embroidery

On Saturday, September 12th, Maura Madden (author of Crafternoon) and I will kick off our Handmade: Crafternoon series, and we hope that you can join us. This crafty gathering is free, and there’s no advance registration required. Here’s what’s in store for you that day:

Two special guests will join us and share their approaches to crafting with unusual and alternative materials. Jessica Vitkus (author of Alternacrafts) will show us how to make one-of-a-kind pierced and embroidered cards, and Hannah Rogge (author of Hardwear) will demonstrate how to turn stuff that you find in your toolbox and at the hardware store into unique jewelry.

We will have some materials on hand to share so that you can try your hand at these crafts. But if you would like to be sure to have what you need to make your own pair of hardware-inspired earrings, please bring with you:

• from the hardware store: 10 #8 flat washers
• from the craft store: 2 french earring wires

And if you happen to have embroidery floss and/or needle nose pliers to share with your fellow crafters, please bring them along!

We’ll have an inspiring spread of vintage books, magazines, and images from the Library’s collection to inspire you in your embroidery and jewelry making. And remember, the Library will be open from 11:00am until 6:00pm that day, so if you want to dig around in the collections you’ll have time to do so before and after the event! Here are the details on next week's Handmade: Crafternoon!

Date and time:
Saturday, September 12, 2009, from 2:00 to 4:00pm

Location:
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
42nd Street and Fifth Avenue
Margaret Liebman Berger Forum (Room #227, located in the northeast corner of the second floor)

Questions? Please leave it as a comment! See you on the 12th!

Monday March 16th might just be the best day to visit Deirdre Donohue's art installation, Sevdah, at the Mid-Manhattan Library, because on that evening the artist herself will be there, in conversation with Bernard Yenelouis, curator and educator at the School of the International Center of Photography. This event begins at 6:30pm, Monday 3/16/09.

I'm drawn into Donohue's work because of the intensity of the details that she creates using a traditional medium, embroidery, on a large scale. When I visited the installation last week, I wanted to study each small fabric square's evocative imagery, patterns, and textures. You can read more about her work here. And even if you can't make it to the artist dialogue Monday the 16th, the art itself will remain on exhibition until April 22nd--don't miss it!

Image: from Sevdah, by Deirdre Donohue

I’ve been thinking quite a bit about embroidery lately. It all started when I read all about the Bard Graduate Center’s exhibition ‘Twixt Art and Nature. I admit that I’ve not seen the exhibition yet, but that won’t stop me from recommending it based on what friends have reported to me—so go see it before it closes on April 12th. I’m also pretty excited about the Bard’s exhibition-related programming, especially “Present Tense: Embroidery in Contemporary Art,” which will include conversation with artists Elaine Reichek and Richard Saja (I’ve become especially fond of Saja’s reworking of toile traditions).

I have also been spending some time browsing through Embroidery: The Journal of the Embroiderers’ Guild. The Library has decades and decades of back issues, and the issues offer an aesthetic trip back in craft time as well as lots of information on projects, exhibitions, Guild member creations, the history of needle arts, and more. If your interests lean to embroidered toadstool table mats (Autumn 1963) or a needlepoint backgammon board (Summer 1964) and the like, then dig in to back issues of Embroidery.

The latest issue of ReadyMade features a great DIY gift idea from Kimberly Scola: embroidered letters. The project brought to my mind a book on embroidered letters that I had seen earlier this fall. It’s called the Embroiderer’s Book of Design and it was published in London in 1860. Each page offers an alphabet in a differing style—some look as it they will require quite a bit of skill on the embroiderer’s part, but they are all lovely. I've posted four of my favorite pages here (above and below, below, and below):

So, if you are considering stitching up personalized embroidered gifts, consider the vintage lettering styles from the pages of this book. Happy holiday crafting!

To learn more about lettering, and monograms in particular, check out my post at Design*Sponge today on how to design your very own monogram. I’m the guest blogger there this week, where I’ve been sharing inspiring library resources.

(This Japanese embroidery pattern is up for grabs at the NYPL Digital Gallery.)

New York City's Museum of Arts and Design has long been interested in ways that traditional crafts turn up in contemporary artists' and designers' work. The museum's current exhibition "Pricked: Extreme Embroidery" gathers the work of artists who employ traditional hand-made embroidery methods to create provocative, humorous, and unexpected works of art.

At 6:30pm on January 31st, needlework will meet narrative in a reading and book arts presentation, co-sponsored by the Center for Book Arts. Artists Jen Bervin (whose works we have at NYPL), Andrea Dezso, and Tamar Stone (we have Stone's works at the Library too) will discuss how they use language and embroidery in their art.

If you take a shine to "Pricked: Extreme Embroidery," you might also want to investigate the catalog from an earlier related exhibition: "Radical Lace and Subversive Knitting."