Dilemma De Jour
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I know, another blog entry from yours truly. I know this is a lot of my blather in just 2 days. I suddenly seem to have a lot to say.
I am currently grappling with ways to market my sad little web store, NewNeedlepoint.com. I probably should not tell you this (like that has every stopped me before) but my store has been open since March 15, 2009 and I have made one $25.00 sale (of 10 DMC Needle Organizers).
Don’t think I am not happy about my one sale, I am, but *needle organizers*? Jeez.
My web techs tell me to be patient, but by my “marianne” standards* I have been very patient. I have done the Social Networking route I was advised to. All of us small business people out there on Twitter promoting ourselves and our stores/ventures to each other.
It really is kind of silly, if you think about it. We are all out there bleating at each other about what we do/make. Is anyone listening?
I like facebook, surprisingly. My high school best friend and I reconnected there, after many years, it is nice. Like the years in between were a blur, we are still ourselves and still understand each other.
“If I’d Killed Him When I Met Him” Canvas Alone or Color Choice Kit
I have friends out here in *virtual needlepoint land&, really nice, smart people, who are giving me advice. It is all good advice, more or less, but how far am I willing to go?
That is a good question.
I will begin advertising in the 2 major needlepoint publications in the fall. Needlepoint Now, which appears to be becoming a whole new ballgame, under it’s new owner and editor. A great and much needed improvement.
And there is the A.N.G. magazine, Needlepointers, which seems to be the “industry standard”.
64 Hearts Canvas Alone or Color Choice Kit
I have received a few good hints about reconfiguring my listing text (again? AWK!) and some advice about adding color to either my canvases or my pictures of the canvases. I am advised that people can’t visualize the colors the designs could be, the many possibilities for themselves.
I don’t believe that, I don’t want to believe that.
Joyous Kanji Canvas Alone or Color Choice Kit
I think many of us can look at a line drawing on a white (or colored) needlepoint canvas and see, in our mind’s eye, what it can be, what it could be.
Plus, what would be the point of Custom Color Choice Needlepoint Kits then?
Rudolph Reindeer 5 X 7 Inch Canvas Alone or Color Choice Kit Stitch & Frame Needlepoint
That is my creative and high-minded take on this.
The Ferris Wheel of Life Needlepoint Canvas Alone or Color Choice Kit
The other thought I have on this idea is that it would add an enormous amount of time to the creation of each canvas and kit I sell.
It would potentially add to the cost of making my kits and add enormously to the time spent making each one, which has to be added to the cost of the kit, to some degree. I have tried to keep my prices rock bottom, both to make Needlepoint more accessible to everyone and in keeping with these nasty and difficult economic times.
Year of the Rooster Canvas Alone or Color Choice Kit
So, I think I will stay the course. My idea when I started NewNeedlepoint.com was to free all of us from the tyranny of a set group of needlepoint designers static and boring color choices.
My basic idea is *all cats are gray in the dark* meaning all needlepoint canvases are white until altered, aren’t they? (with a dispensation for colored canvases, of course, nothing is ever simple is it?)
Snippet
My sample DMC #8 Perle Cotton rolls FINALLY arrived. I will have my long awaited #8 vs. #5 on 18 mesh Zweigart mono canvas report in a day or 2.
My Yellow Blog Post
I was dying to title this “I am Curious, Yellow” but I managed to resist. Does anyone else remember the “groundbreaking” art house movie from 1967. it was supposedly “thinking man’s porn”. The name was famous, as was the whole concept. I never did see it.
Still, the title would have been perfect, if totally tasteless.
Remember not too long ago I was complaining about the fancy pants new Nikon digital camera as opposed to my trusty old Kodak digital with it’s user friendly dock et al?
Well, I am still trying to use the Nikon, trying to get it to take a good picture. I wanted to show you 2 new kits I was listing tomorrow but I did not have the will, the energy or the time to set up the lights and drag everything around plus set up the tripod etc, etc, etc to take 2 pictures, so I winged it.
I took these pictures in my office/workroom. There was some natural light, not a lot. There is a pole lamp with the GE Reveal bulbs I love so much (they are supposed to give you a true natural light and cost a bunch more to buy. What they really do is put a nice pinky tinge on everything, very flattering to not so young skin)
That and an overhead fixture with regular old bulbs in it. (I am, in general, not an overhead fixture person, I like ambient light…yes I really said that)
These are the pictures I got. They have not been altered for effect, not even a little. All I did to both these pictures was crop them a bit and re-size them so I could post them here.
