Sunday, April 29, 2012

Craft Time: Framing Embroidery

So I put together this little tutorial on the simplest way to finish your embroideries. I was learning as I went, but they came out awesome. You will need:
  • the embroidery...duhh
  • a wooden hoop (painted a cool color and sealed with a fixative)
  • a piece or thin fabric (for the back)
  • iron
  • towels
  • pillowcase
  • dish liquid
Ok, first things first, you have to clean the piece, so fill up a sink with lukewarm water and a tiny bit of dish soap.....and swoosh the embroidery around a little, don't go too crazy....

oops, too much dish soap 











Let that sit for about 10 minutes then rinse it off really good under running water. Now you have to pat it dry some, so place it in between two towels and pat away....Depending on the fabric you may have to let it sit in between those towels awhile, you want the fabric damp not wet.














Now its time to iron. Place your embroidery on a pillowcase, and with your iron on the correct setting, mine was on the highest cotton setting, start ironing. its a good idea to start it off by ironing it in between two pillowcases first to make sure your iron isn't too hot. then move on to ironing it straight up with the iron. iron it face down first then flip it. if your piece is really 3 dimensional, and you don't want to flatten it or it's really delicate or done on some fancy ass fabric, then keep it between the pillow cases and don't bare down too hard, mine didn't matter so I ironed the fuck outta it.

Now its time to frame! Place the outer hoop where you want it, and flip it over, then place that piece of back fabric down, this makes it look cool and protects all those loose and crazy threads back there. Now place the inner hoop and push it down. You will have to tighten the fabric and stretch them so its smooth on the front, if you embroider you already know all about that shit.



Trim the excess fabric now. the back fabric can be cut pretty close to the hoop, but the embroidered fabric needs enough over hang to fold down the inside edge of the hoop.


You may notice that the embroidery I am using has miraculously changed, this is because I had to re-soak the skull in the soap cause I got it dirty, be careful! Make sure your work area is clean!






Ok now back to the demo...See, nice over hang!!!









You can decide now if you want to iron the fabric overhang over the hoop so its easier to glue or not, the first one I glued I didn't iron but the rest I did, I found it faster to have it creased. Anyway, get your glue, I used this shit I found at the craft store, its pretty awesome. 














So, run an edge of glue on the top lip of the inner hoop as well as around the inside edge. Do it a few inches at a time. Fold and smooth the fabric down over the hoop to secure. 








Because the hoop is round you are gonna get bunching so go with it, try to make it as neat as possible and secure as possible.








And that's it, you're done!!! look how pretty!!!!

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Art?: Crunch Time (part two)


Today I went to Jerry's to get my mats and they had some hideous gold frames on sale... So I bought 4. When I got home I began painting my bones and and while doing that had a great idea on what to do with the frames. I rushed out to the store and bought some stick on letters, then on each frame I spelled out the title of the piece. Then spray painted the whole frame black so when I peel off the letters the gold is left behind. I also decided to paint the embroidery hoops the same red as the bones, so they have come continuity within the grouping.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Art?: Crunch Time



In a couple weeks I am going to be in an art show, so of course I wait till the last couple weeks before then to start trying to get my shit together. I only had two Lino blocks carved (war and famine) and one print ready for framing (famine). So I have been frantically carving another block (pestilence) printed the other initial block (war) I had previously carved, hand embroidered two anatomy drawings (rib cage and pelvic), harvested a decomposed deer and peroxided the bones. But that's only the beginning, still on my to do list: fix my third carving (pestilence) and reprint it, carve the last limo block and print it (death), embroider two more pieces (phalanges and skull), paint the deer bones ( red enamel), paint the picture frames (black) and embroidery hoops (black), get to Jerry's to buy some mats, affix bones to frames, frame all four prints and all four embroideries.... and if I get all that done with time to spare I may do a few more stitched body parts, like a uterus or a vagina or some shit. The only thing is I have to hand over 30 percent of my sales, so I have to jack up the prices of my stuff, which fucking sucks. The only way I thought people would even consider buying my stuff was if it was cheap! So I doubt I will sell anything.








Tuesday, April 10, 2012

You Gotta Read It: Rat Girl A Memoir

Oh man, Kristin Hersh's book is pretty awesome, it reads more like a fantasy then a memoir. This is because, the lead singer of the Throwing Muses uses her own lyrical-esque story telling to create this surreal look back at a time of her life that was fantastical and hyper, full of hallucinations, and self discovery, and music that lived and forced its way out of her small frame as if possessed. See Kristin is a synesthete. She see's colors as a result of hearing music. She also, following a hit and run accident, began to constantly "hear music" which would haunt her until she played it and gave it substance. Add this to a girl with a crazy high IQ, who was raised by hippies, who was lead singer in a truly unique band, who was diagnosed with manic depression, who carried an imaginary snake around in a bag.. And who got knocked up young while still playing shows and recording their first record.... Add all that up with some of the most poetic characters imaginable, and well, you have quite an extraordinary read. S/N....I just wrote this blog on my phone, using some free blogger app, hopefully it publishes correctly if not I will fix it later :p