What to do with a hole ... or two ... or three ... - Part 1

The moment had finally arrived, I was ready to embroider on clothing for the first time.
The reason for that was simple. Let me tell you a bit about my life as an eternal non-fashionista who doesn't buy a lot of clothes.

I own the same cotton dress in six different colors with different necklines (and another color in rayon). It has everything I want and really makes me happy - empire style with A-line skirt, midi length, 3/4 sleeves, and pockets! And I got all of them on sale at different times.
They are my clothing workhorses meaning I have been wearing them at home pretty much exclusively for the last year (I got the first one more than two years ago and then went crazy with a sale last year, actually the only clothes I bought at all).
They are comfortable, they have pretty colors, and have I mentioned they have pockets (so perfect)?
Outside I have hardly ever worn dresses, one reason is that my feet had become very intolerant towards cute shoes years ago. So there I wear jeans with longshirts in A-line and with 3/4 sleeves which I also have in several colors.

I know that will sound incredibly boring to some of you, but for me it was great to have found the one design that really made me happy because it combined everything. Including pockets.
Of course that means those dresses get washed a lot and are also exposed to cat claws a lot.
Which to blame I don't always know - maybe it was even a vegan moth although I doubt it 😁 - but the tiny holes typical for that kind of jersey started appearing here and there.

Washing machine or cat claw -
we'll never know.

Gundel hates me putting something on her allergy spots (I'm glad it's not necessary often anymore, excuse me while I go knocking on wood violently).
Well, actually it's not so much the gel itself, she simply hates being picked up. Other than Meffi who used to turn into an catopus with a seemingly countless number of clawed tentacles windmilling around when I picked her up, Gundel's claws aim for the first thing to hook into, a cushion, a blanket ... my dress ... and of course it's impossible to get them back out of it because the more you try to help her, the more she will suspect attempted murder and hold on. Then she will take the next chance to escape ... and either dragging the pillow or blanket with her or put a hole in my dress as she can't take me with her (don't advise me to clip her claws, it makes no difference in such life-threatening situations (from her point of view), I know what I'm talking about).
In one case, she was lying on my chest, stretched, hooked in, and when I tried to get her claw out of my dress sleeve, she freaked for no reason, pulled and ran. That one became more of a slit than a hole.

Although I only wear the dresses at home, I of course don't change for accepting deliveries or taking down the trash or even sitting in the garden. So while the holes are mostly tiny and there are only one or two in a dress, it started bugging me and I wanted to do something about them.
I had never tried visible mending before, invisible mending was definitely out (tried it once on a t-shirt and wasn't impressed with myself), but of course I had a box full of embroidery thread.
Before you say something now, I'm aware that embroidery is not the best for clothing that goes through the washing machine all the time (no hand washing these big dresses) even if I use a mild detergent, a net, etc. That's part of the experimenting and I'm completely reckless and ready for repairs or even ripping out. That means of course that I don't plan to be doing super complicated designs. My hands would probably not be up to that, anyway.

My first experiment were some stars, I had found the instructions on the Instagram of pick.and.stitch. Mine are not perfect, far from it, but it was my first attempt on clothing, on a slightly flexible fabric, and because I'm very impatient sometimes, I didn't use a stabilizer for the back (didn't have any yet). Also it seems I suck at transferring patterns.
Instead of using six strands of the floss I did just four because I could use a smaller needle that way which went through the fabric a lot easier and without stretching it even more.

The hardest one was this one because it was so close to the seam. Yes, there was a hole there, I wouldn't have chosen that spot by myself because I knew this would not be a pretty star. I was right.

For one of them I used two colors because one color was wrapped around the paper of the other one and I thought why not. There are no rules.

I also added two to three extra stitches over the centers to attach the top threads. Washing, remember? I did the first wash without net and was positively surprised to see the stars didn't get destroyed right away, not even the biggest one.

Now that I have some stabilizer, I hope the stars will be more regular because I'm sure I will have to add more over time. Also the empty left hand side definitely needs another one right away.
Sorry I didn't manage a better picture, but with the wide skirt and with the stars being so far apart I couldn't do any better than throw the dress over a door and try to get them all in the picture.

I will share the other dresses piece by piece, but so far I have only started one which will take a bit longer and I don't have ideas for the other ones yet.
Hopefully, the cats won't try to assist me by making more holes and turning this into a Sisyphus task!

Nadine's private island

You may not know that I'm a huge fan of David Zinn. If you are on Facebook or Instagram, YouTube or TikTok, I'm quite sure you have come across his work before.

A little warning or apology now. I love David's art so much, but I don't know if I will be able to find the right words to explain that. Sometimes I'm full of words, but not the right ones come out. Please also keep in mind I'm not a native speaker. Both of that together may be leading to something that totally makes sense in my head, but not so much written down.

This is from David's website:
"Now, thanks to the temptations of a box of sidewalk chalk on an unusually sunny day, Mr. Zinn is known all over the world for the art he creates under his feet. David's temporary street drawings are composed entirely of chalk, charcoal and found objects, and are always improvised on location through a process known (to almost no one) as "ephemeral pareidolic anamorphosis."
According to his TEDx talk, this isn't what he calls capital A Art, but small a art.
It's art that doesn't last for long, art that requires you to look at it from a certain angle to get the picture right, art that is inspired by detecting a meaning or picture in something that originally has nothing to do with it, like seeing something in a cloud that makes sense to your mind, a cow or a car.

