Cover Girl

Audrey has moved on from her role as Aqua Net spokesperson and is now a cover girl!  It's a thrill for both me and our girl.

This past Spring I was asked by Stitch magazine to write two articles for the Oct/Nov issue.  It seems so long ago now.

The first article was titled 'From Sketch to Stitch' about my Breakfast at Tiffany's piece...

The second was for a project I designed for the magazine as an offshoot of my original...

Go Lightly.

It covers some of the components from my original design: the beaded chandelier, a beaded stumpwork butterfly (albeit much smaller), lettering, Audrey's hair and jewels...

It's message can be interpreted many ways.  Tread lightly.  Leave no trace.  Go with the light.  Don't take yourself too seriously.

Like Holly Golightly.  The girl who charms and beguiles, flitting in and out of people's lives, never allowing herself to be tied down or taken too seriously.

The instructions to make this project are in the current Oct/Nov issue of Stitch, the magazine of the UK Embroiderers' Guild.

I'm selling kits for the project and might consider offering an online class for the piece if there is enough  interest.  To hear more about both of these options, click here.

Happy day everyone!

Finished Traveling

A few months ago my local Embroiderers' Guild asked me to give a talk about the inspiration behind and the development of my Breakfast at Tiffany's-inspired embroidery, Traveling.

So yesterday, I put on my black dress and my mother's pearls, and headed off with my slideshow to share my story.  Most of my guild members are not online and do not read blogs so they had never heard the stories that I had shared here on this blog.

One of my guild members, Terri Tubergen, is also a framer.  Terri does excellent work and, when I asked her if she could line the edges of the shadow box with mirror, she didn't hesitate to say she would try.

So yesterday was my first chance to see the final framed piece...and I was thrilled!

I had wanted the piece to resemble the mirror-lined jewelry cases within the Tiffany store itself.

Remember I was worried that I needed to extend the piece with ribbon? And so I traveled to New York to find something?

It turns out, I ended up not using the ribbon I purchased anyway.  It placed the mirror too far away from the work so the mirror was unable to reflect the three-dimensionality of the embroidery like I had envisioned.

We decided to go for it and rest the mirror edges right at the seam allowance.  I was still a bit worried that the mirror sides might overshadow the piece inside.

I'm happy to report that this didn't happen at all.  In fact, the mirrors reflect light to the sides of the three-dimensional components as I had hoped they would.  

I love it!  And it's just too dag-on pretty not to share.

And poor Terri.  

I'm afraid there will be more mirror boxes in her future.  I'm thinking of framing January Reflections the same way.

Furthermore, it got me thinking...This approach would make a great glass table top with embroidery underneath. 

All in all, it sure feels good to have it all finish up so nicely.   And so much fun to share it all with my needle friends.

Happy day everyone!

Traveling

It was just over three years ago when I first began this project.

At the time, I was participating in a book challenge, reading one book from the 1,001 Books to Read Before You Die list every month. Breakfast at Tiffany's was my book of choice in August 2008.

Capote wrote with efficiency, every word carefully selected to express and serve a purpose in describing the charm and character of this woman whom I was growing to love.

And yet she completely shocked me. She describes herself as "top banana in the shock department." And she was.

I knew nothing about the book or the movie at the time, my only influence being the many media images of Audrey Hepburn I'd seen since childhood. Images of her wearing that simple black dress with her chignon, pearls, and tiara...sometimes smoking, sometimes with a cat on her shoulder. My impression of Holly was...

Elegant. Iconic. Audrey Hepburn.

I was surprised to learn that Holly was a high-society call girl. She sought men out for their money and she performed services in the powder room! Holly's roots weren't glamorous at all. In fact, she was a poor, orphaned country girl from Tulip, TX, just one of hundreds of girls who head to the big city trying to make it for themselves.

Not anything what I expected. And yet, I was charmed by her wit, her carefree approach to life, her love of freedom, and her independence. Published in 1957, the story presaged the free approach to love and sex in the '60s.

Holiday Golightly, Traveling is what the calling card taped to her mailbox reads. The perfect name for a woman who treats life as a holiday and treads through it lightly.

