Friday, September 18, 2009

Progress. Slow, painstaking, delicate progress.

I do not think it's any coincidence that hardanger embroidery contains the word "danger". Nope. I delayed this project for a couple months because I was terrified. And I figured that just going in there and starting would somehow assuage this terror. And indeed no, it's not. My fear is like a large and stinky onion, or maybe like an ogre. Or a parfait.


Yuck. I hate that "All-Star" song at the end. But you get the point.


And so I'm discovering that my fear and terror regarding hardanger embroidery has layers upon layers. This is mainly due to the rather unforgiving nature of hardanger embroidery (what with the actual cutting and pulling of threads and creating artful holes in one's fabric). And like any near-debilitating fear, one must face it head-on or it'll take up permanent residence in one's psyche.

So, instead of me working firmly along the outer most edges of this piece, I've dared to dig in further; to about 1.5" in from the edge. Oh, and I've started concretely planning out the huge opening in the middle. So, go me! It's been hours of work, though you may not be able to tell much difference. That's OK. I know it's there and eventually you'll see it too. The open bar running along the bottom of the photo is new.



And hopefully in a week's time, there will be significant changes to this piece.

For fun, here's Ruby, my constant companion and biggest non-human fan:


Whoah, girl. Settle down!

2 comments:

  1. Great again! I love your blog, Beth Smith! And, I love Ruby!

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  2. Great job! Keep going! I know how frustrating it can be when you look at your work and think "I just spent 4 hours on this and it looks the same!" I usually use a #0 and #2 brush for everything I do in my paintings, so I can feel you when it comes to slow going, but your hardanger looks beautiful.

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