This is my Unconditional Love Kanji canvas.
It is not colored canvas. That is an 8 X 8 inch White Zweigart 18 Mesh Mono Canvas.
YIKES!
This next one is my wonderful Katherine Hepburn quote Stitch & Frame needlepoint, it’s finished size will be 5 X 7 inches
The quote is:
NEVER COMPLAIN
NEVER EXPLAIN
It too is White 18 Mesh Zweigart Mono Canvas.
Needless to say, I will have to re-take these pictures before I can list these 2 kits.
I dug back through my picture files to find some pictures I am sure I took with the Kodak in regular house light.
I found 2 from my house inventory for the homeowners insurance. I keep a flash drive of these in a fireproof box, just in case. Much better then receipts and memory when dealing with poopy insurance adjustors. I am positive these were taken with the old camera in daylight.
This is the antique garden seat I wormed out of my mother. It took a long time to convince her it really belonged in my house, not hers.
This next one is a really poorly done, blurry picture of a group of 6 oil paintings.
I bought these from this on-line original art site. It was a real act of bravery on my part, having just seen a smallish picture of them, I took the chance. Of course, the scope of my bravery is diminished by the fact they were dirt cheap. Less then a good print for them all. I think they make a nifty little group.
As you can see (while I am busy showing off some stuff), the Kodak takes superb pictures, in almost any kind of random old light I have.
So why, you ask (and I ask myself) am I still fartzing around with the Nikon? I have no idea. It could be a need to conquer it and make it work right. It could be that I am a snob and want to use the expensive shiny new toy or it could be that I am just being stupid.
(to all of you out there jumping up and down and yelling “stupid”, I know you’re there).
To get back to Needlepoint (and you thought I forgot all about it). NewNeedlepoint.com seems to be headed to All Quotes Needlepoint.com, not that I will change the name. (btw, that is my poor little lone link in this whole blog entry, pitiful)
I could not believe my luck when I discovered the Domain Name *New Needlepoint* was available and I snagged it. You never saw a woman click a link and whup out her credit card so fast before (unless you have been on-line shopping with me).
I am so enamored of these quote canvases. I keep digging for quotes and keep finding gems.
When Keith gets off his lazy butt and traces some more designs for me (reality reminder, the poor man works full time plus does these canvases for nn.com)
I have a Bette Davis quote design for a 4 X 6 inch Stitch & Frame with a surprising design:
OLD AGE IS NOT FOR SISSIES
I love, it, and a 8 X 10 in Stitch & Frame from Germiane Greer (remember her? early feminist writer of The Female Eunuch and perhaps even more famously an early participant in the “sexual revolution”)
YOU’RE ONLY YOUNG ONCE
BUT YOU CAN BE IMMATURE
FOREVER
on medium light green Zweigart mono canvas with a unusual border.
There will be a lovely 10 X 10 inch Marilyn Monroe quote on pale mauve Zweigart mono canvas with a fabulous exotic bird:
IT’S ALL MAKE BELIEVE,
ISN’T IT?
Another 8 X 10 inch Stitch & Frame starring a joyful dancing bear and another great Katherine Hepburn quote:
IF YOU OBEY ALL THE RULES,
YOU MISS ALL THE FUN
who knew she was so witty?
There is wonderful cat, posed before the full moon with a quote by the famous French writer Colette:
DOGS BELIEVE THEY ARE HUMAN
CATS BELIEVE THEY ARE GOD
I have been waiting forever for this canvas to get done, since May, maybe longer. It will be a 4 X 6 inch Stitch & Frame Needlepoint.
As you can see, everything I am doing is quotes. I know, or I assume, that eventually some other idea or passion will grab me but for now this is it.
There is a wonderful quote from Albert Einstein:
TIME IS WHAT KEEPS EVERYTHING FROM HAPPENING AT ONCE
I am having trouble finding a design for this quote. I tried a bunch of different clocks but it was a no go. Any ideas, anyone?
I Talk About Patt and Lee and Me
I met Patt of Patt & Lee Designs on eBay when we were both starting out. She had just begun to market her wonderful original design needlepoint canvases.
I was testing out selling the very first of my line drawn needlepoint canvas Kits. I was even experimenting with the concept of Color Choice.
The first kits I sold on eBay, of my own, were the Chinese Kanji designs similar to this.
