I don’t know about you, but I absolutely love making Dorset Buttons. And like so many things that I fall in love with, I went head first down the Dorset Button Rabbit Hole and have yet to reemerge! So much so that I just taped and uploaded another Dorset Button video, which will be premiering later today.
Last summer I made my first Dorset Button video, but this winter I decided to make another, slowed down version, and then did another that is a deep dive into the dorset button and variations to it. That video is available to all my patrons who are on my Patreon page. It covers: how to secure your dorset button once you’ve created one. What to do if your thread runs out in the middle of making one, how to make all of the variations shown above, like the tree and creating stitches on the outer rim and using different threads and thread weights. So much fun!
The Dorset Button popular in the 1600’s was replaced by machine made and mass produced buttons in the 1800’s. However many of us who love to hand stitch also love the dorset button. It is not only a fully functioning button, it is also decorative and therefore can be used in a variety of ways. For my mother’s Making Waves: A Drawstring Bag (which I just sent to her yesterday) I used almost a dozen dorset buttons to embellish it. I love how it turned out, and hope she will too.
For my next design, I’ve been playing around with lots of different ideas and one of those ideas is how to use the largest plastic rings I have with some variation of the Dorset Button. I haven’t figured it out yet, but I’m going to keep playing and see what I come up with.
In the meantime, here are a few more close ups of some Dorset Buttons I’ve made in the last few weeks.
When I was in my twenties I had a brief moment when I was an “actor”. Being an actor is kind of a prerequisite to living in New York City as a young person. Of course that meant that I was also in the restaurant business. How else can one support an acting career if you aren’t also working a job with flexile hours that both allows you to pay your rent and go to auditions during the day? Exactly. Actors in New York City are a dime a dozen, as they say.
Acting Head Shot
One audition I went on was for hand soap or maybe it was hand lotion, I actually can no longer remember. I had to stand and gesture, while the camera was trained on my hands. It was during that audition that I was told I had prominent veins, something I was not aware of until that moment. So I would hold my hands above my head and when the camera began to roll I would put them down and do whatever it was that I was supposed to do, hoping beyond hope that my veins would behave themselves. Needless to say, I didn’t get the job.
Now I work with my hands all the time and being vascular is not a hindrance, thankfully. However because I am often demonstrating something to do with stitching for my YouTube channel, I am painfully aware (usually after the fact) that the blueberries I was cooking with or the Caran d’Ache pastels I used to dye an old t-shirt have stained my fingers strange and unnatural colors. Sometimes I’ll notice that a cuticle needs to be trimmed or I wonder if that arthritic lump on my left index finger is getting bigger or I become painfully aware of the lead that is embedded into the skin on the tip of my right index finger from that time I jabbed a pencil into my finger by mistake. These are the kinds of things that I now see, but wish I didn’t. Still, it’s important to know one’s priorities and well manicured, beautifully kept hands and fingernails is not something I’ve ever felt I had time for. I work with my hands too much to make that practical, but even so, I do my best.
Remnants of a pencil embedded in the pad of my index finger
I’m grateful that hand modeling career never took off, as I would surely be out of work now. It’s important to find gratitude where one can. ❤️
Before COVID hit I would begin the day by going to the gym, riding a stationary bike for 30 – 45 minutes, perhaps taking a 45 minute high intensity workout class before heading home. So when the gym closed I figured I’d landed on a “free space” meaning I’d start my exercise routine again once all of this was over. Most of us didn’t really anticipate that a year later we’d still be in that “free space”, which for someone like me was a welcome relief. Until now. Now I’m feeling increasingly guilty for counting as “exercise” walking to the elevator and getting our mail. So back in December I downloaded an exercise app because now that I’m in my sixties, exercise is less about wanting to and more about health and balance. So yes, I downloaded the app with high hopes and then promptly forgot that I’d done so. It was one of those “7 minute” workout apps. At the time, I thought – seven minutes? Who can rationalize out of doing that?!
Me. As it turns out.
This morning I decided to go see what Youtube had to say on the topic of exercise during these bizarre times, and I found this.
And then I ran across this old chestnut, which I’m pretty sure I’ve posted before, but in case I haven’t, here you go. Enjoy. I don’t know about you, but my life looks an awful lot like it did when we were in lockdown. I rarely leave the house. I’m more paranoid about catching COVID now than I was at the height of the pandemic. And now a variant, that they are saying may be resistant to the vaccines, has hit New York City and so I’m completely freaking out. Dancing around the house to music videos is as good as my current exercise routine is going to get. Still, I hold out hope that at some point I’ll take it all more seriously. Maybe I’ll try one of those 7 minute exercise workouts after I finish writing this. Or not.
