September 27, 2020
Experiments in watercolor and pastel!
Stitching on Paper
Remember this post about sewing on paper? I have been thinking about what I want to do and have realized that I love just a few things in art - words and letters most of all. Therefore, I decided to embroider a word on a piece of paper.
A little while back, I indulged myself and bought some paper twine from Paperphine. It was kinda expensive, but I love paper, so decided to give it a try. The shipping alone was half the price of the product because it was coming from Austria. When it arrived in my mailbox, I was a bit disappointed - you know when you pay a lot for something and it's not ... very big. Yes, I know that diamonds and babies are small, yet wonderful things, but still...
Anyway, I wanted to stitch with paper twine on paper. It seemed the perfect match. Unrolling it off the spool (which is a vintage wooden bobbin - very cool - almost makes up for the high price), it reminded me of wire. It was thick and not very flexible. Hmmm... and that's when I realized that it was NOT going to work to embroider onto paper. Perhaps the twine can be worked until it is soft just like you can crumple up paper to make it fabric-like. Anyway... it was way too stiff to use like thread on something as delicate as a sheet of paper. (she said for the *second* time)
So... I dug around in my drawer of treasures and found a spool of golden brown rayon thread. It's fine and silky and shiny. It also matches the paper very lovely-ly. (say that slowly and you'll get the adverbial effect I was trying to achieve)
Because I wasn't feeling very profound on this, my first attempt, I just did my name. I don't think part of me has ever outgrown that fourth grade mentality of loving their name on EVERYTHING. I used one of my sheets of Harry Potter book paper and ironed a patch of fusible interfacing on the back to give it some strength.Then, using Word Art on MS Word, I printed out an outline of the word I wanted to use (in that same Harry Potter font - Lumos). Then I used my word template, laid it over the paper as a pattern and poked holes around the edges of the letters where I thought I would need to stitch. Hmm... that was a lesson in preparation - I hadn't thought about whether I was doing a satin or chain stitch until I started poking. Yay me!
Anyway, my fingers got SOOOOO tired poking all of those holes. I only had strength to sew a little bit before falling asleep. This morning I looked at it and still think I like the look, even for this first attempt. I'll have to finish it in a few days as I have a date with my sister in San Diego this weekend. It'll be the first time I've been back there since I was eight years old. I hope it is as pretty as I remember it being... If nothing else, I'm looking forward to attending the temple and being in cooler weather...
A little while back, I indulged myself and bought some paper twine from Paperphine. It was kinda expensive, but I love paper, so decided to give it a try. The shipping alone was half the price of the product because it was coming from Austria. When it arrived in my mailbox, I was a bit disappointed - you know when you pay a lot for something and it's not ... very big. Yes, I know that diamonds and babies are small, yet wonderful things, but still...
Anyway, I wanted to stitch with paper twine on paper. It seemed the perfect match. Unrolling it off the spool (which is a vintage wooden bobbin - very cool - almost makes up for the high price), it reminded me of wire. It was thick and not very flexible. Hmmm... and that's when I realized that it was NOT going to work to embroider onto paper. Perhaps the twine can be worked until it is soft just like you can crumple up paper to make it fabric-like. Anyway... it was way too stiff to use like thread on something as delicate as a sheet of paper. (she said for the *second* time)
So... I dug around in my drawer of treasures and found a spool of golden brown rayon thread. It's fine and silky and shiny. It also matches the paper very lovely-ly. (say that slowly and you'll get the adverbial effect I was trying to achieve)
Because I wasn't feeling very profound on this, my first attempt, I just did my name. I don't think part of me has ever outgrown that fourth grade mentality of loving their name on EVERYTHING. I used one of my sheets of Harry Potter book paper and ironed a patch of fusible interfacing on the back to give it some strength.Then, using Word Art on MS Word, I printed out an outline of the word I wanted to use (in that same Harry Potter font - Lumos). Then I used my word template, laid it over the paper as a pattern and poked holes around the edges of the letters where I thought I would need to stitch. Hmm... that was a lesson in preparation - I hadn't thought about whether I was doing a satin or chain stitch until I started poking. Yay me!
Anyway, my fingers got SOOOOO tired poking all of those holes. I only had strength to sew a little bit before falling asleep. This morning I looked at it and still think I like the look, even for this first attempt. I'll have to finish it in a few days as I have a date with my sister in San Diego this weekend. It'll be the first time I've been back there since I was eight years old. I hope it is as pretty as I remember it being... If nothing else, I'm looking forward to attending the temple and being in cooler weather...
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