We all know the last one. I regularly see faces, dragon heads, and more in my bathroom tiles and it doesn't worry me as long as they don't start talking to me out loud.
What I have never done, however, is work with that pareidolia and use cracks, lines, chewing gum spots, leaves, bushes or metal covers in the street to create something funny, whimsical, heartwarming. I have made a few jewelry pieces that started as a kind of doodle, for example a piece of bent wire, and turned into something recognizable, but not that often. I play, but the results are mostly abstract.

David, however, is sharing a world of creatures with us - like Sluggo, the green monster with the stalk eyes, or Philomena, the flying pig, gnomes and trolls, bunnies and dinosaurs, dragons and hamsters. All of them are adorable, even the grumpy ones, often their fears and joys and quirks are very relatable, and sometimes I feel like wanting to hug or talk to a piece of street art. I know I'm not alone in this because although I try to follow my own advice to never read the comments on social media, there are posts where I know the comments won't be a dumpster on fire and they show how much these little creatures speak to people.

One of my regrets is that I will never see one in person. David shares not only his art in pictures, but also does videos of how his creatures come to life, and there are books, prints, calendars as well which is wonderful, but no matter how good a picture is, I don't think you get the exact same feeling from them.
Of course one point is the idea of stumbling upon it unexpectedly. In one of his books, David says that usually only a few dozen people get to see his original art, festivals or events obviously being an exception to that. That's no surprise if you see people running along without looking around them, myself included, no doubt (except for the running part, my walking slowly should give me a slightly better chance).
There was a time when I consciously looked up on my way home and noticed stained glass windows, initials on houses, even mosaics that I hadn't seen before. I don't think, however, that I look at the ground too consciously while walking but only if I'm sitting somewhere, and of course these days I don't get around much, anyway.
So how big would my chances be to even notice art that doesn't jump right out at me like a big wall full of graffiti, for example?
The other point is that in the pictures you mostly get the right angle from the start and you don't have to discover it yourself. Would I even recognize what I'm looking at?
Would I see Nadine?

Yes, we're finally getting to Nadine.
She is my all time favorite, a small mouse in a blue dress (here you can find just a few pictures of her). David calls her "a mouse of adventure".
Nadine makes friends without reservations, like cats, big frogs, sheep, Sluggo, and even dragons and the Chalk Ness Monster.
She likes adventure, but she also enjoys quiet and solitary times with a book or a nice cuppa.
She tends to plants, she uses a crystal ball, she dances, and she seems to be living very much in the moment, enjoying what she's doing.
I'm a grumpy old cat lady ... and I think I envy her a little for getting to be Nadine 😉

I couldn't get this picture of her out of my head from the first time I saw it.

"Nadine's Private Island"
With permission of David Zinn

This isn't the only time I have seen Nadine with a book, but this is a really private spot compared to the hammock or the tree.
Don't we all want our own private island sometimes? Especially nowadays? A spot where the world can't touch us at least for a little while? No phone (although my cell phone is hardly ever on, my landline is still going strong), no technology, no neighbors, no noisy cars, just us and a book. I hope there were no annoying boats coming by, but knowing Nadine she probably would have been ready for that, too.

Anyhow, I started getting this nagging feeling of a need and a challenge.
The need was wanting to turn this into fan art. The challenge was the decision what exactly to do and how and it wasn't that easy. In the end only embroidery seemed right.
So I grabbed a 9 cm embroidery hoop - as Nadine is a small mouse - and spent a few fun days embroidering.

My palm tree isn't quite as high and I couldn't fit the whole island on, but Nadine doesn't seem to mind.
The leaves were a bit of a problem at first because I had never tried stumpwork before and struggled with the small size. After four or five attempts I finally called defeat and went back to familiar terrain meaning I beaded the leaves instead (taking the artistic license of making them lighter in color because I didn't have enough dark green beads left).

Unfortunately my brass frames are a bit too small to work with the beaded leaves and my wooden frames are too dark for this scene.
I'll find something eventually.

When I was done in the middle of the night, I took a quick and not very good picture, and before I could start overthinking it as usual and chicken out, I sent an email to David asking him for permission to share this piece publicly.
Can you imagine how I felt when I got a reply the next day already? Of course I had hoped for one, but I wasn't sure at all and definitely didn't expect such a quick one. And as you can obviously tell from this post, it was a yes which really meant a lot to me.
To use David's words from the TEDx talk when he told the story of the earless Mickey, I was "childishly happy".

This is just for myself, a little reminder to try and perhaps be more like Nadine sometimes. I'll let you know how it goes 😉
Also I'm sure I will never not smile looking at her.

The cat

Happy New Year!
This is not a bad day for showing something fresh off the hoop.

