How to Frame Embroidery

Art

Fibernation post#3! I am posting quite early this week as I will be in NYC Wednesday-Friday for the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communication’s annual public relations benchmark trip.

In one of my recent posts I discussed embroidery as an art form. It is cheap and doesn’t require a studio. But suppose you are interested in displaying your work at home or in a gallery…

While making art is a ton of fun, making it hanging-ready is usually anything but. Thankfully, for you fiber artists out there, embroidery is one of the absolute EASIEST things to make exhibition ready. It is also one of the cheapest (which is always a plus)!

What you will need:

  1. Your embroidered piece
  2. Wooden embroidery hoop
  3. Hot glue gun and glue sticks for the gun
  4. Pen or pencil
  5. Felt
  6. Scissors

Once you have gathered your materials,

  1. Trace your embroidery hoop onto a piece of felt.   
  2. Cut just inside the line.
  3. Place your hoop (embroidery piece secured inside) face down.
  4. Cut your fabric close to your hoop, leaving just enough material to fold over the hoop.
  5. Begin folding the fabric and gluing it to the inside of the hoop, doing only a few inches as a time.    
  6. Once you have gone all the way around place the felt circle inside the hoop.
  7. Slowly, begin gluing the felt to the inside of the hoop.
  8. Once you have gone all the way around the hoop, allow the glue to dry.

VOILA! Your piece is now hanging ready.

I sincerely encourage all of you who have any interest in fiber to try embroidery . You might be surprised by how much you enjoy it, and nothing is more satisfying than seeing your work on display, even if it is only within the confines of your own home.

“Fibernation”

Art

Defining Fibernation: The act partaken by select mammals in which such individuals spend the winter months creating fiber art and/or crafts.

OK, obviously I made up both this term and definition. It is my slightly obnoxious way of saying “Winter is a great time to partake in all things fiber!”

What do I mean when I say fiber? I mean:

1.Knitting/Crocheting

2. Weaving

3. Embroidery (hand and machine)

4. Sewing

5. Quilting

All these and more are great ways to utilize fibrous materials for crafting and, as I prefer, creating art!

For those who don’t know, yes, fiber is an art form. While there are many fiber-related crafts out there (knitting, crocheting, sewing, etc.), it is the execution that makes these techniques art. While I was at SUNY Cortland I had the privilege of taking surface design, weaving and auditting Fibers III. I continue to do fiber art on my own for several reasons:

  1. It’s awesome, fun and relaxing.
  2. It’s cheap.
  3. It is space-efficient (aka: fold-able and easily stored).

So although I have not yet blogged about any of my fiber obsessions, I plan on sharing a lot on this subject in the near future. Winter weather causes me to hibernate, or fibernate if you will.

To start off this series of posts, I am sharing two of my most recent embroideries. Both pieces were done using hand embroidery and what I consider to be a drawn style. While most of my embroidery pieces mimic paintings, these look more like drawings. This is a style that I had recently decided to try out.

The first one was completed this summer and is (obviously) an ice cream cone. I had a lot of pink embroidery floss and had been looking for a way to use some up. Both the ice cream stitches and the cone stitches utilize the back stitching technique, however the running stitch can also be found in the cone.

 
The second was completed this month and features Elsa’s glove from “Frozen” (I know, I’m sorry it’s another “Frozen” inspired piece but the imagery is just so inspirational!). In the movie there is a lot of symbolism that surrounds characters and their gloves. I thought it would be fun to represent this important article of clothing in a cloth medium.
Both pieces began as old cloth napkins (another reason why fiber art is awesome is that it lends itself to recycling). After drawing inspiration and shape from different images, I sketched the outlines lightly in pen. After that, it was just a matter of going over the outlines with 3-ply embroidery floss. This is great for when you are watching movies on a cold winter night.

 Hopefully this post has at least created some interest in the world of fiber art and, if not, I still have many planned posts ahead! Whether you are crafty or artistic, fiber is a medium that I would definitely recommend.