Mixed Media Embroidery Happiness

Something other than paper today… The first of my mixed media embroideries presented to you in full colour and many details. My new found happy maker.

When I finished it the name just came to me, in English Fly photo over a Inner Landscape (in Swedish Flygfoto över inre landskap III). I love this name! It goes so well with what I see in this embroidery; myself. The winding roads that my mind takes, with its creative ideas and bits of hesitation, passion, joy and mindfulness…

This embroidery is rich and complex, just like our minds. In mostly green and covered with thousands of little hand sewn stitches it portraits a inside in development, and maybe you too can identify with it and see the map it portraits? I hope so.

This is one of the embroideries that I exhibited together with my Embroidery Group in May here in town, and it was the only one I sold there. I know that the lady that bought it (whose favorite colour is green) saw many things in it, including herself and the way she feels. That is amazing to me and maybe what art is all about. Free interpretation and associations… To sell it and to such a positive and appreciative person made me very happy, so it was not difficult to let it go. The experience transformed my feelings for the artwork and made it even more meaningful! It had meaning to me already, but of course all the hours I’ve spent sewing this I was never sure where I was going or what I was doing. Sewing right now is an experimentation to me, an exploration of what is possible. That others appreciate what I create is such a positive thing that I can hardly explain it in words, though happiness is one good word for it…

I call it my “mixed media embroidery” and that feels like an appropriate name for what I’m doing, since it is a mix of all kinds of materials in there! It is like a free form embroidery but on a mixed media surface. I’ve been working on a series of three mixed media embroidery all through winter. Sewing little stitches on the train or dark nights in front of the TV (watching good movies).

Mixing Materials

This embroidery is made on a white cotton fabric that is now almost invisible. It was covered with different colors of acrylic paint before I started to stitch. Painting on fabric is fun but acrylic paint hardens the fabric and makes it difficult to sew through, so it is not really recommended. But once I had started with my three pieces I just wanted to continue to stitch, and so I did. I covered the whole surface with my small stitches and could not stop.

The materials used in this mixed media embroidery are:

* one strand thread (different kinds) for the stitching
* acrylic paint
* various ribbons
* plastic fruit net
* hand painted paper towels
* organza and lace fabric
* crocheted lace
* 3d fabric paint with glitter
* small pieces of fabric scraps

Fly photo of an Inner Landscape

Even more close up photos of this embroidery piece I made:

All edges painted with a gold coloured acrylic paint that shimmers a bit in the light.

The plastic fruit net is almost invisible against all the colours…

All the surface embellishments (tulle, sheers, ribbon etc) are hand sewn onto the fabric too, I didn’t use the sewing machine once (that was a experimental rule I invented).

I like sewing rows of straight stitches. I like mixing it up too.

The leaf ribbon wanted to be included because it felt at home in all this forest greenery.

New texture created by wrinkly organza sewn down with all its folds intact.

Yellow and purple together… yes? I think it works!

The other two Mixed Media Embroidery pieces in this series will be blogged too of course, just give me time to upload the photos etc.

Thank you for taking the time to read all this, I appreciate it, please take the time to comment if you feel so inclined! Or tell your Twitter friends by tweeting about this post, that would be awesome too.