The other day I was hanging out on my bed like so often - it's big and the perfect space for the cats and me, tools and supply boxes, books and remote controls.
Der Dekan is one clingy cat, so I usually have some kind of blanket on my legs, thin or thick, summer or winter, so the master can choose to sleep on my legs or on my feet or under the blanket snuggled up against my legs (which can be rather nice if it's cold because he's a veritable little hot-water bottle, just filled with kibbles instead of water, if it's too hot, he luckily stays next to me instead).
In this case, he was on the blanket sleeping like only he can, meaning his weight mysteriously tripled from one second to the next, so I was completely paralyzed. Yes, I know he's a spoilt brat, but I don't make the rules, I just work here.
I have never been a girl scout, but my motto for such situations is "Be prepared" which means that my embroidery box was next to me. I hadn't planned anything in particular, but seeing his cute little face, I grabbed my smallest embroidery hoop, one of my water-soluble pens, and whipped up a quick sketch, as well as I could, I'm not an artist.

That didn't mean I planned to make my kitty look like der Dekan, I'm definitely not there yet with my embroidery skills and don't know if I ever will be, but that doesn't really matter as I just enjoy the process.
Also I'm completely overwhelmed by all the colors cats have even if they are "just" black or tabby cats. Sometimes I find myself staring at my cats in wonder trying to determine which colors I'm seeing at the moment, depending on the light. Der Dekan mostly doesn't mind me poking each color I can see in his fur, going "boop, boop, boop" (if you think that is silly, be glad you don't know more).
I still don't know what base color he is exactly. Sometimes he looks brown, sometimes it's more of a grey.

One of the things I like to do when I start on something without a clear plan is to pick a bunch of colors from what I have around at that moment.
That doesn't mean my whole stash, but what I find in my current project box which is just a nice way to speak of the box I throw beads into because I'm too lazy to put them back right away. To justify that, I take it as a challenge to create with what I have.
Now my embroidery box is organized, but only because I don't have enough stash yet to start a second box, and that means I have a limited amount of colors, more brown than grey which settled the color of my cat.

Whenever der Dekan was sleeping on me again, I took a good look at him for inspiration and went to work on the piece on and off over a week.
As usual I see the flaws and shortcuts very clearly, but this is a journey of which I don't know where it's going to take me to, and at the moment I still embrace my flaws and allow myself shortcuts consciously. My experience is that if I want too much too quickly and fail with that, it can lead to WIPs (works in process) turning into forever UFOs (unfinished objects) - that's my definition - and I didn't want this one to become one of those.
Der Dekan, however, wants you to know that he has a much cuter nose, and I have to agree on that.

What really annoyed me that one spot of the yellow pen stubbornly refused to come out. The last time I used it, I had covered it completely and there was no need to wash it out, but not this time.
The only idea I could come up with was to add a bit of sparkle to the background which I had wanted to do anyway, only not in that particular spot. Don't tell anyone ;-)

I had ordered a few round frames, wooden ones - I used one for my "Guardian of the Woods" - and vintage brass ones. They have a little hole and hook at the bottom which confused me at first, but of course they are meant to be hung up in a row, with family pictures for example. That took me back in time 45 years, to my violin teacher's living room. I can't remember every detail of it, but I remember it feeling cozy and comfortable - even if I had never practiced enough - and a bit old-fashioned and plushy, with elegant wallpaper and miniature portraits. I always wondered if they were ancestors of hers, but never dared to ask.

I don't know if I will make something eventually that will work with the tabby for such a row of portraits.
For now I will have to think of something to make that hole a bit less noticeable. One idea is to paint the linen golden in that spot or glue on a bead or to put a hook in - the original one or a smaller one - and hang a charm on it, not that I would know at the moment what kind of charm could work. What do you think?

Guarding the woods

When I first saw this picture, I imagined myself going out of the house early in the morning to make my way to the train station, still half asleep.

There's a small street and a square between a school and its gymnasium I had to walk across every workday. They have about ten streetlights and those lights were on the blink sometimes, quite literally, they would start blinking, mostly just one or two which was okay, but once they went one after the other day by day until they were all blinking in some kind of silent code. Honestly, at 5 a.m. I'm getting weird ideas easily and it really was a weird sensation. That day, however, I finally remembered to report it online and the next day they were fixed.
Of course it hadn't helped that the little park next to it produced some even stranger shadows than usual thanks to it. I was lucky the lady, who took her Great Dane there without a leash for a while, wasn't there at the time. Can you say Hound of the Baskervilles? It really made me jump the first time I saw that dog coming out of the dark.

And now imagine what coming across something like this creepy "creature" unexpectedly could have done to my tired brain. I can see myself screaming and running for the hills, only I can't run and there are no hills there.

Nevertheless, I love that picture and think it's sad that, according to the web, this streetlamp in Warsaw has since lost its hair as the company on whose property it is standing deemed it as dangerous for pedestrians.

The picture has been on the web for a while and keeps turning up. The last time a friend of mine shared it, I thought that I would really like to capture it in some way. In the past, I would have tried to bead loom it, but I would probably not have been able to do the vines the way I wanted to. Bead embroidery was another possibility, but in the end hand embroidery felt like the best choice to me.

