Alexis embroidery

 Alexis 2017

I finished my embroidery of Joan Collins AKA Alexia Carrington Colby last night! I'm not gonna lie, this piece took me aaaaaages! It turned out to be very detailed and I had many breaks in between days of hard stitching. However, I have to say I love it and I'm pleased with how the Dame turned out!

Here's how I made this piece from start to end...

Firstly I drew out Joan's beautiful face onto canvas and painted in the skin tone and hair. I also put in some colour around the eyes as the base of her fabulous purple smokey eye make up.

Then I began to stitch in the details...

After appliqueing on the red fabric for Joan's dress I soon realised I needed to give her a fresh background as I'd unwittingly tried out my paint colours far too close to her face on the original canvas (see photos above). To fix this I cut out around Joan and ironed her to new canvas using bondaweb.

Then I began stitching into the hair... oh god, the hair! it went on and on...

I felt that some of the drama of the face had been lost as I stitched, so I gave Joan a little touch up and defined and darkened her makeup. Got to make sure those cheek bones are sharp enough to cut!

 

And then she was done. Here's a closer look at the details of her face so you can see some of the different stitches I used for different textures like jewellery, skin and hair. This was a really satisfying piece to work on, although I have definitely learned a few things not to do for next time. I'll be starting a new iconic look in embroidery soon, I haven't quite decided who but in the mean time I'll be thinking of framing options for Alexis/Joan...something fabulous and decadent I think...

Drag face!

 

I've been really LOVING make up tutorials on the web for some time now. If there's buffing lining or blending going on, I'm all over it! Drag tutorials are no exception and it was with glee that I first clicked on Lucy Garland a make up whizz who just adores all things Qween!

I've been wanting to create some art work that includes my love of cosmetics for some time but couldn't figure out how to do this without the work becoming a bit one dimensional. That changed after I watched a few drag tutorials. I decided to put thread to canvas and get stitching!

This was a really enjoyable process; I decided to combine painting, applique and embroidery to make something that had multi layers and a real pop! I'm so happy with the outcome. Here's how it evolved:

I've starting my second drag embroidery already, I like to work on them during my down time or in between other projects. They are so fun to do and very satisfying and calming. All the while I'm stitching I'm immersed in glamour and make up, I love it!

Savage Sisters

Some time ago I began a set of embroideries based on the legend of the Femme Fatale. I worked on them on and off over the year. Skip to now and you can see the finished pieces the Savage Sisters!

This deadly duo are inspired by my love of history and also my interest in the Femme Fatale; I wanted to create the ultimate dangerous and macabre women. Like all the best Femme Fatales they posses a superficial  allure which jars with their true nature.

The pair represent two of histories most violent inventions which changed the world forever, the guillotine and gunpowder.

Both embroideries are stretched and fixed into dark wood frames 8x10 inches and are ready for hanging. Available from www.thegemmaparkerartshop.bigcartel.com

Embroidery experiment #1

Here's how my embroidery experiment is going!

As mentioned before I have been only working on it when I've had spare time (watching t.v, waiting for things etc) and it's been really enjoyable passing the minutes with a needle and thread. The minutes fly by and there's something very calming and focused about working in this way.

After tracing my design onto some canvas I postioned it in an embroidery hoop and got stuck in (I think mine is called a flexi hoop in woodgrain and it's about 14cm high). I'm new to embroidery so was suprised to realise I knew more than one style of stitch. I think it's because I approached this work like I was painting a picture and thought about what shapes of stitch would suit what part of the picture: I used a chain stitch to outline the eye patch and a satin stitch to fill it in.

Then when I got home I traced the shape of the hair and collar onto separate bits of coloured material and used iron on interfacing to stick them in place. This was a bit fiddly as I didn't do it right the first time, but they are pretty well stuck now on a second attempt.

 

Then it was a case of outlining everything, but I wasn't happy with the way the collar turned out. I used a chain stitch for this but I thought it looked messy and not in keeping with the clean lines reminiscent of the tattoo style I want. It turns out I was doing it wrong anyway, so I unpicked it all and had to do a new collar as it had frayed the white material badly.

I'm currently using a chain stitch with a thicker thread count to outline the hair and I think it will work ok on the collar too (now I figured out how to do it right). I used a simple stem stitch to do the fine outlines on the features and neck which is my favourite stitch so far as it's the most like drawing, and I used acrylic paint to colour her cheeks and eyelid.

I'll let you know how it turns out. I'm really enjoying it so far!