I struggle to keep up with blogging, but I will aim to do better in 2024!

2023 saw my fibre art go in new directions as I experimented, embroidering on unexpected (non-traditional) surfaces. I have been crocheting wire and using it as a substrate for several years but I mounted it in hoops or used it for small brooches. For a show at Morning Star Gallery in Matthews, NC I made a small rectangle wire embroidery and framed it in a small shadow box. It was a first attempt at framing my wire embroidery but it won’t be my last!

Surely the biggest embroidery I have ever done was embroidering a rattan chair. As an ArtPop Street Gallery artist, my 2023 cohorts and I were invited to submit for an exclusive show at the Cain Center for the Arts in Cornelius, NC. Following that amazing experience, our class exhibited at Fanjoy Labrenz Studio in Hickory, NC, which was another fabulous show also with an exhilarating, well attended opening reception.

A much smaller project on an unexpected “canvas” was a tennis racket that I embroidered and showed at Hart Witzen Gallery, Charlotte, NC in August. With echinacea growing in the garden, I was fascinated by their shape and the Fibonacci pattern of their stamens. I easily mimicked the shape but didn’t even attempt to try the ordering of the stamens. Instead I made bugle beads stand out from the French knot centers, which proved to be effective. For petal highlights, I had the perfect pink metallic thread!

At the time of writing this, I am in the throes of another large project on a very untraditional surface, for the Director’s Choice show at the Cain Center. I’ll let that be my next blog entry!

Happy belated new year!