At the beginning, the plan was to more or less copy part of the picture on a rather small frame as a sample to see how long it would take and if a bigger version made sense. I did the outlines first and then the flowing vines around the body and the head, and that's when I felt the need to put at least a bit of my own touch on it. Making more hair turned it into a different kind of creature to me.
From there on it should have been pretty clear that this would not stay a sample because next were hours of filling up the outlines with loads of small stitches going in all directions for some texture.

I had left the face until last. Obviously I didn't want to change anything about the glow, after all this makes for the amazing effect. Again I contemplated different options, silver-lined beads, other beads, even sequins cut in shape, all because I wasn't confident I would be able to achieve the glowing effect with embroidery as I haven't practiced shading a lot yet.
In the end the playchild inside me that likes to try out things convinced me to give it a go after all. I picked six colors from my floss, winged it and was happier with it than expected.

Somehow the creature started to change in my mind and the post on the left looked wrong to me, instead I began seeing trees. My favorite trees have always been birches, we had some in the neighborhood when I was a child and they were so pretty.
I couldn't stop myself and added one tree after the other, and then I really didn't have an excuse not to fill up what little was left of the background. Well, and then the scene called for snowfall.

When I showed my friend the first bad picture of the finished piece, she said she loved "her" with a question mark next to "her". I replied I wasn't even sure myself about "she" or "he" yet and that I felt there was a story in this that unfortunately I'm not good enough to write.
Small details of other stories I knew kept going through my head when I was working on this, for example my favorite Christmas story from an anthology I got as a child. It plays in the woods and I love it so much that one year I actually typed it up to copy it (typewriter, that gives you an idea how long ago that was) and give it to my friends.
Those bits didn't add up to a story for my guardian yet - because that's the only thing I'm sure of, that this is a Guardian of the Woods from ancient times and a spiritual world.
I'm not going to push it, maybe she or he will tell me their story eventually even if I won't be able to put it in words, but just see it before my mind's eye. Maybe I'll see something in one of my crazy dreams.

Anyway, I'm really happy with my new friend.
There's not going to be a bigger one, not only because it would probably take me forever, but also because the story can't be repeated.
I ordered a simple frame for it now and can't wait to get to get it on my wall (as far away from dem Dekan as possible!).
I couldn't resist showing it to you already, though.

Found another one!

I'm getting good at this cryptid hunting!
Can you believe that I just took a little walk in the woods and there he was? I didn't even know there were Bigfoots in German woods!
Unfortunately I didn't have my camera on me, so I just had to run home real quickly and embroider the moment he walked away from me as long as the image was still fresh in my mind.
Okay, you got me there. The idea of me running is more than ridiculous, and actually I have never heard of a Bigfoot in Germany, either.

The last part is true, however, I embroidered the moment, let's say, he could have walked away from me, disappearing between the trees of the "Oberholz", our local forest.

Do you have a feeling I'm having too much fun with my embroidery? Not serious enough?
Just you wait for my next project that I have planned for my vacation. Although I'm not sure at all that it's going to be working out the way I'm imagining it now, I'm really looking forward to give it a try.
Of course there is also the very serious whiteworking class which I saved for the vacation.

Then there is this one - could it be the paw of a cryptid cat? ;-)
Oh yes, there are cryptid felines as well ... hmm .... where is my list of ideas ...

Sparkle heart

Some weeks ago, I explained why my blog suddenly seems to be all hand embroidery (my arthritic thumb joint), but also talked about having a plan for bead embroidery.
Now I'm back with the first piece resulting from this plan, but you wouldn't even notice without my saying it because it's just a tad different from my previous pieces.

In the blog post about how my thumb influences my work at the moment, I also mentioned getting myself an embroidery set with a second stand and exchangeable hoops in different sizes.
This made me wonder why I didn't just do my bead embroidery pieces like that, too?
I glued my cabochons on like always, then I put some thinner fabric in the hoop and sewed through both the fabric and my embroidery foundation when making the bezel for the cabs.
Making pendants has always been my favorite and the smallest hoop I can use with the stand isn't that small, so the plan was to work on two pendants and then cut them off together to finish them.
You know what? That actually worked rather well and although it didn't mean my thumb joint could rest completely, I avoided at least some of the movements it hates. Now I would just have to see if the fabric would be thin enough not to mess up my edging.
Spoiler alert - it was.
I'm sure the idea isn't new, I didn't look it up before trying it out, but all that counts for me is that it works.

Here's the first pendant which I have finished now, my muse is still thinking about the other one.
I didn't use a cabochon for this one, but a marble heart. It's really smooth but not shiny and still has kind of a raw, unpolished look to it which I wanted to counterbalance with a smooth look for the bezel, with a dark sparkle for the edge as opposed to the subtle light sparkle of the marble (which doesn't show too well in the pictures).
For the bezel I chose grey seed beads with a light shimmer of gold, blue-grey Delicas for contrast, and a row of tiny silver seed beads, the edging is from black crystals, also with a shimmer of gold, in combination with real hematite rounds and matching seed beads.

