E Is For… Embroidery

A Catherine Noon
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Piece from a kit; original company unknown. Embroidered by A. Catherine Noon. Photo copyright A. Catherine Noon, All Rights Reserved.

Embroidery.  It was the first textile art I ever learned.  Crewel embroidery is an art with a long history.  The Bayeux Tapestry, in fact, is not a Tapestry, nor woven:  it was, in fact, embroidered.  The Victoria and Albert Museum in England has a fantastic page on the history of English embroidery, here.  Embroidery has a wide history, not just in Europe, with some of the oldest references dating back to China 500 B.C.E.

I find it relaxing.  I have started to work on my own designs, usually modifying an existing one as from a kit, like the one from the left (which is one of my oldest pieces, and I did not modify it; I think I made it around 1987).  Embroidery artists are able to translate their graphic ideas into needle, thread, and fabric, and do so either from their own original designs or by adapting from paintings and other art.  I find that pretty darned amazing, to be honest.

I confess, though, that I adore kits.  I find ones that I like, and then it’s like coloring in designs in a coloring book.  My mind relaxes while my hands are kept busy, and I get to play with color and texture.  While embroidery seems intimidating to the beginner, needlepoint and cross-stitch are both needle arts that similarly have kits and can be done with little to no experience.  If you’ve a mind to try embroidery, though, give it a shot – I made this piece before I learned anything from another textile artist, and was able to follow the instructions.  Most of the stitches are fairly simple ones; the only more complex bit the French knots (which, in the spirit of full disclosure, I found horridly difficult – so after this kit, I made sure to pick ones that didn’t require them).

But for the adventurous artist, and for those of you who are able to translate flat, written instructions and graphics to the three-dimensional world of canvas and thread, the world is your oyster.  There’s a burgeoning interest in needlework and some amazing books that have come out recently that are sure to delight both the novice and experience needleworker.  My favorite of the new artists is Jane Nicholas, but beware: viewing her site may consume many hours of your time because her art is captivating.  You have been warned.  🙂

What about you, Dear Reader?
What classical art catches your fancy?

E Is For… Eggs!

A Catherine Noon
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Image Copyright 2015 by A. Catherine Noon All Rights Reserved

These are pysanky, or Ukrainian decorated eggs. According to legend, a demon monster would destroy the world but it’s chained, unable to complete its destruction. As it fights its bonds, the links of the chain are weakened. Every year, the chain is strengthened by the number of pysanky that are made or exchanged.

Make pysanky or die. I love it.

What about you, Dear Reader? What’s your favorite legend?

D Is For… Dogs

A Catherine Noon
Bedface, or My Name Is Coyote and This Is Mah Bed

Bedface, or My Name Is Coyote and This Is Mah Bed

Dogs, and the people who love them.  If you love dogs, then you get it.  If you don’t, then you don’t.  It’s that simple, really.

Our sixty-five-pound bundle of joy came to us eight years ago from the Anti-Cruelty Society in Chicago.  She’s gotten comfortable as a part of our family.  She likes to take her half of the bed out of the middle, leaving my husband and I to find what space we can in the remaining spaces.

Author Lynda Barry, who wrote What It Is, suggests thinking about all the dogs you’ve ever known.  Where did they all go?  That question rang like a bell to me.  I’ve used it a couple times in prompt circles and the memories come back more strongly each time.

What about you, Dear Reader?
What’s your first dog memory?

D Is For… Decoupage!

A Catherine Noon
From Alterknits by Leigh Radford, photography by John Rizzo

From Alterknits by Leigh Radford, photography by John Rizzo

One of my favorite knitting books is by Leigh Radford, called Alterknits:  Imaginative Projects and Creativity Exercises.  She has a ton of really great ideas.  One of the last of them is the best use of yarn ball bands ever.  She covered a dress form with them.  I think the effect is surprising in its simple beauty.

Until I read her suggestions, I didn’t know what decoupage meant.  There’s a whole artform out there surrounding it and you can get special glues and papers for it.  Basically, it’s covering objects with glued paper, then applying something that gives it a high gloss.  There’s a great tutorial at WikiHow and a bunch of other links that I didn’t take the time to delve into, but if you google “decoupage” you’ll find them.

What I find particularly exciting about this particular type of art is that you can use ephemera and found objects from around the house.  This can create unique artwork that is also a snapshot in time – catalogs, magazines, newsletters, those circulars that come from big box stores each week – anything can become grist for the mill.  In today’s day and age, finding art that we can make that’s in line with the idea of “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” is a positive thing.

What about you, Dear Reader?
What kinds of things might you memorialize like this?

C Is For… Calligraphy

A Catherine Noon
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Image Copyright 2015 by A. Catherine Noon All Rights Reserved

Before the printing press, there were pens and paper.  The art of calligraphy is from the Greek, Kallos graphos, or beautiful writing.  Like the printing press, there’s an ancient history of calligraphy in Asia, and it’s even tied to meditation practices.

