"Currents"

 

Okay! Now it's time to tell this one's story. I feel like I'm going to struggle because I'm not sure this one has as much of a story as the previous one. I don't want to go into the thinking behind every single minute decision I make on each piece, but I do want to hit the important bits. 

So, I started off with the blue ribbon-wrapped hoop. A while back I went through all of my embroidery projects that weren't either on my wall or in my shop and took a bunch of embroidery art out of the hoop frames they had been in. The embroidery itself either went into a pile which I will use to create... something (I'm thinking some kind of book so that I can look back at my embroidery journey) or, (not really that) sadly, to the trash. So I ended up with a lot of hoops available for re-use. Some of them had ribbon-wrapping, some didn't. This one did and the ribbon's color went really well with some green and blue batik fabric I had recently bought. 

The batik print was so pretty that I wanted to make sure to not fully cover it up with my designs and to just use it as a jumping off point for my stitching and line choices. 

I braided a length of tapestry wool in blue and aqua and messed around with the placement before stitching it down to the surface. 

After that there was a long period in which I didn't take any process photos, so no illustrations, sorry. In adding the line of tapestry wool and the stitched lines that followed I was attempting to follow the curves of the batik print as they already existed. I have a thing for swirls and whorls and spirals, so it was really pleasing to me to build upon the print. The center of the spiral on the fabric has a white spot, almost as if it is shining and that gave me the idea to place a nice, shiny, medium-sized, clear glass bead in that spot. 

As I continued to add elements, it occurred to me that the piece was reminding me of moving water. Specifically, it reminded me of the little pockets of life you can find in a stream or creek where the flow of water is slowed down into a little pool. I decided I wanted to call it something reminiscent of that and ended up with "Currents."

These little pockets are typically teeming with life and activity; tiny fish, dragonflies and other bugs, reflections and shiny pebbles. I wanted my piece to bring that to mind. I continued adding bits and pieces here and there, lines and swirls, beads and chain stitch sections, and a smattering of various types of shiny thread and sequins so that the piece would catch the light in places in the same way that the flowing water of a creek will catch the sunlight and toss it back toward your eye.

Sometimes it's really hard to know when a piece is done-done and this one, I think, is somewhat more minimalistic than other abstract pieces I have done. But it was very important to me to let the batik underneath shine through in all of its glory, as it was the thing that guided and inspired everything I did.

This piece took roughly 8 hours combined to stitch (I think, I'm actually pretty bad at keeping track). I'm super pleased with how this piece turned out. Green is not one of my go-to color choices, but this fabric was just calling to me. This piece will be listed in my shop by the end of the day. (6/9/26)