This pendant is off. You might not even notice right away if you just give it a quick glance, but if you look closer, you see it.
The stone is asymmetrical and I didn't try to hide that.
So the bezel is asymmetrical as well and also the crystal edge. I had to place the bail so that the pendant would still hang right and the two beads at the top - a button bead and a faceted moonstone - only sit kind of in the center.
The back is a real surprise in its bright berry color. Turned like this, you can also see the asymmetry very clearly.

Well, aren't we all a little "off"? One eye bigger than the other one, one ear a bit higher, one foot larger, or what else there can be, and sometimes there's a surprise on the back ;-)
I hadn't planned it that way from the start, by the way, it just happened by following the stone with the beads, but the more I worked on it, the more I thought that I finally seemed to be embracing assymetry, something I have always been struggling with very much, but haven't given up on. I find it's easier going completely wild with freeform.
Does it still make me a little nervous? It sure does, but I like the idea of someone wondering what is different about this piece and finding out step by step and maybe embracing it, too.

Now I need to find the next step for the other "hoop" piece, so I can finish it.
There's a nagging feeling that I have painted myself into a corner with that one, but miracles happen, so I'm not going to give up hope just yet.

Nessie sighting!

When my brother was still small, he had three books he absolutely loved. I can't even say how often we had to look at them. They were about UFOs, ghosts, and monsters - and the last one was his #1 favorite.
That was fine by me because I have been just as fascinated myself since childhood.

My favorite cryptid is Nessie. I love the thought of her swimming and hiding in that beautiful loch and I wanted to see Loch Ness so badly for so long.
In 2009, I finally got the chance. The ex and I went to Edinburgh and it was clear one day would be reserved for a day trip to Loch Ness. It was gorgeous and it still makes me smile to think of that day, but also a little sad because I'm pretty sure I won't be able to get back there again. If you want to read a little about the day and see pictures, you are welcome to check out "Edinburgh Day 2".

I'm sure we would have seen Nessie that day if there hadn't been so many people! ;-)

Well, if Nessie didn't want to come to me then, I just had to make her come to me now. Embroidery to the rescue! :-D
See, she does exist!

P.S. Never embroider if you are upset, though. Here in Germany we also say "einen dicken Hals kriegen" (get a fat neck) if we are upset and I think that has translated to Nessie just a tad ;-)

A beak shining bright

Seems the invisible beak of the last one was traumatic for me and I just couldn't get over it ... I had to make another chicken, but as a pendant this time.
I still underestimate every time how long a piece like that will be taking me, especially since I only use one or two strands of floss and make quite tiny stitches. That may be something I will have to work on eventually.

Why this feathered lady would want to have a nest in the middle of a meadow, you want to know? I have no idea.
First came the hen sitting in the grass and then it somehow felt right to give her a nest. Maybe my subconscious wanted to avoid having to stitch legs?
Or maybe this little scene is a flashback to childhood memories? There is a one particular wild meadow that comes up in my mind when I see or make something like this.

The bees are obviously after the flowers. They were flies at first, but then that looked a bit annoying to me, so I added the stripes.
Those flowers must be delicious or there wouldn't be as many of them!

And of course the lady has a beak shining as bright as the sun. Not invisible at all! ;-)

The hen and the egg

A few weeks ago, we visited the local pottery "Töpferei auf dem Jackenhof" where I also got my happy yellow mugs last year (and yes, I still love them so much and use them all the time). Although I was just the company this time, I couldn't resist to get at least a little something, in this case a small vase in a beautiful blue and shaped like an egg with a broken off top.
I showed a picture because I have friends who also love pottery and one of them said she wondered what hatched from it.
Now I found out! It's a little surprising, though, I had expected something bigger ...

Whenever I'm learning a new technique, my goal is to try and combine it with my previous techniques.
Obviously bead embroidery is the easiest one to mix with hand embroidery. Just throw some extra beads on there, right?
Like so many of my pieces, this tiny hen was completely unplanned. I had a small piece of linen and wondered if I would like working without a frame. The inspiration to make a hen came from a cartoon I had seen shortly before.

Of course there are things I would do differently now. I would have planned in to pad the hen, so the silver edging wouldn't sit on the top even if they are size 15 beads. I would not have used the thicker felt to stabilize the linen and my hen would have got a beak that's more visible. My only excuse for making it ecru is that it was late at night and I just grabbed something without thinking.
After all this was just meant as a small experimental piece originally, I hadn't even thought it would come this far.

I definitely learned something from it. Maybe I'll find a pin small enough to put on the back and pin my hen to the collar of my denim jacket. Or maybe you have an idea?

Splints

It's a bit weird that I strain my thumb joint working on something that is supposed to be helping my thumb joint, I know. Actually, however, it started to feel a bit better most of the time and I took enough breaks to not make it any worse. Maybe I'm learning after all, who knows?

I'm talking about the splints I got. I don't like wearing them, but if I have to wear them at night, they might as well look nice ... because who's asleep at night. Maybe it's just the feeling they are different.
It's funny, I chose black ones because they are the least flashy and then I suddenly decide they need some color, a lot of it.

