This week I selected the first item for my Container. I wanted to work on one special piece of needlework during The Container Project. I will produce an embroidery of my granddaughter, Hailey, fashioned after the embroidery shown above that I did of my granddaughter, Maya, in 2007.
I love embroidery, in particular French knots. Arthur Jaffe of the FAU Artist Book Collection said, “Louise Silk’s skill with Hand Embroidered French Knots is legendary.”
Here is my process to prepare the piece. I select and enlarge the photo. I find the frame for it to determine the finished size. I make a paper tracing and then copy that with lead pencil onto muslin. Then I select the color palate from my thread stash. The selected palate goes into a cigar box. The larger wooden Chinese box will also go into The Container in case I need to make any color changes during The Container Project. The thread drawer goes back into my thread chest.
This week I read Dave Bruno’s book The 100 Thing Challenge where he chronicles his experience weaning down and living for one year with 100 personal possessions. The book was a huge disappointment and won’t be included in my book collection for my Container. While he had the noble idea to control his consumerism and change is mindset about always wanting more things, the construct came off as contrived and artificial. Maybe it was because he and I share no mutual interests or maybe it was because I enter my project for a larger reason but I wanted way more from him than he offered.
BubbeWisdom 