The Anatomy of a Commission

Late in August I was contacted by Ginny Friend about creating a small 

commission as a gift for a 'retiring' curator (Rebecca Stevens) 

from the GWU &Textile Museum.

Jeanne Benson had drawn and painted several 'illuminated' letters 

and I thought, "why not try embroidering initials" as a sort of illuminated

theme. I started sketching with the R and S of Rebecca's name.

And, I did a lot of sketching. Many of these are on tracing paper.

 Rebecca Stevens full initials are R.A.T. S. I decided to make the 

A and T small and include them within the R and S.

 Further drawing and I decided to make a pattern 

of the centers of each letters to be cut out. 

This way I would be able to try different colors inside the outlines.

 While continuing to plan I sketched in some shading

 to get a feeling of color placement

 The theme for the evening of this presentation was blue and white shibori.  

Yoshiko Wada would also be given an award at that time. 

Part of the invitation is shown here.

 Cutting out the centers of the two letters I started trying colors.

Here black and white

Then a watery aqua fabric. I tried several more combinations of colors, but.....

Settled on some shibori fabric to be the center of each initial. 

Luckily I have friends who had all created Shibori samples 

and gave them to me. I used most all of one of Joan Dryer's fabrics.

Again this is on paper and I tried the colors for the outlines.

 Some of the shibori samples friends lent me.

 Now came the embellishing of the letters. I started planning how and where 

I would add small images to add to or highlight the initials.

 And, more drawing and planning

 Then thought I'd better embroider the letters to see

 how the small images could be attached.

This first R I decided against. The reds are too dark. 

It turned out I made several attempts at each letter and each of the small images.

 Laying the R and T on three shades of blue before attaching them 

and then working on the small images.

 As I said I started to make these small images and ended 

with two or three not useable. 

As often as I have created many subjects with thread

 on the sewing machine I never realized 

how hard it would be to make tiny ones.

Here I have taped some to the paper drawing 

before permanently sewing them on the embroidered letters..

As you can see images were rearranged and 

not all images were used. Here is the final presentation. 

The butterflies stand up a bit.

 However, since this was to be an award 

I thought Rebecca ought to have an original certificate 

that this gift represented.

I worked out the document on the computer and 

wanted it to be printed on fabric. 

I ironed freezer paper to both silk and cotton to print the certificate

and then my printer failed. 

Finally Dominie Nash printed it for me. Her printer used the

cotton beautifully.

 Still looking at the original invitation with hundreds of the 

white cherry blossoms 

I started embroidering tiny ones to be used to surround the certificate.

Here is my hoop with a few of the many blossoms and some already cut out.

 This then became the back side of the hanging.

There is a small casing at the top if it is to be hung in that manner.

The presentation was made last Thursday evening at a lovely dinner.

I cannot see Rebecca Stevens leaving the Textile Museum 

and I hope she stays on as a consultant as well as on the board.

Pencil sharpeners and drawings, old and new.

For years I have bought and used pencil sharpeners I either 

chose myself or they had been recommended. 

All of those shown above worked perfectly for graphite 

and usually for my colored pencils.

They worked with battery, electricity, or were operated by hand.

However, I was always looking for the perfect sharpener 

for colored pencils. 

 Recently Jeanne Benson gave me a new hand manipulated 

sharpener, that came from England.

 The pencils at the bottom were sharpened with my old sharpeners

and those above with the new hand cranked sharpener from the UK.

 Over the years in planning my embroideries I would often 

draw the image first with colored pencil.

 The drawings were never complete as they were just 

a design for a future embroidery. 

Since I started using my new sharpener 

I looked back at the old drawings and reworked several.

 It is a pleasure to use these very sharp colored pencils 

on the textured papers, filling in the white that shows through.

 This lily was drawn fairly quickly in Gladstone, Australia, and 

the orchids, below, in Melbourne when on a teaching tour in 2001.

I have enjoyed adding contrast, fine lines, and definition 

to these old drawings. 

Although I am using up my pencils a little faster than before, 

it has been a pleasure to spend this past month 

with very sharp colored pencils.