I was charmed. And her elegance reminded me a bit of my mother, whom I had just lost to leukemia a few months prior in March 2008...and her favorite color to wear, because it matched her eyes...was Grammy Aqua or what you might refer to as Tiffany blue.

After my mom died, I couldn't get enough of that color. I was attracted to it no matter what I did. I chose books from the library with aqua covers, I bought iced tea with aqua labels, I bought aqua underwear and kleenex in aqua boxes. And my obsession bled right into my needlework habit.

In fact, I was beginning to amass quite the collection of aqua-colored fabrics, ribbons, beads and threads. Items that would be perfect for use in a needlework picture inspired by my love for the book in a color that reminded me of Mom.

I put the project away for two years and resurrected it this past Spring when I finally took the time to acquaint myself with the entire phenomenon that was Breakfast at Tiffany's...the book, the movie, the Tiffany & Co. store, the "little black dress"...everything...while sewing into my work, some threads from my own life.

Early on, I had traveled to NYC and taken the picture of the store name that eventually was stitched onto my work...using new skills I had learned in this class...

The Scene

I chose to illustrate the classic, opening scene from the movie where Audrey Hepburn gets out of a cab in formal evening attire, in the morning (!), with a cup of coffee and a paper bag...to gaze into the beauty and peace of a place where she believes nothing bad can ever happen.

A trip to Tiffany's was Holly Golightly's drug-of-choice in combatting the "mean reds", an anxiety worse than fear. And that notion struck me.

The idea that beauty can comfort. Beauty can soothe. Beauty can heal.

And isn't that what creating and gazing at beautiful needlework does for me? Needlework is my own drug-of-choice...it's my own Tiffany's.

So I set about to stitch something beautiful for beauty's sake alone. Something that would make me feel good just by looking at it.

The Chandelier

When my Mom was young and newly married, she had had an Aunt who had left her some money when she passed away. With her unexpected windfall, my Mom decided to purchase a piece of beautiful furniture, a china closet that stands in her home to this day. It was the first impractical piece of furniture my mother bought...a china closet...a place to house beautiful things.

That unexpected gift meant a lot to my mother. So when she passed away, she left each one of her children some money. The story about her Aunt and the china closet was written in a letter to each of us. I was touched by this thoughtful legacy from my mother, and just like her, I bought something equally impractical. But beautiful.

Something for my home. Something I would never buy for myself but I would love to have. Something that would remind me of my mother's love of beauty every time I turned it on. A light. A chandelier.

That's when I put the block away in 2008.

The Lace Flowers

This past Spring when I pulled it out, we were in the throws of Royal Wedding fervor and I was enamored of another young, stylish woman, Kate Middleton. It was the wedding dress that Sarah Burton designed, and more specifically the lace that the Royal School of Needlework had applied to that dress, that led me to incorporate the lace technique into my Breakfast at Tiffany's piece.

More beauty.

All the while, I was continuing to study my subject. It was time to finally watch the movie.

I was appalled. They made it a love story! There was no love story in the book at all. In fact, the guy upstairs in Capote's story is gay. And though he loves Audrey, the love is strictly platonic.

So the idea of them getting together??

Yuck. That was SO not the Holly Golightly in Capote's novella...Holly was a traveler, she never got used to anything and if she did she "might as well be dead".

Needless to say, I admired the movie as a stand alone but could not reconcile it with the book. The book was soo much better.

Which caused me to question: Why would Truman Capote ever agree to that screenplay?

Which led me to read the book Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M.: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and the Dawn of the Modern Woman. A great read. It turns out that Capote had sold his novel to Paramount and didn't have any right to review the screenplay. When the movie came out, Capote was pretty vocal in his disdain for turning Breakfast at Tiffany's into a romantic comedy. Evidently, to Paramount Pictures, Holly was a little TOO modern and the only way they saw to reconcile Holly's life as a call girl was to partner her with a man. I really did hate that part.

But sleuthing out the real story behind the movie was fascinating, and led me to uncover the relationship between fashion designer Hubert de Givenchy and Audrey Hepburn. A relationship which led to the advent of the "little black dress". A transformational symbol to the young women of the day...a sign that fashion could be accessible to every woman not just the wealthy or movie stars. You could be an every-day girl...like Audrey Hepburn...and still be fashionable.

