The materiality of what I’m doing is a little confusing for me at the moment, I will have to crash on through it to see what becomes of it all. I’m using materials I used years ago. Old bits and pieces, offcuts of embroidery canvas and cross stitch fabric, they used to get all manner of traditional illustrative designs and folky stuff stitched onto them, now the bits half discarded are the bits I’m using. I used to construct charts on my computer…. coloured pixels, coded symbols….for publication in craft magazines, and even a book (if you are that determined you can still find it on amazon for a penny, £3 postage.)
Now, the work is unplanned, the canvas picked at… deconstructed… maybe even unpicked stitches…?
The fact I am acknowledging and revealing my crafty past, revisiting and demolishing it is I think quite interesting… “Hello, I’m Elena, I’m a cross stitcher, and after 10 years without a chart, I have picked up the canvas again. I may need help.”
It sounds like Bo has a plan though, doesn’t it? That scares the doodahs out of me. My working practice entails a fair amount of crashing about and swearing, and he’s already experienced more than two years of that! But… as always… he stops my complacency taking root. He is my insurance man. That will stop these little canvasses and large quilts being merely cute and pretty, and keep them interesting to me, him, and hopefully other people. The familiarity of the materials might lull me into a false sense of security… that needs to be guarded against, shaken off. I need to make sure I’m looking at the new drive for this, not well trodden old ground.
Although…. I do have a drawer in my studio full of rejected/abandoned embroideries from years gone by. I don’t know why they were kept really other than the reason if you spend over 100 hours stitching something, it deserves a little respect. Will chopping them up, and deconstructing them a little, further the discovery here? I’m no stranger to chopping up other people’s abandoned work, bought from charity shops, so why not my own?
And in answer to Bo’s question about blending… I don’t think that’s what I’m aiming for… more a sort of acknowledgement of points of contact… a Venn diagram even?