I just learned fly stitch, but you can't see much of it here as I had so many shorter floss leftovers and couldn't stop myself. I wish I could grow flowers like that for real 😉
At the time I hadn't planned to embroider the strap as well or I would have tried to make it match a bit better.
The length of the strap obviously asked for some kind of vines or rambling roses, though, (even if they are rambling sideways), and still being obsessed with French knots and having acquainted myself with the feather stitch as well, the roses sounded perfect.
These actually used up all the colorful leftovers I had so far - you have to keep in mind I only just began this journey quite recently - and thus my Swabian heart was very happy 😂

I definitely wanted something different for the second splint, though, and since the splints are not specifically for the right and left hand, the strap on the right hand is mostly on my palm, so I had to come up with something that would work with the other side. Of course I can still embroider the second side of each splint if I should ever feel the urge for it.

Are you surprised that my mind went to cats right away? It's possible that des Dekan's funny little bunny feet were an additional inspiration.

What do we love about cat feet? Beans!

It was a good thing that I gave the one on the left a few black spots because that way it wasn't a problem to give it two more - after poking my finger with the needle for the third time without noticing before I had already bled on the paw!
Can you believe I actually wondered why there were two different pinks (the red had lightened to a dark pink on the floss) on the paw? 😂

Then I needed something for the part of the strap that's showing - another cat of course!
That one was really tough to do, especially the parts where I stitched over stitches over difficult background, so she's by no means perfect, but it was good practice and I think she's still rather cute.
If you wonder why the eyes are a bit shifty, sigh, what can I say - more blood I had to hide, but this time I pretty much ran out of the dark grey floss of which I only had half the usual length. I like to think kitty is winking at me.

I'll let you know if I ever do something to the other sides, but I have to admit that it was tough as this isn't exactly an easy surface to embroider onto, so I don't see myself doing it very soon if at all. There were all the little black bits sticking up, some parts were padded too thickly to even get through at all, some were a bit hard to get to or I could only get through using pliers.
Also there are so many other things to do!

The thumb and I

More embroidery?
You may wonder if that is a new craft/hobby frenzy. It wouldn't be unusual to go wild with a new technique that you have just discovered for yourself. I'm no exception although I have always tried to keep it mixed up, but it's hard not to succumb the excitement and adventure of new experiments ;-)

There is another reason for this flood of embroidery, however.
I have rhizarthrosis in both thumb joints, not that bad yet in the right one, but the left one has really been acting up for a while now. I'm right handed, but my left hand has to do a lot of the grabbing, holding and keeping tension which seems to be the harder part.
That meant more breaks, much shorter crafting sessions, days completely without crafting, and some things are right out at the moment, wire for example, and even beading makes my thumb move in the wrong way. It's frustrating and my friends are probably sick of my whining by now.
I haven't tried out yet how well bead looming will be working for me right now, but I have a plan for bead embroidery - well, and then there's the hand embroidery.

I quickly found out that holding my hoop is a bad idea, actually that's what started my thumb being angry at me. I know I should have taken more breaks a long time ago, but it's really hard for me to stop myself once I'm going.
When I purchased my course for the silk shading flower, though, it said I needed a stand for being able to use both hands freely, and that made a big difference.

It doesn't mean that I can have as long sessions as I used to, it also doesn't mean there isn't any pain at all, but there's no doubt, hand embroidery is the easiest technique for me to do at the moment.
So I got myself a second stand with different sizes of exchangeable hoops and used the smallest of them to make several pendants which couldn't be more different from one another.

1. At my jewelry forum, the Jewelry Artisans Community, we currently have a challenge with the topic "Music" going and I made a happy little musical pendant for it. Don't try to sing the tune ;-)

2. This was an experiment that came from a different idea that is still lingering in the back of my head.
I'm getting abstract 60s vibes from it which is helped by the shape, and I have to say it was fun making it as I could just let loose.

3. Yeah, not a big surprise here. We all knew there would be at least one cat pretty quickly during my embroidery journey, I just didn't know it would become kind of a caricature until I couldn't resist making really big eyes.

4. The last pendant has a backstory.
I have mentioned before that I live in Göppingen which is situated at the bottom of the Hohenstaufen, one of the "Drei Kaiserberge" (literally translating to "Three Emperor Mountains"), together with the Rechberg and Stuifen.
They get their name from the Hohenstaufen dynasty - the "Staufer" - of which Frederick Barbarossa is probably the most famous. They had a castle on the Hohenstaufen, but there is only very little of the foundation walls left (it is said that the city castle of Göppingen was partially built from stones from the castle ruins).
This is my hommage to our mountains and their long history.
Of course they don't lie that close together in reality (pictures under the link above) as in our city logo ...

... or in my pendant.

So yeah, I guess you will have to put up with more embroidery in the near future.
I will not drop the wire and the beads, though, and hope ice packs, splints, and more rest will be able to help me with that!

The mysterious decorator

I wonder who decorated this tree in the winter forest? We might find out if we followed the footprints in the snow, but sometimes a mystery is quite nice, isn't it?

Yes, I know it's early, but I got my metallic threads and just had to try them out on something!

Organizing

I'm not a natural organizer. I have storage boxes, but items tend to mysteriously move to temporary boxes, to drawers, to my nightstand - it is normal to have wire spools on your nightstand, isn't it? - my "working box" and to several parallel universes, no doubt.

