The Joy of Framing

Not. Least favorite of all art related requirements, framing.

Here in the throes. Or as my Twitter feeders sometimes say, the throws. Makes me wonder what they think it means. Throwing your energy into it? 

Anyway there's a juried show coming up, run by the Preserve. Theme NJ nature. Prizes,awards, one for Preserve related subject matter. Four pieces per artist, reasonable fee if you go for all four. Juried meaning competitive entrance. Mebbe you get in, mebbe you don't.

Soooo went through my framed and other items, moaning and polishing glass and spiffing up and reframing and generally having an awful time. Nearly done.

Of course it involved making more art for background, but I've managed to dodge the worst -- mat cutting. Just as well, because the mat cutter is at a friend's house. He's had it so long he probably thinks he owns it and is lending it to me.

Certainly different from wielding needles and hooks, though there's crochet and embroidery as well as dyeing and painting in the four selected.

And then there's The Filling of the Forms, bureaucracy collides with free spirit.

This too shall pass.

One of those great studio days that come along now and then

I had a few things to attend to before I could get into the studio, largely of an admin nature, for my guild, and for friends, and wondered if I was going to make it in there.

But as it happened, once the promised tasky stuff was taken care of,  I ended up having the sort of day you hardly ever get, full of discovery and new art, as opposed to physical, energy.

The results were enough to make a person happy.  Three new works conceptualized, and just a start made, framing for five others finally figured out, more or less, the big piece Holding up the Sky or whatever its name is, don't ask me, I only work here, and cool portable ideas I can be working on in my Artist in Residence stint in March and April.  Can't ask for more than that.

So here are a few things for you to see.  My inner printmaker surged forward and insisted on printing on hand dyed linen, 

this will be a stretched, freestanding piece, with surface embroidery and might accompany me to this weekend's Stitch in Public Day, we'll see.

and on cotton lawn,

 possibly a background for one of the planet pieces framed
 and on heavy paper. Those are not creases, they're printed to look that way, an optical illusion

Definitely a background for the latest planet piece, the one trying out the frame for size and requesting more interesting ideas in the background.

I ended up having to work on three surfaces -- one clean one for the frames and glass cleaners, 

one glass one for the printmaking, and one with clean cloths on for the final work on the tapestry.  

Anyone who has ever worked with printmaking inks knows how they get around unexpectedly, and it's better if they don't get onto finished stitched and woven works unless it's on purpose. Of course, most people don't try to frame, stitch and print all at once, but oh well.  You have to seize the moment.

The Joy of Art, the Agony of Framing

Or, as wise friend Stefi has been known to say, if you want the pleasure of framing, first you have to go through the boredom and misery of making art...

Anyway, today after framing three pieces, I ran out of strength and patience and all that framing entails, and have not quite finished framing up the rest of my work.  One more wilderness piece and a couple of goldwork pieces to go.

Working in 3D i.e. stumpwork and other similar techniques, creates a particularly shall we say challenging situation for framing, since you can't put the work face down in order to mount the fabric on to the backing, the usual procedure.  

You have to preserve the surface and work sight unseen at the back pulling and adjusting the tapes and getting the artwork properly centered and taut without crushing the fragile embroidery or shoving it out of place.  My nerves were not centered, but definitely taut.  Remembering how many hours go into making this work in the first place, you really don't want things to go all pear shaped in the framing.

And I can only keep up this level of tension, meaning the physical kind, for so long before my hands start to whine and complain.  So I made the pix, for once remembering, I'm very proud to say, to leave the glass off for the pix, insert it after them, so that only had to be done once.  Then I decided that the night wilderness scene and a couple of goldwork pieces had to wait till tomorrow.  And now I'm having a cup of tea and gloating over my progress to date.

 Here's that wheat design I did, rayon thread, gah, with beads and other things on white linen, 8 x 8 inches -- it's a dark and stormy day, so the white doesn't show well here.

And here's the daytime wilderness pieces, with the glasswing insect now in place, along with the or nue sun and the blue and purple stumpwork butterfly.  The second picture is to indicate the frame a bit for you to see the boundaries of the piece.  It's 12 x 12.

The reason I want this framing done is that Sunday is the annual holiday bash of the Embroiderers' Guild, with a show and tell of this year's work, so I wanted to put my best stitch forward.

You may remember that I had planned to add all kinds of stuff into the wilderness pieces, but having made the small one, which was quite busy, decided I'd rather be spare with the other two, plenty of air around the insects is better than a crowd.  I still promise myself a goldwork bee in stumpwork, though, but he'll have another context.

The silver (it's silver, take my word for it) frame with the schwalm whitework in it amused me hugely because the design on the frame reflects in an updated sort of way the general design of the whitework. Just a little sight gag there.  I starched the whitework, too, figuring why not, the original stitchers probably did, too.