New Work - "Mask / face / head"

I was working on the piece in the last post and decided there needed to be some kind of mask / face / head somewhere. I started creating one on a separate, smaller hoop and about a month later I was finished and ready to add it. However the face / head that I ended up with was just too big. So, I decided to use it as the 'center point' of an entirely different work. I stitched it to some larger fabric pieces but it looked a bit naked all by itself, so I added some collage elements around it. I started with a few small scraps of black fabric and eventually added pieces of velvet, lace, trimmings, and other odds and ends including stitched over shapes, not unlike the star shapes I have been doing in previous work. My inspiration was African and Indian clothing and fabric I have seen adorned with various different items. I wanted to keep everything black on black as I have been doing, and of course a photograph does not capture this well.

The face / mask / head was made with metallic floss - both 'pointillized' and also stitched over with smoky monofilament floss, and white cotton floss. 

New work

Still continuing to work on black fabric. The center image was taken from an old anatomy diagram, but I changed parts of it to resemble an African mask and I did some more improvisational changing. In the end it turned out looking like some kind of 'un-dead' monster or something.
I used multi-colored metallic thread with transparent monofilament thread layered on top in an attempt to create the look and feel of skin tissue. I also used some cotton multicolored thread that I hand-dyed. I will post about that sometime soon.

The line images surrounding the 'head' I made by laying down a bright red/pink/orangey thread and then stitching over it completely with black (though bits of slight fuzz from the laid thread is visible). This technique is similar to 'couching' but I covered the entire laid thread….. I think it's called a 'trailing stitch', I'm not sure. The black thread on top of black fabric makes an interesting texture.

I stitched the black fabric to black velvet and stretched the velvet onto stretcher bars.

Of course, the monofilament thread over the multicolor metallic as well as the black on black make a fun photography challenge. Seems I'm always making things that are hard to photograph, why stop now?

Back to new hoop

Continuing on with the new hoop which was last posted about here.

Finished

The Black Fabric Hoop finished.
There are some French knots, my first time doing them. There is invisible floss and also transparent/translucent fishing line, plus some new varieties of metallic floss. I did a lot of experimenting on this one.
Size is about 6 1/2" inches diameter.

Painters Floss, Robots and Op-Art

Another great discovery I found out about after a year into sewing was the existence of 'Painter's Floss'. Painters Floss is an embroidery thread that is dyed with different colors. It comes in various color schemes - some subtle and monochromatic, some are extreme and psychedelic. The fun thing is that you are assured NOT to have the same color in a single strand of thread.
I went into a new hoop again with no ideas. But I did know I wanted to use the Painters Floss. The first thing that happened was the African mask head at the top. And then gold and red metallic thread turned into a skeletal structure. I suddenly started thinking of high tech robotry. Even robots have an internal structure, like we have bones. In this case the 'bones' are visible on the outside. There is a clear, almost invisible outer shell casing that these robot-beings have. Again, we are talking light years ahead of our modern scientific possibilities. Vampire robot? Maybe. Phallus? I don't know why.
The 'Succubus Angel Robot' (for lack of a better name) developed next (the model from the magazine I used as a reference certainly didn't have a halo on HER head).
The full metallic threaded mask was African and Asian inspired, although the thin, slick, metallic threads definitely jived with the robot theme, as they were like little circuit wires themselves.
I flooded the background with the Painters floss. Earthy colors - blue, green, brown, the yellows and oranges like the leaves of Autumn, all in stark contrast with the shiny, glittery technology.
Then there was the hot pink and white multicolored floss which complimented and contrasted with the earthen hues.
I laid down the painters floss while contemplating crop circles, optical illusions, country door decorations and water.