Japanese Embroidery Class Phase 1 - Day 3

Day 3 of the class was one of the worst. After praises from the teacher about my beginner-skills-okay-for-the-nuido (I never made embroidery before !! ), I hit a wall that day. A massive one, and my inexperience gave me a lot of troubles.

First of all : Japanese knots.
I had troubles earlier in my life with french knots on cross stitch. Well, Japanese knots are also not the friendly type.

So while other stitcher were doing somme beautiful flowers with the french knots, all I did was...

Those. Horribles. Tentatives. Of. Straight. From. Hell. Things. 

On the top left, there three almost correct knots. The rest were... yuck. «Practice», yeah. Not a single knot was stitched on the piece that day ( nor 6 months later). My problem is about not pulling the good loop so it creates this kind of tail on the top f the knot. 

For info: I got a crash course of Japanese knot last month, they look better know but still haven't put any on the fabric.

Second struggle of the day : Bush clover. There are 34 of those little devilish things in the piece. We suppose the mad/genius creator of this piece made sure we would know how to stitch them properly at the end of the phase 1. Slow clap for him, they are very hard to do. In fact, they look like being easy. You start on one side, move and turn and shorten the stitches next to the top then turn and do longer and.... 

The teacher said it was not that bad.... but she made me redo the right part two times.

I was almost crying. 

( There is a small difference between the two pictures, I don't know if you will notice it)

On the afternoon, it was a litte bit more relax. We made a special thread, supertwisted thread that we had to put in water and made to dry before stitching. It is used for the stem of flowers. It looks super shiny and i love it texture. We couch it with little regular twisted thread of the same colour (green).

The little seeds ont the side if the green stems is where i should have put my (not on point) knots. 

Finally, we had to couche the outline of the paperbag, because on day 4 we would be working on it. 

So this is what the progress of that horrible day looked like : One leaf, 3 cm of stems and half outlining. And 30 ugly knots on the side.

Doing this blog post 6 months later, i remember the mixed feelings of that day. I was very naive about the Japanese embroidery.. like i knew it would be difficult be living those difficulties for real is not the same. After almost 3 years of waiting for this class, i never thought i would be that hard. Seeing the other stitchers doing there knots almost perfectly (because embroidering for years), I felt a little bit left behind. Moreover not able to distinguish angles and where the needle should land to have te perfect stitch, have to redo 2 times a single side of a leaf... Aouch. 

But the most important is... i'm not a quitter. It was not the first fail i had in my life, and certainly not the last. When life knocks you down, the only thing you can do is stand up. So I stood up, had a great night of sleep, ready for my fourth and last day.

Japanese Embroidery Class Phase 1 - Day 2

The second day of my class was about flat silk. We practiced twisted silk the day before.

This one is a little bit harder. if at first you don't need to do anything to your thread, just take it and put a knot at the end, you have to be a little bit more precocious with it.

Flat silk thread is so hard to work with, one false movement and it snags. Also, you have to use the tekobari (big long stroking needle) to stroke the silk to make sure it lays perfectly flat. Tekobari also enhance the silk to make it shiny. Then, you can't remove your thread too many time. Silk does not support to be removed and becomes ugly after some times. 

It's kinda scary how you have to be careful !!! 

We worked on 3 things for the second day

• Blue pistil in the middle of iris is made of flat silk. You have to put one layer of perpendicular padding of silk thread under, and follow the movement. So... I tried to. 

• Second was Yellow Valerian. This one is worked on weft flat silk. It means we have to follow the line if the fabric and put all the stitches parallel. White silk is used as guidelines.

• Last thing of the day was the orange chrysanthemum. This one has special movement. Each petal has to be inclined in some sort of position from the very center of the flower. At 30˚ exactly, but didn't know this at the moment... This is why they look like very different, one is note at good angle. 
• They are made from twisted silk, and self padded, like the iris petals.

A question may be asked : why do i began with some petals particularly? Because there is a rule in Japanese Embroidery that the front item have to be stitched before the background. In those 3 pictures, i stitched those items because they were ont the foreground. 

In the chrysanthemum, you have to begin with the bigger petal in front of the other, and then do the others. The one on the left is my first one. The last will be the two little in the back. 

So this what it looked like at the end of day 2

At the moment I was so glad with my work. Looking at it now, 6 months later i see all my mistakes because i've learned so much with practice. I am still very satisfied with how much i improved to this day.

Japanese Embroidery Class Phase 1 - Day 1

Day 1. 9am

I'am so excited. I have been waiting for this day for so long.  I will finally learn all the secrets of Japanese embroidery. The teachers gave us an inspirational speech for our first, about seeking perfection but not be overwhelm by it. She said the journey was more important than the goal, and we should not seek perfection at any price at the beginning, it will come with time and practice.

This my work place, ready to begin

Our first lesson is learning to twist the silk. With 4 brands of flat silk, we have to make twisted threads. Easier said than done. The teacher told me i could twist the silk a little bit more tight. 

For all the morning, we practiced twisting thread. 

In the afternoon, we began to work on the blue iris. It is worked on twisted thread, and we follow the movement of the flower.

First, we have to make padding with the blue thread on perpendicular, then stitch on top of it. 

