One Less WIP...

I finally finished up my “Harvest Gourds” mixed media embroidery by adding beads and a little more detail to the leaves. And I found a wonderfully funky (but elegant) vintage wooden frame for it that can be hung on the wall or placed on a table. I purchased the gold trimmed mat in Michael’s and am very happy with the way it provides a nice breathing space between the artwork and the glass. I’m going to get more of these mats, I think, for embroidered pieces that I want to frame.

Santa Gloves Technique

I usually just needle sculpt the fingers of my Santa dolls, but wanted to try stitching individual fingers. Those narrow seams can be tricky to turn and frustratingly fragile, but I think I’ve come up with a compromise of sorts. On these hands, I only stitched the lower portion of the fingers separately; the upper parts of the fingers are just needle sculpted into the palm. I think this technique gives the illusion of long separate fingers with a lot less trouble. I’m making a gardening Santa and wanted him to appear to be wearing work gloves so I painted the hands with a coat of black gesso; then sanded them before painting with acrylic paint (which was also sanded). The hands were sculpted from a suede type knit fabric so the look and feel is ever so slightly fuzzy.

Just Clauses

After a couple years of good intentions, I’m finally getting around to updating my old web site, Just Clauses. It has had the same look since 1998! And, as if that wasn’t bad enough, I recently learned that it was carrying a security warning as a dangerous site! Yikes! My web hosting company can’t explain how that happened but they have reassured me that my site was never dangerous (never hosted a malware) – and the security flag should disappear soon. Meanwhile, I’m sure it has alienated some potential visitors – and I am truly sorry for any inconvenience it may have caused.

I’m working on this idea for a new, simplified look to my home page.