I Make Things: Autumn Musings

Over the summer, I settled into a good grove with my art projects. A slow but steady pace which produced some hoops I’m really proud of. I’m choosing to focus on interesting design and technical complexity over quantity, and I feel good about it. I am working on disengaging myself from a monetization/commercialization mindset, which makes the volume of production an irrelevant metric. It may sound contradictory, in that context, but I have also signed up for one art market this year. It will be held in November at the same venue as the one I did last year; familiarity was the deciding factor. Plus, the fact that there will be a vintage market held there on the same day, and I’m hoping I can sneak in a little bit of shopping 😉

However, heading into fall, I am not planning to change my pace. I have a few designs lined up to work on that I’m excited about, but I am not rushing to create more “stock” for the market. In the past, I debated whether to create “product” at more entry-level pricing (i.e. smaller and/or less complex pieces) or diversify my offerings. I’ve seen some embroidery artists sell prints of their hoops, for example, but that doesn’t resonate with me — to me, part of the joy of an embroidered piece is tactile, and without the texture, I feel like something is lost. So while I know this will forever hamper my ability to make money from my art, I’ve chosen not to pursue these other options. It’s funny … the similarities to my approach to blogging aren’t lost on me. I have niche aesthetic sensibilities and it seems that I’d rather be stuck in a tiny niche forever than change my creative expression to chase a bigger market. It’s a good thing that I have a day job, lol!

Anyway, here’s what I’ve been working on lately.

I started to explore a slightly different aesthetic with this semi-abstract still life composition. I love paintings that use big, bold blocks of colour, and am always looking for ways to achieve a similar vibe with floss. It’s difficult because large areas of satin stitch (which looks smooth and flat like paint) are tricky to execute, so I have to get creative about cutting up the canvas into manageable “chunks”. Here, I also experimented with a limited colour palette.

This was another hoop in a similar vein (series?) but featuring a slightly brighter colour palette. I struggled with this one a bit more than the previous, but I am happy with how it turned out in the end.

This Van Gogh-inspired design has been waiting for quite a while; I was digging through an old design notebook, came across it and decided it was finally time. I am glad I waited. My original plan, last year, had been to use mostly satin stitch, and I don’t think that would have been quite as successful. Now that I’ve had a lot more practice with yarn-painting techniques, I felt confident to change the execution plan and tackle this in a more impressionistic style, which is certainly more true to the original inspiration. Very pleased with this one.

For this piece, I went back to my own paintings for inspiration. This was based on an acrylic painting I made back in 2018.

Again, the experience I’ve gained over the last year or so enabled me to tackle a design that is more complicated than previous ones (though it may not look like it). It’s a good reminder to self that, even though it may not feel like it, I am constantly learning and improving my technical skills. I have a few designs sketched on paper which are a little scary because I don’t have a very solid plan for how I’ll execute them, but I think I’m going to just “go for it” and trust that I’ll be able to figure it out as I go.