Thursday 18 July 2013

Flower Circle – Outlined Flowers

I saw the remaining two flowers with small centres as being more in the background, especially the one in the centre of the ring. I wanted to stitch them in a minimal way so that they would recede but again I wanted to stay true to their original appearance. I decided to outline them but this time with a broader outline. I’m not sure if this stitch qualifies as matsui-nui (staggered diagonals) or if it is a narrow diagonal foundation.

I had a lot of difficulty getting the angle of the stitching to work, especially at the points of the petals. I was not entirely satisfied with the stitching but decided to leave it for the time being and restitch it only if time allowed.

© Shizuka Kusano/Carol-Anne Conway

To really emphasise that this flowers is the same as the other small centred flowers I stitched the centres, the stamen and the pollen in the same way.

© Shizuka Kusano/Carol-Anne Conway

© Shizuka Kusano/Carol-Anne Conway

I wanted to further emphasis that the fourth of these flowers was farthest in the background. I also wanted to experiment with an idea that had been floating around in my head for a very long time. Many of the kimono and obi we see use more than one textile technique. The weaving, dying and embroidery all combine to create a comprehensive design. Kusano-san uses this concept a lot in her own work. It is not unusual to see a piece of kanoko shibori appliquéd onto her ground fabric and hitta-gake stitched elsewhere on the same piece. Where the background has a woven effect that might be picked up in a stitched version of the same effect. I wanted my background flower to appear as if it had been woven into the fabric so I stitched it entirely in a silk that matched the ground colour as closely as possible.

© Shizuka Kusano/Carol-Anne Conway

Having worked out most of my difficulties with diagonal stitch on the previous flower, I felt I stitched this one better. Perhaps I should have done this one first as the stitching is less noticeable! Because I wanted the flower to appear woven I did the centre, the stamens and the pollen in the same purple and used a single straight stitch for the pollen rather than Japanese round knots.

© Shizuka Kusano/Carol-Anne Conway

The effect is pretty much what I had intended and in that respect I am pleased with this flower. However I was concerned that it appeared as a hole in the centre and unbalanced the design. Again I decided to leave it for now and consider restitching it if time allowed.

Happy stitching

3 comments:

Rachel said...

The second flower does look woven in to the background - well done!

Cath said...

I like the variety of the techniques you've used. Both these flowers work very well.

Christine said...

Really beautiful! Your consistency on those petals is amazing. It is Diagonal Layer, I encountered a similar shape/stitch on Double Cypress Fans. Wow was this hard, I had to get lots of help from my teacher. I could not make my stitches long enough (a common problem for me), had to remind myself to work clockwise, and finally got it going when I treated starting this like starting a leaf at the tip (1st stitch sorta vert to the shape, the next few moving over to get to the right angle). You are gonna be so good at these, gurl! Your tie dye (hitta-gake) is beautiful.....wish I could do such nice knots. Thanks as always for sharing.