the like. But I can't make it to the UK...

After some research, I found that the Yale Center for British Art is currently showing this exhibition 24 Sept 2009 - 3 January 2010 and will be the only U.S. venue for our Mrs. Delany.

Road trip! I've already cleared it with Jimmy and I think we'll be driving up sometime over the Christmas holiday...

So I just had to tell you about it in case you get the opportunity to travel to New Haven, Connecticut.

If not, I can honestly attest that the 275-page book from the exhibition is outstanding,



Though it doesn't show all 1,000 of the paper collages, there are many included. Not to mention sections on Mrs. Delany's needlework...

From the back cover of the book

which is absolutely exquisite.

I have not digested the entire book, but one thing I'll share which I thought was fascinating. They believe that black was not a very popular color to wear to court during the time;

Therefore, they believe that these black pieces of needlework were parts of the slip of the gowns that covered the whale-bone hoops...with coordinating, paler colors over top. So, it was the coats, mantuas, stomachers and bodices that would have been in pinks, blues and greens to coordinate. Wouldn't that have been beautiful?

Here's a link to the New York Times Review of the exhibit. And don't forget to forage through the 1,000 collage pictures on the British Museum website (click to enlarge!)...they are wonderfully inspiring for quilting and needlework.


My hat is off, my knee is bent and my head is bowed in honor of you, Mrs. Delany.

Wow.

No Taxation without Pink Representation

The Boston Tea Party has nothing on Baltimore.

We know how to protest unwanted taxes... But the subject this time wasn't taxes on tea or stamps or whisky...

This time the tax was on a pink flamingo.


Sculpted from bedsheets and wire, the flamingo has hung outside of Cafe Hon in the Baltimore Neighborhood of Hampden for the past seven years...and has never had to pay a tax for the privilege...

Until this year.

Evidently the city of Baltimore can assess a minor privilege fee on business owners who have items outside their businesses that encroach onto the sidewalks, such as tables and benches. But the tax can also include anything hanging over the sidewalk...such as awnings, light fixtures, signage and even... a pink flamingo.

So, when the owner of Cafe Hon, Denise Whiting, received a taxation bill for the pink flamingo for $800 (evidently the fee is calculated based on square footage of the item), she chose to take down the pink perched bird rather than pay the fee.

Photo via The Baltimore Sun

And the loss of this pink paragon of the Hampden community outraged the city! And her fight had just begun...she printed out flyers...

Photo via The Baltimore Sun

Enlisted the support of her community, and attracted the attention of the 98 Rock radio station.

These actions fueled the spark of protest which resulted in a group of irate orniphiles flying to the aid of their fellow feathered friend.

The outraged mob landed on the lawn in front of City Hall and refused to move until the issue was addressed.

Photo via The Baltimore Sun

Many well-known Baltimore celebrities showed up, including the reigning 2009 Baltimore's Best Hon, Charlene Osborne, seen here with Baltimore's mayor Sheila Dixon.

Photo via The Baltimore Sun

The outcome resulted in the annual tax being sliced in half to $400 by changing the calculation of the square footage of the flamingo from a rectangle to a triangle...AND, an extra coup, the mayor agreed to place a billboard along I-83 which runs into Baltimore attracting tourists to the neighborhood of Hampden.

Photo via The Baltimore Sun

And Hampden is worth the visit. It's home to Cafe Hon, sporting our newly-taxed, pink bird, and it's the only place in town where we've eaten with Elvis.


It's most famous for the Hon Fest which is held every June, a uniquely "Bawlmer" festival celebrating the working women of Baltimore and the unique familiarity with which they refer to everyone as "Hon"... It's hard for me to describe in short order so I send all those interested in knowing more to this link here.

The Festival originally started as just a contest behind Cafe Hon's restaurant to select Baltimore's Best Hon has now grown into a national phenomenon.

Photo via The Baltimore Sun

So should you come to Baltimore, Hampden is a "must see". It's an eclectic, artistic community with many unique stores, vintage shoppes, and interesting places to eat.


And it's the only place where we've seen a pink-velvet statue of Jesus...


So...Maybe Hampden has more going for it than pink feathered friends, beehive hairdos and Honfest...


Maybe they just have an incredibly charming and effective way of getting their point across without the usual vitriol and negative speak...

Photo via The Baltimore Sun

It seems that, in Baltimore, a little pink persuasion goes a long way.

And I'm proud to be a part of that.