{"id":245,"date":"2015-03-03T23:25:29","date_gmt":"2015-03-03T23:25:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.emmafrith.co.uk\/blog\/?p=245"},"modified":"2015-03-03T23:35:59","modified_gmt":"2015-03-03T23:35:59","slug":"wild-rose-the-big-reveal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.emmafrith.co.uk\/blog\/?p=245","title":{"rendered":"Wild Rose: the big reveal"},"content":{"rendered":"

I finished Wild Rose the silk shading piece last friday, and as I sit down to blog about it, I find myself reflecting on the timeline of a project, and how a design brief and a spark of an idea gradually develop and grow into a finished embroidery. \u00a0For me, a project falls into several recognisable stages.<\/p>\n

The planning stage<\/strong>\u00a0is luxurious and fun. \u00a0I usually poke around google and other internet sources (a week or so back I finally joined\u00a0<\/span>Pinterest<\/a>), as well as my own photographs and memories. \u00a0Amorphous ideas bubble up to the surface and coalesce, usually far too many at once. \u00a0Luckily, I have the Royal School of Needlework design briefs for the various modules, which stop me getting too carried away. \u00a0The key to ideas gathering and planning is to lightly graze on things that interest you, trying to notice the common factors that connect the ‘hits’, gradually narrowing down and honing the idea. \u00a0When the source image presents itself or the idea comes together, it is like all the lights go on. \u00a0After that, I tend to fixate on the design, daydreaming, sketching and generally wearing it in like a pair of new shoes. \u00a0By the time I am ready to start stitching, the design is already an old friend.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Working<\/a>
November 2014: Working up the wild rose image<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Beginning to stitch<\/strong> is a time of impatience. \u00a0It takes a while for the first elements of the design to come together. \u00a0It is also a time of hope. \u00a0The design obsession carries through to this stage as I start to put some of the ideas in train, and there is a little nervousness- always wondering if I will be able to pull it off.<\/p>\n

\"Getting<\/a>
December 2014: Getting started: the split stitch outline of the leaves, and the beginnings of long and short shading.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The tipping point<\/strong> comes about two thirds of the way through, when the thing under your needle reflects, mirror-like, the idea in your head, and you realise that it is coming together, there is more of it already worked than there is work left to do. \u00a0Rather than feel this to be liberating, I start to feel a weight of responsibility. \u00a0Hours of work have gone in to it, and so far, the piece looks good. \u00a0Don’t stuff it up now, Emma. \u00a0Every spare second goes into stitching now.<\/p>\n

\"5th<\/a>
5th February 2015: Oh! It looks like a rose is happening here… Don’t mess up now!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The end<\/strong> sneaks up on me. \u00a0The very last job is to add a tiny circle of felt padding and cover it tightly with a lot of tiny, single strand french knots in various shades of beige and khaki, which had to be found in the stash, and shaded carefully to give the impression of it being a rather lumpy dome shape, rather than a slightly raised disc.<\/p>\n

\"27th<\/a>
27th February 2015: The final moments of the rose project tick by<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It is absorbing work, but suddenly I run out of places to put french knots. \u00a0I put off the end for a minute or two, fiddling, tidying, fixing up, but there is no getting around it, Rose is finished. \u00a0I open up the protective tissue paper to get a proper look, turn it around, and look from all the angles. \u00a0Yes, definitely finished… Oh dear. \u00a0Because there is no denying it, the first feeling is one of loss. This time around, I was prepared for this. \u00a0With my last piece, I had a big rush to finish before moving house, and the end of the project marked the end of my time with my tutors and and my friends at Hampton Court. \u00a0The sense of loss was quite intense and took me totally by surprise. \u00a0With Rose, I finished on time with no great drama, a happy new studio with many modules ahead of me, but I still had that twinge of loss. \u00a0It wasn’t until after I shared some photos and the congratulations started coming in that I started to think about the rose with a degree of satisfaction. \u00a0This is my first go at silk shading, my first flower, my first attempt at some form of realism, my first module with Tracy<\/a> in Durham, and my first piece since moving here and making the step towards serious embroidery. \u00a0It still needs to be properly assessed for quality (as does the bird) by the RSN people who know their onions. \u00a0But however she fares in the marking process, I am pleased with Rose, and she has taught me a vast amount.<\/p>\n

\"27th<\/a>
27th February 2015: Wild rose project completed (click image for a larger version)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Thorn<\/a>
Thorn detail (click image for a larger version)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"More<\/a>
More thorn detail (click image for a larger version)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Stamen<\/a>
Stamen detail. This is a crop of the bigger image to get more of the stamen detail, there are no added camera effects, but the loss of resolution is making it look like a painting instead of an embroidery – even to me, and I embroidered it! Oh well.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I finished Wild Rose the silk shading piece last friday, and as I sit down to blog about it, I find myself reflecting on the timeline of a project, and how a design brief and a spark of an idea gradually develop and grow into a finished embroidery. \u00a0For me, a project falls into several … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Wild Rose: the big reveal”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":253,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7,34,35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royal-school-of-needlework","category-silk-shading","category-wild-rose","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.emmafrith.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/20150303_223206_RichtoneHDR-e1425422962408.jpg?fit=3642%2C2043&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7Cjyn-3X","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.emmafrith.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.emmafrith.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.emmafrith.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.emmafrith.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.emmafrith.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=245"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.emmafrith.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":255,"href":"https:\/\/www.emmafrith.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245\/revisions\/255"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.emmafrith.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.emmafrith.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.emmafrith.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.emmafrith.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}