her able hands

The month is almost over, but because I’m thinking about art a lot lately, and seeing objects that I have around me in new ways, I’m going to jump on the use what you have month pony express. Simple Sparrow got it rolling, and my craft supply closet thanks her. Of course, I have no idea when I’ll find time to squeeze another project in, but when I do, it’ll be this:

The background is a square linen tablecloth I found for a dollar at the thrift store last weekend. I’m going to cut it in half on the diagonal, and use half to make an apron and the other half to do some crewel-work. I’ve been hanging onto these gorgeous pieces of paper by a Swedish designer that MizUntitled sent to me last year with a box of amazing goodies. She’s amazing like that.

At first I thought I’d trim the paper down and frame the individual pieces in these four, brushed pewter looking wood frames with double mats that I have. I may still do that, but I also want to take pieces of the linen, transfer the designs from the paper onto the linen, and embroider them with wool from the four, 50-gallon bins of yarn quietly disintegrating in my closet. The collection will work beautifully in my office on the pale moss-green walls.

But I realized that I don’t know how to do crewel-work, so I did some internet searching, and found out that somebody already made kits out of very similar designs.

Katherine Shaughnessy sells crewel embroidery kits through her sweet company Wool & Hoop, and she has a book out called The New Crewel : Exquisite Designs in Contemporary Embroidery

Aren’t they just beautiful? I love the way the wool stands up so tall off the linen, creating striking shadows. I find these so appealing, I want to do some pillows for the couch, and something big for the living room. I’m still going to try to learn how to transfer the designs from the paper and do it myself, and revel in the fact that maybe there aren’t any truly original thoughts left in the world.

I also wanted to tell you about the amazing art night I went to at Cheril’s last week. She invited a bunch of great women to her studio to make altered playing cards or artists trading cards. Unfortunately poor Cheril had a terrible head cold-flu situation going on and she had to retire early. We need to do it again so she can enjoy it too. I had such a wonderful empty-mind time just playing with materials and chatting. Tyler and I had fought all week and Lila had Hoovered up the negative energy like she was me with pms and a bag of Haribo Gummy Bears. She whined every single word for a solid week. Getting away from the house without the kids in tow felt like a month of continuous therapy.

I might have been a little sarcastic about my kids in front of people I had just that night met, and I can think of at least ten things that came out of my mouth that I wished I could reel back in and swallow immediately. Oops. It’s not in good taste to say to a total stranger, “You probably enjoy your kids a lot more than I do, right?” I wonder if I’ll ever not be socially retarded.

Anyhoo. Here’s two of the cards I made.

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