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| Any Crewel People Out There? | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Oct 16 2011, 05:36 AM (766 Views) | |
| kathyk | Oct 16 2011, 05:36 AM Post #1 |
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Pisa-Carp
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Brenda, hookers can often be into crewel practices, are you? It's a little premature for this post. I was going to wait until the project was done, but now that I'm posting, or as some might see it, needling here rather than on my canvas, who knows when it's ever going to be done. So, I'm posting this now, because but I like to deliver on my promises. Hopefully, I will have a finished project to show in the not too distant future. JF's grandmother was an artist. She spent the latter years of her widowed life living in his big house with his parents and his four sisters. With lots of time on her hands, great love of the family, and her artistic background, she put a lot of her energies into creating things for the home. She made puppets, dolls and clothing for the kids, massive amounts of beautiful things for church fairs, like amazing gilded starched cloth angels, and lots and lots of beautiful crewel work pictures. It was all lovely, but her real forte was the crewel work. In fact, her crewel work paintings were so good that a prominent catalog vendor of crewel kits, Elsa Williams bought the rights to several of her pictures. You've probably seen them here and there. The most famous is probably a Siamese cat pillow. ![]() She also did several depictions of Geishas. ![]() I'm not sure whether any of these designs were actually sold or not, but I've seen commercial designs that are certainly reminiscent, most recently this ready-to-buy pillow in a Cuddle Down catalog. ![]() Here's a picture of a magazine cover that featured her: ![]() Well, a year or two ago, JF found a vintage Elsa Williams kit on E-Bay of the Siamese cat and gave it to me for Christmas. I finally got around to starting it when we were up at our summer camp for 10 days in August - the perfect setting for doing this sort of thing. I left the kit there thinking I'd like to complete it the next time we were there, but when we got home I regretted it. I had become so totally absorbed in doing it that tit was all I could think about. So, I started searching online to see what other crewel kits were out there, and lo and behold, I found another one of hers! This one is big! It's St. Francis of Assissi. Here's her original: ![]() And here's a detail from the kit: ![]() So, I've been going at it rather obsessively and am almost done - a few little animals and then stretching and framing. I know that the result will not be nearly as fine as JF's grandmother's original. The linen is quite a bit coarser than her original (almost like burlap), so it's frustrating trying to work in some of the fine details. OMG, she paid such attention to detail and used varying thicknesses and types of of thread and many, many shades of color to achieve the desired result. The works were truly painterly. Nonetheless, I think this one is still going to come out pretty nicely. After that I'll finish my cat kit, in which I just have the face and bug to go. But, after that, I've decided to venture out on my own. I already have an idea I'm refining in my mind's eye for the Owl and the Pussycat. I'm sure I'll never reach the proficiency of JF's grandma, but I feel a warm nostalgia working her kits. Even though I never had the pleasure of meeting this very special lady - or perhaps because I never have - makes it all very meaningful for me. and I'm sure having fun with it. Edited by kathyk, Oct 16 2011, 05:53 AM.
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| Blogging in Palestine: http://kksjournal.com/ | |
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| Mikhailoh | Oct 16 2011, 05:40 AM Post #2 |
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If you want trouble, find yourself a redhead
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It's nice to know that the manual arts are not going away. I think it is good for pretty much everyone to create. |
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Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead - Lucille Ball | |
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| PattyP | Oct 16 2011, 05:52 AM Post #3 |
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Senior Carp
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The pastels of the geisha are lovely. I enjoy hearing stories of family histories. Some folks have facinating ancestors. You never know who might be in the tree of a friend or acquaintance. Oh, and by the way Kathy, "needling".....
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A tired dog is a good dog. "Dogs' lives are too short...their only fault, really." A.S. Turnbull | |
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| brenda | Oct 16 2011, 07:11 AM Post #4 |
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No, Kathy, I'm not one of the crewel people. I've done a variety of handcrafts over the years though. Rug hooking is very absorbing and has held my attention for almost a decade now. Did JF's grandmother design her pieces? She sure did nice work. It's really lovely. I can see why you would want to emulate her work. She sets the bar quite high. I have several rug hooking items that I've completed since I last posted some pics. I need to assemble the footstool, and then it would be worthy of several pics, one of each side. I'll need at least a couple more months to complete the kitchen rug I'm working on now. It's coming along quite well though, considering I've only been at it since mid-June. Plays should post some pics of her latest items, too. Plays? |
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“Weeds are flowers, too, once you get to know them.” ~A.A. Milne | |
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| kathyk | Oct 16 2011, 10:25 AM Post #5 |
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Pisa-Carp
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Yes, Brenda. They are all her own designs. She was quite an artist. It's great that you've found a niche for yourself and from what I've seen of your work, you do the world of hooking great justice. By problem is I'm kind of bi-polar in my interests. I hop around to get really good at anything; jack of all trades and master of none. |
| Blogging in Palestine: http://kksjournal.com/ | |
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| Aqua Letifer | Oct 16 2011, 07:32 PM Post #6 |
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ZOOOOOM!
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+1. That's pretty amazing, kathy! |
| I cite irreconcilable differences. | |
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| kathyk | Oct 17 2011, 07:21 AM Post #7 |
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Pisa-Carp
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Thanks AL. She was pretty amazing. Her artistic abilities also defined her personal style. She had quite a flair. She drove a baby blue T-Bird (60s vintage) that was in my SIL's garage until the family finally decided to sell it. JF tells the story of how she would take the hills particularly fast so the kids in the back seat would fly off their seats a bit when the car descended the crest. They call them, "Thank-you-Maams." If these one deceased person I wish I could have met, it would be her. I hope I can do her justice. I'll be back with pics when it's done.Apple, hope you get to follow through with your art room. You would certainly make good use of it. |
| Blogging in Palestine: http://kksjournal.com/ | |
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| kathyk | Oct 30 2011, 03:13 PM Post #8 |
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Pisa-Carp
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Finished! I went to a framing shop today and was going to cost $140 for a very simple framing job, so I bought the pieces for a stretching frame for $14 and decided to do it myself. I'll add an outer frame later. ![]() ![]() ![]() Edited by kathyk, Oct 30 2011, 03:14 PM.
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| Blogging in Palestine: http://kksjournal.com/ | |
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| kenny | Oct 30 2011, 03:16 PM Post #9 |
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HOLY CARP!!!
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Wow! How cewel is that! |
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