I didn’t know yet that these Chinese symbols were called Kanji. I called them Chinese Word Symbols.
I offered them for sale with black wool for the Kanji, off-white or cream wool for the background and a choice of 3 or 4 colors wool for the border.
My buyers did not *get it* about being able to choose their own border color, but with some prodding from me, they did (”my buyers” indeed. I think I sold maybe 4).
Anyway, I saw this wonderful Cat With His Coffee needlepoint canvas for sale by Patt.
I bought it for myself to stitch but I never did get to it. This was about the same time the whole needlepoint web store idea was spinning around in my head.
It occured to me, “why not sell other people’s stuff as well?”. I knew I could not afford and did not want some expensive name designer, I wanted another start up like me, loaded with talent.
I asked Patt, in a carefully worded email, if she would sell me her canvases to sell on my new web site.
We went around and around about this forever. It took time for us to understand each other, even longer for us to begin to know each other. Not an easy process. We have never met in person, we have never even spoken on the phone but over time we have built a working friendship and I like to think a watch each other’s back friendship as well.
We have become excellent email friends.
We were both newbies, small fish in these needlepoint waters. That was a few years ago now.
This is her Geisha Cats canvas, I call It Gossiping Geishas This is masterful design work, imo.
Patt’s work has matured, improved with almost every canvas she does.
She is something of an innovator as well. Her Less Than Full Skein needlepoint canvases are a wonderful idea. They are designed for you to use any and all of those partial skeins we all have lying around, all over the place in some cases (ok, mine).
Is this brilliant or what?
My work has evolved as well. I think I am learning as I go and I know my learning curve was and is deeper then Patt’s (as in I have more to learn).
Some of my earliest efforts are no longer for sale, they were good enough then but not nearly good enough now.
Like this heart collage which was listed on NewNeedlepoint.com for some time until I did my first web site stock revision/clean-out/upgrade.
Or this one which I don’t think I ever did list for sale.
Eventually and in time I got much better at this, I am even fairly proud of some of my more recent efforts. This is the Friendship Kanji Stitch & Frame
Or this, one of two versions of this wonderful American Folklore quote and title of a book by Sharyn McCrumb The hearts in this design are meant to be a showcase for decorative stitches, all the same or all different. Either or.
I also think both the picture and my color work on this Sunset needlepoint kit are good.
with the DMC Perle cotton
Then again (there is always a “then again” for me) The rose collage, Roses, Roses, Roses is one of my earliest designs and I think it still holds it head up with any of the others
Let’s not forget my Mae West obsession
As usual, I have veered way off my blog blabb path. I am talking about the Patt & Lee Designs Glicee’ Needlepoint canvases.
What I do with them is, I hope, enhance them by using my talent for color and color use to assemble the canvases into needlepoint kits. I use Paternayan Persian needlepoint wool or DMC #5 Perle cotton (soon to be joined by Anchor #8 Perle cotton for use on 18 mesh Petit Point canvases).
Now, I try not to do any major color changes to painted or Glicee’ canvases. A really radical color change always opens to door to a serious color show-through problem. There are many subtle and even not so subtle ways to change color, hue and shade without running into a problem. That is what I am up to.
This is not to say that Patt does not have a real eye for the color. The colors she uses on her Glicee’ canvas designs are very good but I think (hope/try) I take it a step further. Plus there is the convenience of the kit all ready to go with thread, needle, color placement stitch guide et al.
To give you an example.
This is one of Patt’s wonderful designs, I call it 26 Color Star Quilt Needlepoint.
The canvas uses Patt’s wonderful colors.
Below is my take on the colors to be used.
There is a difference.
Here is another example. This is Cats Hiding in the Flowers. The canvas with the colors as Patt did them.
and my take on the colors. I have used more blue/gray & muted teal than straight grays for the leaves.
.
Please do not imagine for one moment that I am denigrating Patt’s color use or talent or anything. I obviously think enough of her work to have made a serious investment in it for my own web site.
But I do have my own way with colors, I like to think it is a talent. Here is one more example. I love this canvas, this one and the puppies one similar to it. Patt calls this kittens, I call it Smiling Cats Collage.
There are 23 colors in this design. I did not go to far from the cat’s body colors, I did not want to get into a color show-through problem.
Or perhaps this will better convey to you what I am doing. I call this wonderful guy Aztec Cat
As you can see, I have changed his body detail colors quite a bit, but still in the same kind of color “feeling” but different (not sure how to say that) The gray body dots are now blues & pale purple.