When I started embroidery, I kept my newly acquired stash in the envelopes and/or boxes it arrived in because I had no idea yet what to put where and how.
Luckily the Royal School of Needlework sends their kits in big boxes with compartments!

So after I had finished my first kit, the box was empty and ready to get filled up with all my stash.
I really hadn't expected that the floss lot I had bought would take up that much space, I just managed to fit it in and this is about three or four layers high.
For now, there's not much left that there wasn't space for, and once I will have finished my second kit, another box will be waiting to get filled up.

Can someone help me do the same with my wires now? ;-)

Lavender

Of course jewelry had been on my list since I tried my hand at hand embroidery for the first time. I was aware that it would be different from working on a larger project because the space is really limited, but when I got my first bezels, I found it was even more difficult to come up with a design of my own that fit the space.

I began with a small silk shading flower, but too many petals meant too much width.
Next I started a little fern, but I'm not sure about that one yet, it's a bit boring and I won't be able to fit in much more, so it's still in the stars if it's going to be finished.

Then I stumbled upon a picture of lavender. Long stalks with loads of small blossoms sounded perfect and there were at least three kinds of purple in my floss stash (which I only organized today asking myself why on Earth I thought I needed that floss lot, but I sure have a lot of green now - ferns for everyone! ;-)).

I really had fun and got wild with French knots (which I already love) and bullion knots (which I don't love that much yet, but think that's a matter of practice), added some brown specks here and there, and then it just needed a bit of a color pop on this neutral background - a bee, what else?

I think it's cute for a first own little design and am definitely looking forward to play some more.

Silk shading flower

Silk shading, thread painting, needle painting - these are all different names for one embroidery technique.
I had seen it more than once before and thought it was really beautiful, but it had never been on my want list.
When I decided I really wanted to give embroidery a try, it was because I had totally been hooked by gorgeous goldwork which is probably not too surprising for a jewelry maker.
I had no high expectations about my own skills, so it took me very long to jump into the cold water, but I finally ordered my favorite kit by Becky Hogg - the little fox (if you haven't seen the blog post, it's here). It sure challenged me and even more my hands, but much to my own surprise it didn't put me off embroidering.
Actually I had just ordered the kit and already knew I would treat myself to the self-paced online course "Introduction to Goldwork" offered by the Royal School of Needlework eventually and bookmarked it, but when I was ready to purchase it, it was not available due to supply shortage and I had to pick another course.
There are 16 courses and I really had a hard time choosing one that I felt confident enough about. In the end I chose silk shading, which I wasn't confident about at all, because I liked the design best (although I was aware I might not like the look of mine that much).

Next I got myself a free-hand embroidery stand and some bias band to bind my hoop.
When the RSN parcel arrived, however, I was very reluctant about starting the kit. I had watched the first video a few times already and had even started to do some sampling for practice. The kit looked so much more intidimating to me, though. What had I been thinking?

It took me two months to complete this project. Seven weeks were dedicated to three petals and the leaf - I needed a lot of long breaks - and in the last week I had become more comfortable with the process and finished the last five petals, the stem and center.

I learned a few things during it, not all of them embroidery technique related.

1. While Gundel is usually fine to watch from afar, der Dekan is determined to get to the embroidery floss and he would gladly try to grab the thread I'm working with at the moment and pull (don't ask how I know). Thankfully he calmed down eventually and after discussing his wishes and mine whenever I started a session ("No! No! You can't have it, Dekan. Don't even think about ... Dekan, go away, I'm holding a needle! Stop that! You don't want to go the vet, do you?"), he usually was distracted by a snack and then went to wreak havoc elsewhere or take a nap.

2. I have absolutely no mind for directions and although I absolutely understood the stitch and color diagrams in theory, I had problems to translate that to my stitching. To be honest, I think it has a lot to do with my being so used to working without a plan (except in bead looming) and follow my guts rather than my head. Which wasn't bad for most of it, but I didn't like my second petal much, and to save the look I made the last petal bigger than designed before then ripping out the unloved petal after all.
Actually I'm fine with that, but it's also typical for me - drawing outside the lines ;-)

3. I like finishing embroidery, but I still haven't put up my fox and I'm completely clueless how to frame the flower.

4. I'm as hard on my embroidery needles as on my beading needles.

5. "You're gonna need a bigger boat ... erm, embroidery hoop." Actually I'm going to need more hoop sizes, I think, but I'm trying not to go nuts now and buy supplies like crazy, as tempting as that thought is, also ...

5.1. ... I hate Brexit because so many of the supplies are much more readily available in the UK, but custom fees and taxes add up quite quickly. Yes, it is a very selfish reason.

6. Bullion knots and I are not good friends yet, but I love French knots, both seeing and stitching them, in fact that was one of the first stitches I consciously noticed when seeing embroidery pieces.

6. I really loved the self-paced course. I watched the videos in full more than once and sometimes I just went to a spot to remind me of something. Kate Barlow is a wonderful tutor who explains and shows everything very clearly.
I often say I'm not good with tutorials as I'm too impatient and that's true, so it was a bit of a surprise for me that I pulled this through and I also credit Kate's tutoring for that.

