Microscopic

A good while ago I participated in an art show in the southside that the Steel City Art Collective put on.  It's taken awhile to post these photos because of camera problems but here you go.  This also means that it's for sale!  Check it out at the shop. 

The theme of the show was "something from nothing" which put me in mind of seeing things microscopically and the little worlds that go on around us every day.  I'm always amazed at all of the tiny components that make up larger objects.  Just like Bjork.   I spent some time researching different images of items that would make good embroideries.  Most of them are pretty true to life but I did tweak some of the colors and such.  You know, cause I'm an artist.

I started off by sketching everything out on paper and making notes on colors and such because 1. It never really occurs to me to use colored pencils and 2. I don't think I'd use them anyway.  I'm used to doing embroideries so for me everything starts out being sketched in a way I know will work for thread with the knowledge that I only have a limited amount of colors to work with.  I probably have about 80% of all of the colors of floss so I just crack open my thread boxes and take a look. I also like to crack open my thread boxes when I'm stressed and organize them.  Sometimes I go ROY G BIV and sometimes I try to make fun gradations.  I also like to write down all of the colors I have so I know what I'll need in the future.  I lead a wild life.

After this I used tracing paper to transfer everything onto fabric.  This normally works pretty well and if some of the chalk doesn't stay on I just trace over it with pencil before it fades.  The designs were too small and intricate (they're all in 1" squares although some are much smaller) for this so I just got to work as fast as I could.  A few faded before I was done so I free-handed (free-embroidered?) the last few.  All but one of the images was done with one strand of embroidery floss.  The closeup of #9 at the bottom involved 2 and 3 strands of the various shades of orange.

After I was done I numbered all of them. At the show I printed out lists so you could take a stab at guessing what each one was and refer to the cheat sheet as needed.

As you can see I made two of these hoops. Here's a little closeup.  You can check out more closeups at the shop. The answer keys are included with the hoops.