What better way to end this particular blog than by having Patt’s wonderful Gentleman Cat Tip His Hat
The Needlepoint Diet?
I know I write these odd little blogs. I love it. I love it when I get everybody talking. I am about to write the oddest of my collection of good, bad and weird blogs yet.
Here it goes. I did needlepoint a bit in the early 1980’s but I was not the obsessive needlepointy person I am now. It was when my son was young, I was a single mother and sometimes all the time spent at home with my infant, then toddler son got to me. Needlepoint was a good way of keeping me interested and not feeling trapped in the evenings.
I lost interest for many years, my son grew and we became busier. I let needlepoint go.
I picked it up again a bit in 1989 but did not stick. It wasn’t until the around 2001 that I got back into it, then sunk into my happy needlepoint obsession. A funny thing happened then.
To backtrack some, if any of you read my other blog, Fat Fashion Forward you know that I am not thin (euphemism alert). OK, I am fat. I am a fabulous fat fashionista (in my other, Clark Kent, persona). So, what does this have to do with needlepoint?
When I began stitching again in 2001 and became very absorbed in it, in learning more, I lost 20 pounds.
I was not dieting, I did not consciously cut down on what I ate or in any way, that I was aware of at first, alter my behavior.
What changed was that now I did needlepoint while I watched TV (or in my case movies, movies, movies) in the evenings. In fact any time I was not doing something else I was stitching.
Sitting and chatting with people, I was stitching. Listening to any kind of class or lecture (where I did not have to take notes), I was stitching. Waiting for a airplane to board, stitching.
Interestingly, although I was stitching, I found I got more from a lecture or class if I stitched while they spoke, odd huh?
To get back to my main point. I was no longer snacking at night. I was not bored watching TV, I was not restless. I also was not aware that my behavior had changed, not for a while anyway.
It was, without question, the easiest 20 pounds I ever lost.
This is my needlepoint blog for today. I know, it is not exactly what you expected but here it is.
My Needlepoint Nightmare
As I mentioned in a previous blog (blather/rant) here, I am going to try stitching 18 mesh mono canvas with #8 Perle (yes, I finally learned how to spell it) Cotton floss.
Typical of me, here are the things I did not know. #8 floss is available in very limited colors. I tried to buy the Anchor #8. I have always loved the slight differences in tone and intensity of Anchor floss in comparison to the DMC Perle Cotton. I was originally going to stock NewNeedlepoint.com with the Anchor instead of the DMC but my supplier told me they are phasing out Anchor #5. Now, I assumed he meant they as in Coats & Clark Co, the Anchor manufacturer but indeed he may have meant they as in the wholesaler.
I also did not know they only way to buy #8 Perle Cotton is in 2 skein balls. That would be OK except many of my Stitch & Frame Needlepoint quotes and designs use just one skein, having to use or indeed supply my customers with a double skein ball will add to my costs and theirs, but that (piddly, tiny, unimportant) factor aside, it took me 2 & 1/2 hours last night to order 3 variations in each of the basic colors for my own use and for my test purposes.
Interestingly, I paid 2.49 for each ball which equals a double skein of floss. The prices I found ranged from $2.19 (but they had few colors) to $2.70 per ball. I just looked up the price of a single skein of DMC #5 Perle Cotton and found prices ranging from $1.29 per skein to a high of $1.45 per skein (this is for everybody who is counting pennies these days, like I am the highest price I found on both the DMC #5 and the DMC #8 was at Nordic Needle)
Sadly enough this is not My Needlepoint Nightmare. This is:
Last night after supper I went to Michaels (Arts & Crafts Store) to buy some #8 Perle Cotton floss for my needlepoint test.
I found myself in some version of the inner circle of hell. Everything good and creative about art or about crafting had had the life, interest and *color* sucked out of it and was jammed into this overwhelming and confusing store.
There were aisles crammed to overflowing with sticker art, scrapbooking stuff, beads, doll & bear supplies (I am not kidding, that is the aisles name), candle and soap making, jewelry stuff. There were prestretched art canvases, brushes and paints, there was an entire Crayola aisle. Framing supplies of every sort as well as sad a collection of ready made frames as I have ever seen. There were silk flowers, poorly made silk flowers and supplies to arrange them into indifferent displays. Something called craft painting, I am still trying to figure out the difference between that and regular painting.
