STICKETS,
STICKETS   

26 October 2024 

My third work in the 'Soul Searching' series. Literally 'painting with thread' to get all the details in. This was the first design in the series and when I had drawn it, I thought... oeehh that's too much detail for tuft work so I moved on to the next designs and drew a little less detail in them. But this design didn't work out.

A year ago, I started to experiment with hand embroidery. How can I apply this in my work? Nice results came out of that but it was all just not there. (Not the right fabric, not the right thread or thread direction used)

I picked it up a few more times, got into the right flow and the result becomes super cool. I use fine burlap for the background and wool threads. The details are immense.

It is hugely labour-intensive. Not just the embroidery by hand but certainly also the use of colour. Just look at her eye... There are five shades of blue in the iris alone. But that is precisely what makes it so cool. Every time you look you see another piece of detail or colour.

(I recorded this bit with a timelapse. And I sped up that timelapse by 2x. This bit of nose is at least an hour's work).