Embellishment examples from Belgie

First of all I want to thank Beth for her very good explanation
This are examples playing with lots of different materials.

 

The most of embellishment techniques I used over the years is my favorite stitsch " the chain stitch" ( I don't know this is the right translation)

One of my older work is the poster of the show " Varekai" of the cirque du soleil. All bij hand ( chane stitch)

also one quilt with the Muppets for my grandson. All the figures are applique with my favorite stitch

When I use beads, I usually make my own beads with paper, silk or tyvek.

Embellishment examples

I have used a number of embellishment techniques over the years in my fiber arts projects, and thought I would share some of them here in keeping with Quilter Beth’s wonderful tutorials for January.

In this example, I used beading to represent the bumps on the cactus, 

and hand stitched the ‘stickers’.

This is an art quilt I did for our annual ‘Recycled Art’ exhibit. It consists of hand

dyed fabric scraps, buttons, couched chenille yarn, bark and vintage beads.

In this piece, I used metallic thread, embroidery and beads as my Embellishments.

Here, I did a lot of embroidery, applique and beading to accent this 'Crazy Quilt' vest.

This is a framed  piece with two fiber  post cards created with various Surface design techniques, including couched eyelash yarn and beading.

And finally, this is a beaded butterfly purse I made several years ago using mostly vintage bugle beads.

What I like about using embellishments in my work is the personality they add.  They can transform a good piece into one with much more visual interest.  My only caution would be to use embellishments as you would icing on a cake.  I try to use them sparingly so they do not overpower the piece.  Thanks to Quilter Beth for her wonderful posts... I'm inspired to take some time to try some of the techniques she shared that I haven't yet tried!

The Narrative and Poetic Structure of the Stitched and Beaded Surface

 Beth’s technically so clear instructions showed us the first steps towards an interesting creative embroidery. As a new resident artist on this blog i would like to contribute on a complementary way, by making the bridge to a few outstanding examples in the contemporary art world. I know, this is something new on this blog, so I would love to hear your opinions if you’re interested in this kind of „outlooks“ at all.

I love boro embroidery which has ist origin in utilitarian mending. The repetition of this sashiko stitches give a secondary structure to the mended, pieced clothes. 

Very much in the sense of the traditional quilting stitches. In this context I’d like to point out the work of Matthew Harris. You find more of his work here. 

Matthew Harris: Crumb Cloth No. III

But embroidery/stitches doesn’t have to be secondary on a pieced surface. Contemporary artist use it in such a versatile, poetic way. Just to give you some new insights of the endless possibilities this technique has. 

I admire the works of Christine Mauersberger. Her work has deep poetic quality. For more check out her blog here.

Christine Mauersberger: Mind Map, 2011

You might be familiar with the versatile and captivating work of Emily Barletta - here,

Emily Barletta: Untitled

with the sensitive and for me extraordinarily emotional work of Erin Endicott - link,

Erin Endicott: Healing Sutra No. 7

or with the wonderful, delicate landscapes of Emily Felderman - link,

Emily Felderman: Mist

Embroidery creates a structure on the surface, which can be grafic or narrative, just by repetition and variety of a few elements. In these works the stitches are not used as embellishment but as essential, structural marks, just like a simple brick in the wall. Each one is needed and each of them is justified. This conveys a a message of necessity and also of truthfulness of the whole composition.

In addition to embroidery I would like to point out the wonderful beading art of Liza Lou - link.

Her beaded pieces have similar simplicity and refreshingly new and expressive way of using this technique.

Liza Lou: Untitled No.17

Well, as I mentioned, this is just a complementary "outlook". For me it is always fascinating to see how different artist use the same technique and interpret it on their own unique way, creating an artwork with depth. 

Thank you for reading this and please, tell us what you think.

Bead organization and other elements added to fulfill my vision.

I took a piece of a commercial quilt and stitched elastic in two rows to slide my bead tubes into. I can keep them rolled up neatly in color order on a shelf.