Stickers galore, and rubber stamps. I am sure I will get nasty emails about this (as usual) but I fail to see how sticking stickers on something or stamping something with a rubber stamp and ink is either an art or a craft. Now Scrapbooking I can see, the possibilities for embarassing one’s children are almost endless as well as perserving memories, punctuated with pithy comments is quite compelling, really.
They sell the flimsy and poorly made bakeware but you can make a Pixar WallE or a Hannah Montana cake. Now, I am prejudiced here. My son is a Culinary Institute of America trained Baking and Pastry Arts Graduate as well as a CIA Certified Culinarian (general cooking) so I know (and bought him) if not the best cookware, the most useful and practical for successful baking. This garbage is not that.
But after wading through all that, at the back end of the store is the 3 smallish aisles devoted to needlework. There is a 1/2 aisle of what they call needlepoint kits. I know what I would call them but I am not sure I can use *that* word here. They are my (and your) worst imaginings of puerile, awful, tawdry and pointless kits possible.
(OK, there is an argument that all of it is pointless but I do not agree, I will get into that fight at another time, I am focused on this now)
Then there is the supplies aisle. (Give Me Strength) There were some pre-cut rolls of Aida Cloth and Linen, there was some plastic canvas. i did not see any cotton canvas, either mono or penelope. There were (I admit) some great little DMC tools including my own favorite Needle Storage thingie however there were no embroidery or needlepoint scissors of any quality to be had. They were heavy on the “Stitch Bow” stuff.
Michaels had 2 or 3 skeins each of maybe 20, maybe 25 colors of DMC Perle Cotton #5 floss hanging on these sad little hooks. They looked limp. I bet they had 200 colors of DMC #25 embroidery floss. They had every possible variation in color, sheen and shine.
They had 1 half aisle of the crummiest knitting yarn I have seen since the “Wal-Mart Collection” but they did have a fine selection of knitting needles in all the best plastics.
I guess what I am getting to here, and what is my Nightmare is: if i was interested in learning or investigating the many beauties and pleasures of Needlepoint and went into a Michaels Art & Crafts Store (and like ants, they are everywhere) I would run from needlepoint, it would not attract or interest me.
I might, however, get some nice rubber stamps, some cool ink colors and nice paper with a few super stickers to dress it all up.
The point I am getting to here, in my usual verbose and backhanded way is: How are we presenting needlepoint to people who are interested but not experienced? Is it accessible, easy to understand and attractive? Or is it buried the the back aisle of some superstore in a kit with ironic horoscopes or cuddly kittens, or country doors buried in blossoms?
Or is it in some snobby needlepoint store where they well sell the novice everything and the nifty bag to carry it all in and send them on their way with a book on needlepoint. A book that even I could not make heads or tails of?
What happened to me is they sold me an Erhman Kit in it’s lovely artistic paper bag with handles. I got home to find a raw edged canvas, a hunk of yarn, not divided in any way and 1 page of generic needlepoint “instructions”. Oh yes, the store gave me a needle.
Sometimes I am amazed I have come this far with it. I almost didn’t. I took me 7 or 8 years to finish that first kit, I lost interest so many times. I almost threw it away, unfinished more then once.
Somehow I finished it and in the glow of that triumph I bought another, then another and son on.
There has to be a better way.
I’m Back
Yes, I know you were all (all, listen to me,”all”) waiting with baited breath for me to get over the move and resume my almost daily blatherfest.
I am moved in enough to slack off now and spend some time at my beloved Mac (yes, I am one of these oddballs who love Macs). The kitchen is unpacked. it took me 10 hours to pack the kitchen. I misjudged it and left it for the last day, big mistake!. I was up all night before the move finishing the kitchen. It took much less time to unpack (maybe 6 hours).
I have much less cabinet space here but a huge pantry, there is something about the very idea of a pantry that I love. No idea why.
The bedroom is unpacked, the family room & the TV (so Keith is happy, his has his MLB package and was able to watch the Red Sox this weekend). The bathroom is useable (and that took some icky cleaning). We are home. I like this house a lot better and it costs a lot less in rent, for a nicer house. Go figure. Of course, we are no longer in the ritzy waterfront gated community but I like it better here. I guess we are not that classy after all.
The move went ok, a little furniture scratched, nothing to make a fuss about. The new house is dirtier than I thought when I saw it before renting it (of course).
