(Above: Me with
In Box CDLXXXII, a hand-stitched commission. Framed: 30" x 48". Artwork's dimensions: 22" x 40". Click on any image to enlarge.)
Recently I was honored with a commission for a hand-stitched In Box series piece. It is undoubtedly the largest hand-stitched piece I've ever made. I decided to track the number of minutes/hours spent stitching. Amazingly, it took 2929 minutes! That's forty-eight hours and forty-nine minutes ... which means I average 3.3 minutes per square inch! Of course, I don't actually stitch inch-by-inch. I intentionally spread threads over large sections of the surface until almost every area is rather full. Only then do I turn my attention to the individual squares and rectangles. Below is some of the other documentation that I created to give to my client so that she would know the material and processes that went into her artwork. I am so very happy that this piece has a permanent home!
(Above: My palette of polyester stretch velvet. A heat-activated adhesive (Wonder Under/Pellon 805) was ironed to the reverse side of each piece.)
(Above: Squares and rectangles of polyester stretch velvet were cut and fused to a large piece of black, recycled, synthetic packaging felt.)
(Above: Additional squares and rectangles of polyester stretch velvet were fused in layers on top of the foundation layer. Strips of tulle/netting were fused over the top.)
(Above: The work was stapled to a large stretcher bar and taken to the living room where I stitched for a total of 48 hours and 49 minutes using 100% cotton embroidery floss.)
(Above: This is a detail shot of the artwork before any stitching was done.)
(Above: This is a detail shot of the artwork after stitching was completed.
(Above: Melting the space between the polyester stretch velvet shapes ... the space between the shapes that is only as thick as the black packaging felt.)
(Above: Stitching the piece of acid-free foamcore covered with off-white fabric.)
(Above: The finished commission!)
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