Reflective Commentary on Assignment One.

I've been asked to write a few lines on my progress through this assignment:
as I have been asked to describe my experience, I assume that my response should be a personal, not objective, view. I would say that I have enjoyed it thoroughly, and that my favourite part overall was the exercise where I got to try out creating textures with different stitches, as I could try out new techniques and look for more complex tutorials. You need only look at my last post to see me answer the question, 'what other techniques would you like to try?' with quite a lengthy list, mostly revolving around this section on stitch techniques.

Whilst I would have expected this, I’ve surprised myself as well, and the thatched roof sampler surprised me the most – I spent a good few frustrating evenings on it, with very sore fingers, pulling packing string through small holes in quite tightly woven fabric, but at the end, I was really very pleased with it – because when I picked it up, it was weighty, it had a kind of tactile interest to both sides of the cloth, and was eventually a thick sandwich of thread with a fine cloth filling! This somehow felt important – I felt that it was more complete, more worthy of attention, because it was weighty. Strange, but true.

Another part of this assignment that was surprising for me was the moment when I panicked after taking my ‘puddle’ sampler (the one with all the French knots!) out of the frame, and the long white satin stitches all relaxed far more than I expected, giving a (thankfully) wavy and watery look to the shiny threads. A ‘fluke’, but a learning experience nevertheless.

I’ve enjoyed the technique of embroidery (which I never had a lot of practice with before) a great deal. Perhaps it’s preparing the frames, selecting and cutting the threads, the process of preparation, which makes it feel like ‘proper’ work. It’s unlike knitting or crochet, both of which I’ve always liked a bit too much to have it feel like working towards an art form, though obviously, it is!

I think that if I get to do more embroidery soon, I’m going to search about for a stand for a slate frame, as I enjoyed setting mine up very much for the final exercise, but found it quite cumbersome to hold properly, and it was a little too small to be able to clamp it to my desk and not have it wobble about! I will also work on the proper technique of having one hand above, one below, the work surface. I’m sure that once I get the hang of it, I will speed up!