One of my favorite figurines got broken
This is my fault, not wrapped well enough but my favorite vase, the star of my art glass collection came through fine. It made the trip in the front seat of my car, wearing a seat belt.
I am not back to thinking totally needlepointy yet but it has occured to me that some of the grief I am having (and have always had stitching 18 mesh canvas) is that I am using too big a floss (DMC #5).
This came to me, as so many idea do, from something Jane, the esteemed author of The Chilly Hollow Needlepoint Adventure Blog wrote to me. She said she likes stitching 16 & 18 mesh but dislikes DMC #5.
Being not completely stupid (almost but not totally) I put 2 & 2 together and came up with #8. I need to order some DMC Pearle #8 for 18 mesh canvas (TA DA).
That pretty much covers it for now.
I have to finish unpacking
I have to put together a DMC#8 order
I have to list a few more new canvases
I have to begin nagging Keith to trace some more designs
BTW and if he sees it (Keith does not read my blog very often, I guess having me here to talk at him is more then enough for him). Keith has been a real brick through this move. He worked full time. He helped me a lot, he is a keeper (OK, I already knew that)
When looking for a picture of the broken Sairey Gamp figurine (a Dickens character) I found pictures of 2 needlepoint projects of mine I do not think I have posted here yet. I had almost forgotten these, I have given both away as gifts.
These are very early needlepoints I did. This Log Cabin may be the second needlepoint I did after I began doing it again, after my 15 year break from needlepoint. It is not very well done but you can see the genesis of my color switching obsession here. These are not the colors the designer of this rather generic needlepoint canvas intended. I think the only color original to the design is the black and I now wish I had not kept that either.
This next one is the third or fourth one I did. It is, of course, a Kaffe Fasset design, an Erhman Kit. Erhman kits are not easy to do and I am surprised I managed this. They send you a raw edged canvas and a hunk of yarn, nothing else. No directions, no nothing.
I think I did well, I know Kaffe Fasset is a talented designer. This is his peony pillow with the red background (I think this was also offered with a white background, I am not sure).
And this is a real peony from a bunch I got for my birthday last year, from Keith.
I will be back to full tilt needlepointy soon.
2:14 AM, Moving Day
It is, as I note, 2:14 am moving day. I collapsed at 8Pm and slept till 1am, now I have to finish the kitchen.
For someone is a lousy cook I sure do have a lot of kitchen stuff.
Then I have to prowl the house, stuff the remaining unpacked articles in boxes. I ended up going to the UPS store for boxes twice yesterday. The nice girls who work there are laughing at me, I look worse each time I open their door.
Next time I mention moving, tie me up and beat me senseless, please (but nicely, of course)
I am really enjoying the discussions I seem to have got going in the last few days. I suppose it is not secret that I like doing this, getting people talking/ranting/thinking.
I will say it again, I love this blog. I get more pleasure from it and from your responses than you could imagine. if I could possibly make any money doing this, I would dump NewNeedlepoint.com, which I love and tend like a infant, and just do blogs all day.
Anyway, I am off-line now until the weekend. I will leave you with this, I think it is highly appropriate.
Bye, for now
Where I Compare Myself to Snow White
Wow, have I raised some ire. I am obviously hitting some nerves here. I think this is good, getting people (including myself) to think is a positive thing but I want to give you all a sampling of the response I have received to my last 2 blogs.
(Yes, I know comparing myself to Snow White is a reach)
This one is a comment sent to my recent blog “The Fancy Stitch Monster” on the subject to fancy stitches. I published this one:
Author : tintocktap (IP: 143.210.223.65 , host-223-65.ua.le.ac.uk)
E-mail : tintocktap@yahoo.co.uk
URL : http://tintocktap.blogspot.com
Whois : http://ws.arin.net/cgi-bin/whois.pl?queryinput=143.210.223.65
Comment:
Sorry – I completely disagree with what you say about decorative stitches. I’ve never bought a painted canvas, I don’t understand what a stitch guide is for and don’t know where I would find either in the UK. I prefer counted needlepoint and interesting thread patterns. A predominance of tent/basketweave would just put me off as plain boring. I mean, did you see what Coni did with Laura J Perin’s Daisy collage? (see http://spinsterstitcher.blogspot.com/2009/05/happy-daisy-dancing.html) This couldn’t have been achieved without the desire to experiment with different techniques (and I include experimenting with stitches in this). For me it’s the texture that each type of stitch adds that’s fascinating. Each to his own, of course, but I think you’re seriously underestimating people here.