The Jewels

Because she is staring into the window at Tiffany's, I had always wanted to stitch seam treaments inspired by real jewels from Tiffany's collection. In reading Bejewelled by Tiffany 1837-1987, I found the company history was another true American success story...and was thrilled to find that Tiffany & Co. dazzled the world with their showcases of diamonds and gems in the world expositions of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Tiffany had a long history of dazzling its customers.

I even went so far as to imagine using real jewels but I just didn't have any diamonds lying around.

Luckily, my friend Sheila did. And even though I hadn't voiced that desire aloud, Sheila heard my wish and sent me Mr. Miller's stick pin.

And it was that piece of jewelry that inspired the butterfly and became its thorax...

I really have been traveling.

Discovering unexplored territories, uncovering new secrets and finding delight in all the details that went into researching and stitching this piece.

I have enjoyed every minute of it and I will miss Holly Golightly greatly.

Thank you all for traveling with me.

Though I may not have had the time to respond to all of your comments, I read each and every one. You were the added joy to the journey.

So now it's time to move on.

It's time to frame my piece and hang it on the wall...

And look at it on those days when I have a bad case of the "mean reds".

And...I think it's time to blow the two-years-worth of dust off that box in my garage and hang my mother's chandelier.

I've traveled long enough.

P.S. This next picture is for Maureen. She asked for a picture showing the scale of the piece. The finished block is 8"x8". Here it is next to a beer bottle (I think the red neck side of Holly would approve...) and sitting on top of a curio cabinet. Hope that helps Maureen...

P.P.S. If you're just visiting for the first time, you can read all the posts regarding the creation of this piece here.

P.P.P.S. Tomorrow's my anniversary and Jim's taking off from work. I'll see you all on Monday ;)

Finishing Touches

Hello everyone and thank you for all the butterfly love. I think it perked up just from hearing all of your wonderful comments.

I've been spending the last two days adding the finishing touches to this piece.

This is the fun part.

It's like getting to put the sprinkles on the cupcake.

And I'm almost finished.

When I looked at the piece as a whole, I thought I needed to bring the chandelier forward a bit more...so I punched it up by adding more rows of tiny "crystals" in between the bigger rows.

I also added ribbons to tie off the black lace bouquets...

And added a few organza petals in between the lacy petals to soften their edges a bit...

And I'm working on finalizing the seam treatments...and adding these little gray pearls to my silver mesh leaves...

The end is very near. *sniff* The only thing giving me a bit of trouble is my "signature"...

Before I took this class with Canby Robertson, I never gave my signature much of a thought. In fact, most times I was finishing something under a deadline and I forgot to even put signatures on my pieces (*gasp*).

It's true.

But Canby said that if you've put considerable time and effort into creating a beautiful piece, then you should put equal effort into your signature. Your signature should reflect you and reflect your work.

*Gulp*. No pressure.

She's right though, isn't she? And I guess, just like any new task, I'll get better at it the more I do it. It's just my first attempt today was a real flub. (I'll try to take a picture of the flub...)

I'm going to tackle it anew in dawn's early light.

An embroidered signature isn't as easy as it looks...unfortunately.

Happy Monday y'all.

The Butterfly has Landed!

Finally.

Forget the chrysalis and the whole metamorphosis thing.

I feel like I've given birth to my first insect.

So many little problems to solve.

Finding the right abdomen...

Luckily I found this pearl drop in my stash after many many hours of searching. I think it's perfect so it was well worth the wait.

Stitching the background flowers...

And then discovering that I had placed the flowers exactly where I would have liked the butterfly to go. Ugh.

And then fiddling and adjusting all that. Phew!

But it was ALL worth it! Doesn't Mr. Miller's pin look great? Thank you again to Sheila! It's gorgeous and so nice to have a real piece of diamond jewelry in this piece.

So now...it's Friday. I'm ready for happy hour. And I'm sooo excited that I only have a few finishing touches before this project is declared complete. I'm shooting to finish by Monday. Fingers crossed.

I'm looking forward to the weekend and we're supposed to have beautiful weather. I'll be stitching with my crazy quilting friends tomorrow, going on a family hike on Sunday afternoon, and then the big football showdown between the Ravens and the Steelers on Sunday night.

Here's hoping your weekend is just as fun!