Teacher was really impressed since i've never did any embroidery other than cross stitch when you only have to put X's in pre-made holes. Following the movement of the flower was quite hard but i was satisfied with my progress for this day

Japanese Embroidery Class Phase 1 - Day 0

I have no words to tell how I was excited to attend my first day of Japanese Embroidery class. I was waiting for this day for so many years. Instead of me going to Atlanta to follow the Phase I course, a teachers came in Montreal. Her name is Sue Sprake from London, Canada. It was a dream coming true ! 

The teacher made sure to order everything we would need for Phase I : Threads, silk, needle.. etc. Another lady from the group order the wood frame we are using for JE. 

Since the time for embroidery was quite limited ( 5 day class), Sue asked our frame to be mounted already for day one. It was a good idea because it took almost 3 hours for the 4 beginners to have their piece ready. 


Here are some pictures : 

Some of my tools : 
- Tekobari, long stroking needle to make the silk flat and shiny
- Japanese Scissor (Regular embroidery scissors works fine too) 

In the back, the fabric mounted on the frame, and a picture of a completed project to help us

Light is bad, but this is what it looked like, with the frame and stand.

Finally, the seven colours we will need for the project. Silk tread is a pleasure to work with... but also a creation of the devil. It lays so beautifully on the fabric, until you snag it with the side of your thumb. 

« If you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best.»

Beautiful things have their own caracter, I suppose.  

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By the way, if you know any Japanese embroidery blog these days, let me know ! I'm always looking for inspiration !

Welcome back

Hi everyone ! Long time no see !!

Last post was almost 3 years ago. Lot of things happened !!  

Since I had to put lots of efforts on school i had to stop blogging, i was taking me a lot of time. I was also giving myself irrealisable deadlines for my stitching. While working, going to school, life, I was not able to put all the time i wanted in stitching and felt ashamed, since i value myself mainly on performance. Now, i let myself the right to not have time to do some embroidery, and i feel great about it. (Ok, I'm lying, i always want to stitch, even if i don't have time!) I'm now in Graduate Program in university, so i still have so much work to do and no time for what i want.

Not only master is a great news, i have another one, very important : 

I finally got my Japanese Embroidery lessons! 

The one i was waiting for so long. At first i has prepared myself to go to Atlanta on September 2016, but got a last minute impediment... I was so sad, but began to prepare another trip for the year after.

Luckily, a teacher of JE came in Montreal in October 2017. I had the chance to meet a group of japanese embroidery in my city. We now have a monthly meeting for a full day of stitching at the house of one of the ladies. I feel so blessed to have meet those ladies, and that wouldn't have happened if i went to my class in 2016. 

Have confidence in life, she knows what's best :) 

I plan to post pictures and progression of my Bouquet From the Heart of Japan, the Phase I of the Japanese Embroidery Center. Instagram is nice to post picture, but it's hard to tell a story about my struggles and achievements. 

If possible, i want to document my journey like the two blogs i've been following for so long : Susan Elliott from Plays with needles and Carol-Anne Conway from Threads Across the Web, even if it's been long time they didn't post anything. They were a great inspiration for me, and i think it's the best way to do a tribute for them by posting my own journey on a blog. I hope they'll make a comeback someday !

JEC ©

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I did a lot of cross stitching, and posted it on Instagram since 2015. You can follow me on @marilym.stitch if you want. I have some pictures of progression on a lot of things. I will still post pictures of cross stitch if by some reason i do work on my WIP, but mainly most of my time is on JE now.

HAED 50% on ALL charts !

I just received this email : 50% off on all charts !

Until January 30 2015 ! Dear Stitch From Stash participant, this is your chance to buy at low cost that chart you wanted for soooo long ! Spread the good news !

Have a nice day :) 

IHSW Report Jan 2015

I've decided to participate to the International Hermit and Stitch Weekend (Hosted by Joyce from Random Ramblings )

The rules for this are simple : Stitch all the weekend ! As much as your time permits it !

Exactly what I've been doing because i've been attacked by a terrible cold and fever that left me staying home and doing nothing «productive» all the weekend ...
Nothing productive meaning I felt like my brain was swimming in some jelly. Result : no homeworks and lectures, only sleeping, movies and stitching !  ( A week end of break sometime isn't bad ? )

I made a lot of progression on 3 projects from Friday to Sunday night ( Yep, missed my classes on Friday, I could'nt get out of bed, it was like a truck passed on me while I was sleeping  )


(Sorry for the picture quality, I take them from my old phone ) 

#1 Jazz Café  

Before

After

Close up

Anchor/Maia Collection

Black Aida 16 ct

I've been working on the dress and finished the brown already started.

#2 Elegance of the Orient

Before

After

Little close up 

Dimensions Gold

Cream Aida 18 ct

After doing so much blue in those 2, I relaxed with other colors in the last one ;)


#3 Mad Hatter

Before

After

HAED/ Hannah Lynn

White Lugana 28ct

I haven't done a lot of work on this one, because I like to keep it for when I'm tired of my other projects. This is the main reason why I don't expect to have it finished in 2015...

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This is it for this month. My stitching pace is slow if I compare to others I follow but it's okay for me. It is not a race, I stitch because I love to ! 

I'm not sure to have time for the next one, because the due date will fall almost in the same period as my exams, and I suppose it would be suicide to dedicace all my weekend on stitching .
Only time will tell !

Hope you had a nice week end full of stitching too ! :)