And this was my response to it:
You are certainly free to disagree, isn’t that my point here? That we do not all have to *lock-step* down the decorative stitch path? While you may find *plain* stitching boring, I may think, given lovely colors and threads, that it is lovely and find many of the decorative stitches to be overly fussy and distracting. We should all be free to choose. I am pleased to know the “stitch guide” mania has not hit the UK. As far as me underestimating anyone, no. I think you are dead wrong there. Not liking fancy fussy stitches has nothing to do with my estimation of anyone or their abilities. You read WAY too much into this.
Then there was a mention on The Chilly Hollow Needlepoint Adventure Blog. This was the kind of response I had been hoping for. I just wanted to get people thinking.:
That led me to this lady’s blog. I read it carefully and appreciate what she said. (Almost) all viewpoints are valid and worth thinking about. This is from the Barbara Bergsten Designs Blog. I believe she *heard* me and I *heard* her.
The response that floored me was this one, it is a response sent to Barbara Bergsten’s Blog about what I wrote in my *Fancy Stitch Monster* blog 2 days ago.
I hope Ms. Bergsten and the writer “Leslie” will forgive me for copying and using this.
“I, too, read the original blog-post referenced on your blog tonight, Barbara.
But my experiences made me read it in an entirely different way.
After needlepointing for more than 35 years, I think I can safely make comments on what has changed in the field. Canvases have become more intricate, threads have expanded stitching possibilities and teachers have informed us of techniques. Enlarging our approach to a creative endeavor that is needlepoint is integral to an artist’s growth.
But, I’ve also experienced a not-so-subtle one-ups-man-ship in the field. A race to see who can use the most contorted stitches in the most number of ways using the most obscure threads………and woe to the stitcher who focuses on color, on texture and who (gasp) may choose to stitch a piece entirely in basketweave. This is one reason I left the gamesmanship played at my local ANG group.
For many years I was both student and teacher in the creative writing field. Let me assure you: the game is played there as well. Perhaps this is a dynamic found in the creative arts?
I don’t know. I do trust my experiences, and it was the same that I brought to reading the original blog-post.
I enjoy watching how you develop your canvases. Your posts encourage me to think about modifying my own canvases, if I choose. I enjoy the play of colors you indulge and your blog is one I’ve bookmarked for daily reading.
So, for whatever it’s worth, I offer another way of regarding the original poster on her blog. Truthfully, I laughed when I read it, saying to myself, well what do you know? Someone willing to speak up about this competition going on in our artistry.
Cheers!
Leslie”
Who ever you are Leslie, I thank you. I was beginning to wonder if maybe I was crazy, no one else seemed to have had the response to the current needlepoint scene I was having.
Then, in an effort to explain myself more clearly, to make sure anybody reading what I wrote understood that I was not attacking Decorative Stitches. I wrote an update, a clarification of my position.
I said that what I was looking for, hoping for was more attention given to the rock solid basic *plain* stitches we all depend on and not all the current talk, writing and designing just for *Fancy Stitches*.
I received this response this morning. It was sent as a comment to the Fancy Stitch Monster blog.
Author : Winsome (IP: 196.25.255.194 , wblv-ip-pcache-1-vif0.telkom-ipnet.co.za)
E-mail : mom@stuff.za.net
URL :
Whois : http://ws.arin.net/cgi-bin/whois.pl?queryinput=196.25.255.194
Comment:
“You obviously don’t suffer from Restless Leg Syndrome otherwise you wouldn’t be calling it an invented disease – it is very real and deprives people of sleep – it just took a while for the medical profession to recognise it as such. You’d better hope it never attacks you.”
YIKES!
I published that one too.
I think I will go pack the kitchen now, that ought to keep me busy and occupied for the rest of the day and stop me from obsessing on what, to my poor little paranoid inner child, feels like a curse. I think I am beginning to know how Snow White felt, poisoned apple et al.
Or maybe being chased by angry bees:
YES, I am being kind of, sort of, almost, funny. (enough disclaimers?)
Iconoclast, me
There has been a surprising amount of response to yesterday’s blog on decorative stitches.
The estimable Jane in her Chilly Hollow Needlepoint Adventure Blog mentions it.