Jeweled Wings

At last!

The wings for the butterfly "brooch"on my Breakfast at Tiffany's piece are finally beaded and cut out...

I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out. The only thing I wish I could change is the outline color. I wish the grey were a few shades lighter. I haven't put it on the block yet...and I'm a bit concerned that the outline may be too stark.

Nothing to be done now, my friends, for I am not re-beading those four wings.

It would...all on its own though...make an absolutely beautiful brooch.

Next up is figuring out the antennae, eyes, thorax and abdomen, then attaching it all to the block. And for those wondering the size, the butterfly with both sets of wings is 2.25" tall...sorry I keep forgetting to put something in the photos that help you to appreciate the scale. Next time.

Thanks for checking on my progress...and have a beautiful day wherever you are.

Winging It

When I thought of the name for this blog post, I started giggling to myself. (OK. Well not just to myself but there was no one else to hear me so...)

Yes. It's true. I have been winging it. And in more ways than one.

And puh-lease! To think that I even thought I would be finished this butterfly by yesterday...what was I thinking? Obviously, I wasn't. That's just my eternal optimism at work...

Of course, I have never stitched a beaded stumpwork butterfly. Given that, you would think I would have assumed extra time for the learning curve and the detours I would need to take as I tried to figure it out.

Nope. Not me. In fact, I really thought I would be finished this entire Breakfast at Tiffany's piece by now...didn't you?

I know you did. It's OK. You can admit it. "What's taking her so long??"

I know. After all, I only have the butterfly and a few more stumpwork flowers, right?

Well, my friends, let me just tell you if you don't know already, that stumpwork takes a loooong time. Even longer when you choose the wrong thread...

I stitched the lower wing with the Kreinik #4 very fine braid...and hated it. It was too chunky...too "trashy"-looking for my refined Tiffany brooch. OK, maybe that's the snob in me coming out, but I just needed a finer edge than what the Kreinik braid gave me.

And. Since I had "used up" that wing, that meant I had to fuse more fabric, print another pattern, hoop up a new set of wings and stitch down the wire.

Which...takes a bit of time.

Then..I stayed up too late working one night, trying to make some progress...using one strand of a dark grey silk floss. It looked great at midnight.

That was...until the next morning when I woke up and realized everything I had done the night before looked terrible. I had stitched over the same places multiple times, stitched too far outside the wire, and even skipped whole sections of the wire. Oh well. Let me just say, that couching one strand of floss over a tiny wire is best reserved for the daylight hours. Honestly, natural light makes a huge difference!

Well...long story short, you can see that I've only beaded one wing. And I know it will take me quite a bit of time to bead the three others.

I will say that I'm delighted with the overall look that is shaping up. And I am very grateful for having a source of vintage beads like the 18/0 rhodium beads and the 22/0 silver-lined which I bought from Beadcats...

In the picture they look pretty dark and discolored. But when stitched onto the organza with a white thread, they give the overall "brooch" a beautiful, antique quality which will go nicely with the antique diamond stickpin that Sheila sent me which I'm using for the thorax. It's just that only about 50% of the 22/0 beads actually fit over my size 15 beading needle. So I spend a lot of time trying and rejecting, and trying and rejecting.

Well. I guess my lesson for today is...winging it takes time. Especially, when you have no idea whether it will all come together and work in the end.

Wouldn't it stink if, after I get the wings beaded and I attach the wings to the piece, it just doesn't work???

Oh. Let's not think about that, shall we?

Tomorrow I'm taking the bus to New York City for the day to go shopping in the garment district with my friend Shirlee. It's supposed to rain all day so I won't be taking the good camera...I will, however, take the point-and-shoot and try to capture some of the day to share.

Happy day everyone and just remember...

Winging it is wisky business.

Whiskey? I don't really drink it...but it might be time to start.

Fashion Makes the Girl

Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday

In the Summer of 1953, just before the release of her Oscar-winning movie Roman Holiday, a 24-year old Audrey Hepburn traveled to Paris for her first haute couture shopping trip. At the time, she was still fairly naive in the fashion world and had been sent to Paris to secure a few fashionable outfits to use in her next Paramount movie, Sabrina.

