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The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil

Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil

The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, 2008
crewel embroidery on linen
8″x17″

After discussing Well-behaved Women Seldom Make History with Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, I had the urge to create an embroidery about the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. I decided to borrow heavily (should I say mashup?) from the William Morris Woodpecker Tapestry and Cranach the Elder’s Adam and Eve.

I visited the William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow in 2007 to study the colors in the Woodpecker Tapestry.

Please note: tapestry, a weaving technique, should not be confused with embroidery or needlepoint, also known as canvaswork. There are a lot of needlepoint kits that reproduce William Morris designs, but few people have the skill and patience to learn tapestry weaving. I’m a big fan of tapestry weaving but not a practitioner.

To help you sort out the different textile techniques, this link may come in handy.

Beadwork Magazine Pattern Play Challenge 2009

Here’s the piece I designed as a dress yoke for the 2009 Beadwork Magazine Pattern Play Challenge

Dress Yoke Patter Play Challenge Beadwork Magazine

The entries are listed on Beadwork magazine’s Facebook page:

Here’s the Fossil handbag that was my inspiration. I love how the printed patterns overlap, and the pretty sherbert colors

Fossile handbag with pastel flora print

Beadwork is running the contest again this year. The magazine says there’s a link somewhere in the contests section of beadingdaily, but I couldn’t find it so you’re on your own.

OrangePiel Custom Window Shades and Large Scale Canvas Prints

I love this concept, especially since we need some window coverings and don’t have any large scale art for the walls in our new house. I always go for multipurpose design.

Orange Piel

I can’t wait to try it out, playing with ideas for a fun border that shows when the rest of the shade is pulled up. Or whatever works.

I’m Ecstatic about Zazzle Stitch Player

I’ve been wanting to animate stitches. I know there are several animated embroideries out there, but I’m ecstatic to find Zazzle’s Stitch Player. It had to be digitized to look this cool. Try stitching out the vampire crest.

Open Source Embroidery at mocfa.org

Unfortunately I missed and probably would have anyway, but allow me to regret that Open Source Embroidery closed a few days ago at The Museum of Folk Art & Craft in San Francisco. Fortunately, not only do museums keep online archives, but they are now producing marvelous videos that help alleviate one’s disappointment.

This show was of particular interest to me because of Leah Buechley’s e-textile work, which includes the goal of promoting math and science education. I first learned of LB through an article in Volume 1 of Craft: that first appeared in 2006. I was living in Boulder, CO at the time, and was thrilled to discover that LB was in the CS doctoral program at the U of CO. I decided to track her down. I had worked in the women in engineering program (2001-2004; now BOLD) and environmental engineering (2004-2006), so I knew about the Discovery Learning Center and what an accessible place it is.

Leah was interested in meeting local weavers and textile artists and teaching them the basics of creating LED patterns on wearables. The Handweavers Guild of Boulder hosted a presentation and there was a great deal of interest from the group. Unfortunately the date/time didn’t come together for a workshop and Leah went on to an assistant professorship at MIT’s Media Lab. Before she left I did take the time to visit Leah at the Craft Technology Lab at CU and practice soldering a few of the LED “sequins” together so that I could try a few designs on my own. I’m sorry to say my experiments are still packed away at the moment.

A little later, Becky Stern published her  LilyPad Arduino embroidery on craftzine; her piece, “A Tribute to Leah Buechley” appeared in the Open Source Embroidery show. There are a number of places to visit if you would like to try the tech-nique/nology yourself:

straight to the source: http://web.media.mit.edu/~leah/grad_work/diy/diy_tank.html

a simpler project, with step-by-step video: http://sternlab.org/2009/11/ledsewing/

For lots more inspiration, visit the high low tech projects at MIT: http://hlt.media.mit.edu/projects.html

Roanna Wells at Waterperry Gardens additional info

Roanna’s site, with photos (did we neglect to describe this elegant, minimalist, calligraphic and atmospheric work?)
Don’t ask me how it’s possible to be all of the above, just take a look:
http://www.roannawells.co.uk/roannawells.co.uk/solid%20air.html
At Waterperry:
http://www.artinaction.org.uk/event_demonstrator-details.asp?ref=13&artref=489

P1020027 Roanna Wells at Waterperry Gardens Art in Action

P1020027

Originally uploaded by Karnataka10

Rosanna Wells – Best of Best in Art in Action Show at Waterperry, Oxfordshire, UK July 2009 which Mary and Hoonie visited together. this girl has just finished her 3 year Art course at Manchester this summer and won Best of the Best.
A one to watch – we suppose!

[Hoonie & HP]

P1020020

P1020020

Originally uploaded by Karnataka10

Rosanna Wells

Bevis Bawa’ garden in Sri Lanka

P1020011

Originally uploaded by Karnataka10

this piece is made from two lengths of linen/cotton mix fabric coated with an emulsion capable of taking ink jet inks, cobbled together with indigo dyed paper string in bold over stitches and then embroidered with raffia, silk and rayon yarn. The photographs were taken in Bevis Bawa’s garden on the west coast of Sri Lanka. He was a brilliant garden designer, and brother of the architect Jeffrey Bawa.