As does someone whose blog I had not previously known about, but I will be sure to read now, Barbara Bergsten Designs
I guess I better expand on what I was ranting about yesterday. What set me off was a proposal to attract new stitchers to needlepoint by Ruth Schuff on her Not Your Grandmother’s Needlepoint Blog.
I objected to her centering all her ideas around the idea of a *walls & doors* needlepoint store, portioning out stitch guides and threads to new stitchers to not overwhelm them.
What I did not know when i wrote this is Ms. Schmuff owns a *walls and doors* needlepoint store. DOH! OK, so now I understand why her advice is skewed as it is.
I am afraid what I was saying was misunderstood by some (not all, I hope……..I can’t be that bad at communications, can I?) I am not attacking Decorative Stitches, per se. I am questioning the almost total attention they seem to be getting lately, in needlepoint articles, designs, discussions etc.
I too use Decorative Stitches. I am very fond of some of the wonderful filler stitches, that speed along a background and I make plentiful use of Slanted Gobelin for narrow borders and am dying to try leaf stitch (on a leaf, of course).
I will show some of the stitches I find wonderfully useful and not too difficult or confusing to do.
This is called the Bargello or Florentine Stitch
What I was trying to say was let’s also give their due to *plain stitches*, Tent Stitch, Basketweave and Continental are all wonderful basic stitches. They are like the overlooked orphans of needlepoint these days and I would like to see them more appreciated, more discussed.
Brick Stitch
In my own tilted opinion, it is as difficult to get a perfect, even tension basketweave stitch right as it is to master some of the decorative stitches being promoted everywhere.
Byzantine Stitch
I am hearing that some people find *plain stitching* boring, not compelling to see. I am asking if there are some of us who may sometimes find a canvas packed with a variety of decorative stitches to be too busy. It is like, sometimes, I find it hard to see the different elements in a picture or in a landscape or the selling floor of a department store if there are too many things, too many objects crowded all together. I find too much clutter or stimulus confusing.
Cashmere Stitch
I think needlepoint designers have somewhat lost touch with the beauty of simple, wonderful color, shape and effect. So many amazing colors out there, so many incredible threads, so much variety.
Diamond Stitch
Isn’t there room in the art of needlepoint for all of it? For every taste and viewpoint?
Gobelin Stitch (I like the diagonal one best)
As a side note. I know I only stock DMC #5 Pearle Cotton Floss and Paternayan Needlepoint wool at NewNeedlepoint.com
Milanese Stitch
Please keep in mind that I am a start-up business and I have made a substantial investment in the materials and canvases I stock for sale. I can’t afford to carry a larger variety of exotic threads and yarns yet.
Mosaic Stitch
My solution to this is my offering quite a few of my canvases for sale alone, not assembled in a kit. The fact of the matter is, I will sell any of my canvases alone, if asked. It is just too much darn work to do a dual listing for all of them.
Parisian Stitch
I have picked the ones I thought might have appeal as just a canvas, but again, any of them are available to stitch with your own thread choices.
Satin Stitch (which is very much like Gobelin)
I hope I have explained my position more clearly. I sometimes neglect to moderate my own writing, I just sit down here and let it go. And go it does. This stuff just pours out of me.
Scottish Stitch
So, If I offend you, forgive me, it is not my intention. (OK, sometimes it is my intention but I am being nice today, it won’t last)
Star Stitch (I have not been successful with this one yet..but I persist)
To finish I want to address what was discussed in the Rittenhouse Needlepoint Blog.
Needlepoint Now magazine is under new ownership. When I saw last months cover
I had a hissy fit and emailed the editor to air my disappointment and angst at what was considered appropriate for the cover.
I got a hurt reply from Elizabeth Bozievich explaining she was the new owner and that the cover I was complaining about was the last, the personal desire of the former editor.
Well, that information explained why I had been so disgruntled with the magazine and it’s outlook and contents for so long. She asked me to give her a chance, which I gladly did.
Yes, the magazine is somewhat better now but it still does not, IMO, reflect the interests and taste of many of us subscribers.
What I fear now is that with the new approach of regular contributors and sections of the magazine, we are going to descend into a closed -off *clubby* point of view. I sure hope not but from reading the current issue, I fear it might. Yes, the cover is better. Still not MY taste but better.
I suppose it is impossible to appeal to everyone, all the time. We are all individuals with our own points of view.
I have always been an iconoclast. Show me an idol, something admired by most and emulated by all, and I want to knock it down.
This alone explains quite a bit about why I am as I am.