This is the whole thing rolled out on the table making it easy to choose just the right bead for the job

In this picture you can see the black dots I made using a sharpie to mark the distance between "tubes" to stitch the elastic into place.

Like all of my art supplies, I have had MANY of these beads for YEARS.

Here are some of the ways I have used beads and other things in my work

 Corrugated card board, cork and a handmade ceramic bead (by me)

                       Glass beads, hand made cloth beads, scrim and strings

 Framing with beads as well as creating a ground

                    Lots of beading as well as burlap, threads and a couched shell

From the top: Sticks, button (the wrong side of Mother-of-Pearls), safety pins as marks,  drawer pull, two small wrenches, more buttons, copper pipe clamps, a washer, a crushed bottle cap and two keys and a keyhole.

From the top: rock stitched on, rafia and sari yarn couched, scrim "sacks" filled with dryer link and dog hair mats stitched on to represent rocks.

And Now...A Special Video Just for You

I'm SO excited to announce that Nancy Eha is debuting a new YouTube video on the Fire blog. She is such a creative beader; I think you will really enjoy this new technique. Thank you Nancy!

 "Thank you Beth for asking me to be your guest artist, and spotlighting my book Bead Creative Art Quilts! I have been teaching beading on fabric nationally for over 20 years for quilt guilds and quilting conferences. I make workshop videos for almost everything I teach so that students can see my hands and the tiny beads on a large scale. I have made a new video especially for And Then We Set It on Fire and Beth’s current focus on embellishments. It is my technique, Beaded Coils, found inside my book Bead Creative Art Quilts. Beaded Coils is one of many new beading techniques I have developed via endless hours of asking what if questions of beads and fabric. I hope you enjoy and learn new beading skills from this video. You can see more of my “obsessively” beaded art quilts and look inside my books at my web site BeadCreative.com"

Click on the following link to view the video:

Beaded Coils

Let us know how you liked the video. Do you think you will give it a try? 

Blanket/Buttonhole Stitch

In my "neck of the woods," this stitch is called a buttonhole stitch, but elsewhere I have heard it called a blanket stitch. Whatever you call it, this stitch can be used to make a lot of designs. I'll be calling it a buttonhole stitch (just because that is what I'm used to). I often use it to outline fusible appliqué pieces. In this picture, I've used it to attach a nut to my piece.

The buttonhole stitch is in the looped stitch family. Looped stitches are made by looping the thread over or under the needle. In the case of the buttonhole stitch, bring the needle up and hold the thread closest to the needle with your (non-dominant) thumb. Take a stitch (perpendicular to the thread) bringing the needle up close to the thread your thumb is anchoring. Continue on in this manner.

There are many variations of this stitch at Blanket Stitch the Variations. (Sarah has given me permission to link to her blog.)

Embellishments on quilts can be simple or extreme. Over the last week, you have gotten an introduction to some very simple embellishing techniques; there is just SO much more. My hope is that this month you will try some embellishing using beading and embroidery. Go as simple or extreme as you would like. Leave a comment and let us know what you are doing. We'd love to see some of your work. 

My last giveaway is made possible by Nancy Eha, AKA The Beading Queen. She is donating a copy of her book Bead Creative Art Quilts.  She teaches and writes books on new fabric beading techniques she has developed where bead configurations are primary focal points. In fact she decides what beading techniques she will use and then constructs the fabric back drop. You can learn more about her and her beading, and look inside the book at her website BeadCreative.com. 

THANK YOU NANCY! To be eligible to win this book, you need to leave a comment on this post. (Of course, I would LOVE for you to become a Fire blog follower. All you need to do is click on "Join this site" under "Followers" on the right-hand side of this page.) I'll draw the winner on January 29. Good luck.

Nancy's YouTube video will debut on this site tomorrow. You won't want to miss it! 

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A great example of beading

While cruising the quilt blogs I found this lovely resist dyed-felted wool piece which measures appx. 6" x 6" by Mary Stori. Here is a picture  with links to the step by step process and here is an idea of other things to stitch onto an art quilt.