I discovered calligraphy when I was about ten years old, when one of my classmates’ handwriting caught my eye.  She wrote so beautifully, letters that were even and round on the page.  I studied her writing for four years, endeavoring to copy it.  I finally succeeded and, in the process, discovered the art of calligraphy.  The Scheaffer calligraphy set that I was given as a gift opened a new world to me.

Despite becoming good at it, I dropped its pursuit in college due to family opinion that I should focus on college and the necessity of making a living.  About eighteen months ago, I re-discovered the art.  The technology in felt-tipped pens is much better than when I was young.  In particular, my favorite is the Zig brand double-tipped pen.  I found a set of six of them and played for a few months, before buying one of each of the colors available.

What about you, Dear Reader?
What art did you play with as a child that you have picked up, or might like to, as an adult?

C Is For… Crochet!

A Catherine Noon

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Crochet.  All it takes is a hook.  The textile world seems divided into Knitters and Crocheters; I’ve rarely met a Switch.  I decided to try learning and this scarf is my swatch that, well, grew.  The teacher provided us with a ball of bulky yarn and a hook, and I had a ball learning single crochet, half-double crochet, and double crochet (which really should be triple, since there are 3 chains, but treble is something else, and…)

Yeah, I’m a Knitter.

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I mean, for one thing, I have a heck of a time keeping my stitches in order.  I somehow end up with more, or less, depending on where I am in the project.  I know it’s a matter of practice, but my knitting seduces me.  I’ll say this: I’m really glad that I know some crochet now, because there’s this sweater I knit that has 4 crocheted medallions up the center, and I really want to finish it.

What about you, Dear Reader?
What craft have you begun that you want to practice more?

 

B Is For… Books

A Catherine Noon
George-peabody-library-2

The New York Public Library

Books.

They’ve been around for a while now.  When I was younger, I thought that we Westerners invented them, but it was the Chinese who came up with the printing press 400 years before Gutenberg’s bible.

Whoever first did it, I’m ever so grateful they did.

The first time I started using the library on my own, I wandered the stacks of my grammar school’s library.  I didn’t know how to find books I liked, and it was so hard to figure it out from the covers.  They were blank, hardbound books with dark covers that held secrets between their pages.  How do you dig into them, short of reading all of them, to find out which ones you enjoy?

I remember their smell, these old books.  I read somewhere that the smell was a unique combination of a bug that eats paper and the decomposition of that same paper.  I don’t know if that’s true, but I love the idea of a real bookworm.  My favorite author back then was Phyllis A. Whitney, who wrote mysteries.

What about you, Dear Reader?
What is the first book you remember reading?

B Is For… Bargello!

A Catherine Noon

Today’s letter, B, can mean many things. My favorite in terms of crafts is Bargello, the Italian needle art that resembles flames and waves. The image to the left is a common style, with the colors undulating back and forth across the canvas but all relating to each other in their pattern.

It’s a simple pattern to work, because it’s essentially vertical or horizontal. There’s no fancy stitchwork involved, just carefully placing the stitches neatly one beside the next, offset in order to create the characteristic wave or flame effect.

A quick search of Google images reveals many, many modern interpretations of this relaxing art; I recommend wandering around or, if you’re ready to take the plunge, grab a kit and try it for yourself. For the brave at heart, you don’t even really need a kit. Just select some colors and play with the wave effect across a swath of mesh fabric.

What about you, Dear Reader?
What’s your favorite craft that starts with the letter “B”?

A Is For… A. Catherine Noon! (Of course…)

A Catherine Noon

Noony-ThumbnailWelcome to day one of the A-Z Blog Challenge.  I’m your host for this stop on the tour, A. Catherine Noon.  I’m glad you’re here!

I’m an author, which you may have guessed by my site.  I love to write.  I wrote my first story at the age of nine and I’ve written essays, novels, poems, short stories – you name it.  I’d write on walls if I didn’t get dirty looks from people.  (Okay, maybe not really the walls.)  (Unless I had permission.)  Together with my coauthor, Rachel Wilder, we write as the duo Noon and Wilder and have several books out – and more on the way.

But I digress.  Writing is, for me, as necessary as breathing.  It’s become more than a way to communicate.  It has, quite literally, saved my life and given me a life worth living.  But that’s not my only passion.  I adore music and have played piano my whole life.  I love to sing and can play a pretty passable recorder.  My guitar skills, however, are sadly undeveloped.  Someday I’ll invent a machine that gives me more than 24 hours in a day – or that lets me pursue my passions full time without the bothersome necessity of earning a living so I can pay my rent.

I discovered knitting in the year 2000, coinciding with the Millenium.  My mother died that year and knitting gave me a way to express myself that didn’t involve having to articulate anything.  I could grieve and process in silence.  Since then, knitting has become a beloved art form and I’ve joined the happy conspiracy of avid textile addicts.

What about you, Dear Reader?
What brings you to the A-Z Blog Challenge?