I’m pleased to report, however, that my hands and fingers are as nimble and dexterous as ever, thanks to my daily hand stitching, um… workouts!
Later today, at 2pm (EST) my Threaded Backstitch and Double Threaded Backstitch Youtube video is premiering, so join me and we can chat as it plays! Remember, it won’t be available to play until 2pm today. And in the meantime maybe I’ll work in some squats and push ups. I’m not making any promises though.
I wanted to write this post on Saturday, February 20th, because that was exactly one year ago when I launched my first video for my Youtube Channel, Ariane Zurcher ~ On the Other Hand!
Here it is! My first On the Other Hand video.
Since that day, just over one year ago today, I have made and posted 248 videos! Yesterday I did a livestream, where I’m obviously feeling quite a bit more comfortable filming and posting. I went from having 0 subscribers to 3,865 subscribers as of yesterday. I say this not to brag, but more as a mark of where I began with YouTube and where I am now. Because in this crazy time of the pandemic, when everything can feel really, really off and sad, I also want to remember some good, which means honoring my own personal little milestones.
Here in the United States we hit more than half a million dead from COVID19. It’s a grim reminder of the perilous and tragic times we find ourselves in; a time when so many of us have been unable to see those we love, whether that’s our aging parents or young grandchildren. It’s been a period marked by disconnect and fear and worry and yet, we have also made different kinds of connections. Zoom calls and classes have taken off. Who would have thought any of us would know our way around a Zoom meeting?!
Personally this has been a year of massive and intense learning. When I began my Youtube Channel I had no idea how to upload videos, make thumbnails, do livestreams or premiere a video. I also taught myself how to create a design from paper sketch, to computer, to downloadable PDF file, write instructions, and in the last 12 months I’ve posted 8 new designs in my Etsy Shop, conducted an 8-week Zoom Workshop, with another one in the planning stages, created a Facebook Group: Ariane Zurcher Stitching Circle (which has 1.2 thousand members) and a Patreon page!
And along the way I began to explore what I call Improvisational Stitching.
Olea: The first of my “improvisational” pieces.Perseverence
This has been the most intense year, both incredibly sad and scary globally, as well as exhilarating and exciting on a personal level. It’s been both. I have met thousands of new people from all over the world and for that I’m so, so grateful.
So, to all of you who’ve joined me during this truly bizarre time, thank you. Let’s keep laughing and stitching! ❤️
Seriously, is this one of the most hilarious things ever? Merlin is SO clever!
You may not notice because Merlin is so captivating, but if you look beyond and out our living room windows it’s snowing. Again. We’ve had more snow in the last few weeks than in several years put together, which still isn’t much, but it’s nice to see.
So Merlin, in addition to all of his other amusing and endearing characteristics, also plays fetch. He may be small, but he’s fierce! In the morning, but occasionally in the evening as well, he will bring me his “cork,” which is actually an edible cat chew called Virbac, to throw for him. Eventually he will eat it, but first he likes to play a few rounds of fetch. One morning, in a particularly boisterous mood, he even went more than a dozen rounds with me throwing it, him chasing, then bringing it back so that I could throw it again. One evening he brought it into our bed as my husband and I were watching TV. Best. Cat. Ever.
Taken yesterday, Merlin’s favorite spot to hang out.
In other news I am premiering a video on the Pearl Stitch later today at 1pm or 13:00 EST. Premiering on Youtube means that the video has been shot and edited and is scheduled to post at a given time and I will be watching it live with anyone else who cares to watch with me. We can chat live, just as we would if I was livestreaming, the only difference being that the video has been made already, so I can answer questions as we watch together. AND I demonstrate how to stitch the Pearl Stitch, how to end the thread if you run out in the middle of the stitch, how to join a new thread and I even demonstrate how to stitch the Pearl Stitch using my right hand while standing on my head, submerged in a fish tank with my other hand tied behind my back. Just checking to see who’s paying attention. I’m kidding about the standing on my head, fish tank part, but everything else is true! It will be lots of fun. Join in if you’re able. Here’s the link, just remember it won’t be available to watch until 1pm EST today, Thursday February 18th.
In other news, my friend Anna Bates of the popular Youtube channel, Quilt Roadies and I are doing a Facebook live video tomorrow, Friday, February 19th, at 1pm EST.
Now where’s my ToDo list? I have a LOT to do today and Merlin just brought me his cork again, so I have to play fetch with him before I do anything else.
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