In Sabrina, Audrey would have to make the transformation from a regular girl from Long Island to a Parisian sophisticate...from girl to woman...from pure to sexual. At the time, sex on the big screen was most easily conveyed by buxom bombshells such as Jane Mansfield and Marilyn Monroe. How then, would they transform the big-eyed innocent, extremely petite Audrey Hepburn "girl" into the worldly and sexual woman who returns from Paris?

The screenwriters decided on an evocative costume change and, in a stroke of genious, decided to engage an authentic Parisian designer to design Sabrina's authentic Parisian couture.

And so Audrey was in Paris in the Summer of 1953 and walked into the design house of a young designer, Hubert de Givenchy...because Balenciaga was too busy to see her.

Givenchy gown worn by Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina

Because of her diminutive size (measurements of 31.5"-22"-31.5"), the fashion of the day wasn't always the best choice. So Audrey made selections that accentuated her best features and flew in the face of the cinched-waist and busty hourglass designs that were so popular at the time.

She won Givency over that day and so began a collaboration that culminated in Givenchy's design of the little black dress worn in Breakfast at Tiffany's. A dress which cemented Audrey Hepburn as one of the greatest fashion icons of the century and solidly linked Hollywood and fashion from thence forward.

Fashion can transform. Just ask Madonna or Lady Gaga. Fashion can accentuate the allure and appeal of a woman...can bring out her beauty. And there is power in beauty.

And so, I find myself drawn to fashion as significant inspiration in my own pursuit of creating beauty through my needlework.

I've said before that fashion is the ultimate "crazy quilt"...it's mixing together different media, textures, and techniques to create an overall portrait or look. Maybe it's portraiture too.

Most of the time, when I post about fashion, I'm posting about the embroidery, beading or fabric manipulation techniques that I admire or would like to emulate some day in my own work. The little details that les petits mains have embroidered, sewn, beaded or sculpted into being...and sometimes I'm just overwhelmed with the beauty of a look or a complete collection.

So here's some things I noticed about the Spring 2012 Ready to Wear fashions shown this past week in the fashion capitals of the world.

First of all, many collections showcased lace but I was particularly drawn to the details of some of the pieces from Valentino.

Like this dress...

I can't say I like the overall dress all that much but I do admire the embroidered leaves and applied velvet blooms of the hydrangeas over the lace...

And I want to remember how the embroidery of these large blossoms covered the transition of the ivory lace to the red lace. I wouldn't have dreamed of putting them together...but that little pop of red makes the whole gown...

I noticed that this dress from Valentino...

Looks like it was made from bobbinet and, similar to the Carrickmacross lace technique, it looks as if colored muslins were appliqued over the bobbinet and cut away and embroidered to make the flowers...I really like the color on black...

I liked this lace overcoat with velvet tie from Miu-Miu...

And there were lots of these patchwork capelets that made me want to translate them with beading and embroidery...A less grandmotherly look to the shawl...

But this coat from Louis Vuitton!

I love it and would buy it tomorrow if I could. Love the contrast of the cutwork flowers with the masculinity of the plaid...What a way to jazz up an old man's plaid overcoat.

And I call this dress from Chanel, Poms and Pearls...

Check out the details...

Isn't it sweet?

That being said, my absolute favorite collection in its entirety, was the Mary Poppin-esque collection from Bill Gaytten at Galliano. I loved it all.

The fitted, feminine jackets and carpetbags...

The flirty dresses and crushed boaters...

The ruffles and the drape...

And the crushed ribbon corsage attached with a big diaper pin...

And the shoes!!!

The mix of pattern, color and texture...the buttons, the tassels...! Aren't they something ? ***Sigh***

The creativity is unbelievable to me. And I can completely understand how adding the right pearl necklace over too long of a neck...or a wider belt for too thick of a waist...could completely re-make the woman...

When speaking of her lifelong friend, Hubert de Givenchy, Audrey said, "His are the only clothes in which I am myself. He is far more than a couturier, he is a creator of personality." And I believe that to be true.

OK...Oprah or Ellen or somebody out there. How about whisking me away for a total, all-expenses-paid makeover in New York City. I think I need a new personality!

Happy weekend everyone. I hope my butterfly emerges by Monday!

P.S. You can see all the Spring RTW 2012 collections here at Vogue.com...enjoy...