I started this piece the day before Japan's earthquake/tsunami, and the following night as I was drifting to sleep I saw a rolling wave of coloured dye washing over cloth and thought how colour seeping into uncoloured cloth was a mirror of my consciousness shifting into a dreaming state - a kind of dissolving from one place to another . Later, with the advent of the news, additional layers of meaning have come to me and I am stitching this as a prayer - thinking about protection, faith and innocence and how we are all connected.
I am also filling this silk with colour on my Pfaff, expressing different feelings. There is such a visual and tactile difference between hand and machine embroidery, although both can be used to create colourful forms expressing meaning. I am aware of how much closer I feel to work I do that is handstitched. The machine seems to put distance between me and the piece. Why is that and can it be altered? For each type of embroidery, I have to watch the fabric and thread carefully, but with handstitch, I am more 'in touch' -and it's more direct as I am the means of plying the needle. I guess it's like meeting in person versus talking on the phone or email. A connection is made, but with an aspect of sensory perception missing and with a device there as mediator.
I am also filling this silk with colour on my Pfaff, expressing different feelings. There is such a visual and tactile difference between hand and machine embroidery, although both can be used to create colourful forms expressing meaning. I am aware of how much closer I feel to work I do that is handstitched. The machine seems to put distance between me and the piece. Why is that and can it be altered? For each type of embroidery, I have to watch the fabric and thread carefully, but with handstitch, I am more 'in touch' -and it's more direct as I am the means of plying the needle. I guess it's like meeting in person versus talking on the phone or email. A connection is made, but with an aspect of sensory perception missing and with a device there as mediator.
2 comments:
beautiful and meaningful words. there is no passion with the machine. i always feel like i'm just there as a guide when using the machine. the stitches are too perfect to be 'real', if you know what i mean.
Thankyou. I can feel excited expressing with a machine, too, especially with free motion stitch, making the design up as I go, but I just notice the different feel and look of the pieces and that I mostly feel more attached to the handstitched ones. Maybe I need to try drawing one of my guinea pigs with my machine to see if that changes my feelings - maybe the subject matter comes into play. Actually, writing this has been very helpful because I went to look at my first piece I created all by machine and realized I am attached to it, so maybe I am going through a phase - or perhaps just defining my preferences.
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