There is probably more, but you have suffered enough already, so I'm finally going to show you my flower and not point out the flaws because I'm really happy with it!

Creative energy

Wow, it has been a while again, but that actually fits today's topic quite well.

My creative energy tank had been not empty for some time, but locked, you could say.
I always have a list of ideas in my head some of which have been around for months or even longer, and I kept adding new ones.
That isn't new, I have always done that and my guess is that 90 % of them never got realized, either because I forget them again very quickly (as I usually don't write them down) or because something new caught my attention (oooh shiny) or because I couldn't figure out quickly how to do it (I can experiment forever once I get hooked, but I can also abandon stuff very quickly before even starting on it) or because they ended up in the infamous WIP drawer (which is actually the code word for drawers or cabinets all over my place).

For quite a while, though, I had absolutely no motivation or energy to get started on anything. At night, I would be lying in my bed and work out all kinds of fantastic stuff that would have revolutionized the craft world, no doubt ;-)
The next day, I would aimlessly click through websites or change TV channels and think I should really get started on something now, but couldn't get myself to do it most of the time.
It's not that I didn't make anything at all, and once I got into that almost meditative state, I would keep going, but it was still a far cry from how I used to work and I had no idea what was going on and really let it bring me down at times.

Maybe I should have realized earlier that it was kind of a jewelry burnout. I guess I was so used to making jewelry that I didn't even notice that not only did it not make me happy at the time, but it also squashed my urge to make anything else because I felt I needed to come up with new designs instead.
A generous portion of Weltschmerz on top of that didn't help.

So I decided to leave one of my very active sale groups, which sadly had not been successful for me for too long, to take some pressure off and do something for myself that had been on my list for almost 1 1/2 years! I'm planning an extra blog post for that because I want to take some detail pictures first.
Then of course there was something completely new on my list as well which I'd like to tell you about.

I have been intrigued by other crafts for a long time. I like to watch videos on pottery, sewing, weaving, and more, but two crafts really caught my interest - spinning and embroidery.
Now I had/have friends who spin - not nearby unfortunately - but I never thought I would want to give it a try and now I'm still struggling with a beginner's drop spindle after weeks without producing more than about five inch of usable yarn. I'm beginning to think that should have been a sign, but hey, der Dekan thoroughly enjoys helping and has fun! Not that it makes things any easier. I'm not giving up yet, though.

Hand embroidery is a different topic.
In elementary school we had what you could maybe call a stitch booklet. It wasn't a sampler, from what I remember it really looked like a little booklet and each page was for practising one particular stitch. I was absolutely terrible at it, maybe not unusual for a 6 or 7 year old, but on the other hand my school experiences made me think for a long time that I wasn't good at any kind of craft.
My second experience with embroidery came after being at a yarn shop - with about 17, I had discovered knitting for myself in my early 20s, way later than all the others in my circle - and not being able to resist a lovely tablecloth kit with little violets. 1 1/2 violets was my limit, my sister finally finished it.
That's it. I never touched embroidery yarn again. Then, many, many years later, I discovered metal threads on a British website - oooh shiny - while looking for a particular calendar, and even later a friend made a kit from RSN tutor Becky Hogg which I fell in love with, a little goldwork fox. It took me a long time to do the jump and order the kit myself, and then it took me even longer to start on it. I can't say how often I opened up that box, admiring the metal threads, but being too wimpy to give it a go.
A few months ago then, Deana from vuvu_ceramics wrote something in an Instagram post of hers that really gave me the kick I needed. I can't remember the exact words, but it was about just giving things a go and enjoy them, no matter how they turn out. I've heard that before, but the way she said it ... I can't tell you why, but I commented that I had a hard time with a kit I got because I was afraid messing it up, and then Lauren (Confesstress) chimed in with encouraging words and some help ... well, I actually started working on my kit.
I won't lie, it was hard. I had never heard of couching and punching threads and cutwork and purl and passing and all that. Also I hadn't expected my hands to hurt that much, but holding the embroidery ring and trying to shape the metal threads to sew them down at the same time was tough on them. I had to force myself to take breaks although I didn't always want to, being so determined to not let this become a WIP.
And I finished it. Is it perfect? Heavens, no. It has flaws and flaws and flaws which I'm not going to list (you can see them, anyway). But I finished it and was happier than I had even expected. Take that, stitch booklet!!
Actually there was one flaw that I felt I needed to hide, so instead of leaving the face without embroidery as intended, I added white seed beads in two sizes to it, so now my fox is squinting a little, probably surprised to finally see the light of day.
At first, I wanted to give Foxy some grass and flowers to sit in, in beads or in an ambitious attempt to use more embroidery stitches that I didn't really know (although someone who shall stay unnamed may have bought a lot of randomly chosen thread colors), but after coming so far I really didn't want to mess the fabric up.
So instead - and I really hope Becky will forgive me for changing the design, even if it's not a lot - I sprinkled small and tiny golden seed beads all around Foxy randomly. I guess I can't do without beads, also I love to combine techniques.

And here's Foxy now.
If you made it up to here, thank you very much for your patience!

These two pictures were taken under my daylight lamps, but look how beautiful Foxy is in warm light!