New fiber vessels

(Assorted fiber vessels.  The five blue vessels and two orange ones are each $65.  The purple vessel is $95. The two smaller ones are each $45.  Click on any image to enlarge.)

Last month during the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show, a nice couple purchased one of my framed artworks and inquired about my fiber vessels.  They wanted a blue one similar to other, non-blue ones I had that were $65.  This sounded like a good challenge to me. So, I agreed to make an assortment and give them "first refusal".

 (Above:  Three balls of cording made on Thanksgiving Day.)

I decided to spent Thanksgiving Day making cord ... lots of cords! ... including a giant ball of basically blue yarns.  For a free, on-line tutorial for making this sort of cording and the fiber vessels made from cording, CLICK HERE.

 (Above:  A cone of King Tut's variegated cotton thread.)

One of the reasons I elected to make an assortment was because I had a full cone of King Tut's variegated thread in blue.  King Tut threads are 40-weight, 3-ply Egyptian-grown, extra-long staple cotton and my very favorite thread.  They are sold by Superior Threads, a place I've actually visited while in St. George, Utah.  I buy it by the cone but didn't really know how far that cone would go ... especially if I were attempting to make fiber vessels that were all approximately 7" in diameter and 6" in height.  The challenge was on!

Apparently, I can get five fiber vessels from one cone ... plus a "little one"!  Of course, I only used the King Tut variegated thread on the outside of each vessel.  The interior (bobbin thread) changed from one to the next ... from sapphire to royal to navy to purple to a deep fuchsia .  Thus, the assortment is especially nice.  The rims are each different too.

After stitching all the blue cord, I stitched the yellow-orange vessels.  It is easier to see the difference in the interiors on these two.  One is in a brighter, redder-orange thread; the other in a more balanced orange.  The outside is another King Tut variegated thread.  These two approximately 7" in diameter and 6" height vessels along with the smaller one required eighty yards of cording.  I know this because I used two, full skeins of red yarn marked 40 yards each when zigzag stitching the ball of cording. 

(Above:  The large, purple vessel.)

In the photo above, the purple vessel might not look very much bigger than the others ... but it require lots more cording.  In fact, it took the entire ball of cording.  It is 8 1/2" in diameter and 7" in height.  Sure, that doesn't seem much larger than 7" in diameter and 6" in height ... but apparently it uses nearly twice the amount of cording.

(Above:  The two small fiber vessels made from the remaining cording.)

One would think that these smaller vessels were easier to make ... just because they are smaller.  The fact of the matter is, they are lots harder to do.  To get the smaller size, lots more pulling and stress happens while forming the initial, upward curve and to keep the shape tight.  Although I've made hundreds of fiber vessels, this was the first time I really paid attention to the amount of yarn, thread, size, and price of the work.  It was a good challenge!