The Wisdom I’ve Gained From Hand Stitching
In 2015 or was it 2016(?) things were in flux. I was re-evaluating what I was doing, where I was headed, what I wanted… Â There were a number of things going on that led to this, but it was one of those moments that didn’t seem particularly extraordinary or even interesting, but in hindsight I see that it was a pivotal moment. A moment when I re-found hand stitching.
My mother taught me to embroider with crewel and a hoop at an early age. This is the Christmas creche we made together. It was while making one of those sheep that I came to truly appreciate the diversity and beauty of the simple French Knot done hundreds of times.
Since then I have gone down many paths, but the hand stitching path is perhaps the most surprising, to me. Â While at Parsons School of Design I would do anything I could to avoid hand stitching. And then I discovered draping and for a time it was my new love. Â Draping is a whole art in and of itself. Â Cutting fabric on the bias and then draping it onto a form and manipulating it so the fabric falls in specific ways was something I loved, but it was also time consuming and I was young and impatient and so my love for draping was set aside.
Funnily enough when I moved to Los Angeles straight out of high school and before I went to Parsons my first job was in a tailor’s shop in Beverly Hills. Â My favorite thing to do was to sit in the back room with the master tailor, an Armenian man who tried to teach me the fine art of tailoring. Â Hand stitching hemlines and buttonholes was something I never quite mastered during my time there, but I loved it never-the-less.
Hand stitching can be slow and arduous and very, very time consuming, and it can also be meditative, serene, calming and restorative, depending on one’s perspective. Â These days I find hand stitching to be all of the latter and none of the former.
When I began hand stitching again I followed other people’s patterns and instructions and while that was interesting and I learned a great deal, it wasn’t completely fulfilling. I have always gone off script and the farther I go, the happier I am. Â So when I began doing what I call “Improvisational Stitching” I knew I’d fallen into something important. Â Not only was I creating original pieces that didn’t look like other things I was seeing out in the hand stitching world, but it was an expression of my moods, my thoughts, the things that were going on in my life. Â Hand stitching is the way I express myself.
A few things I’ve learned through hand stitching, which can be applied to the piece I’m working on, but also to life:
- Any emotion is fair game and can be expressed through stitching.
- Any emotion is okay and when expressed through stitching creates a vibrant, interesting piece.
- Impatience is a frame of mind and a choice.
- When I don’t know what to do, stand back, take a photo and get a new perspective on the situation.
- Compare and despair.
- Everything has its own timeline.
- Divas can be fun, but they also can silence everyone else.
- Diversity makes anything and everything better.
- Rules are helpful, until they’re not, in which case, break them or ignore them.
- Explore!
- Be curious!
- Engage and show up for the work.
- Don’t squelch what makes you unique.
- Be courageous!
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