I have collapsed in a heap as yesterday I finished the proofing for my online class for the Develop a Personal Library of Stitches with Sharon Boggon that is on offer over at Joggles. It’s huge job as over the 6 week period the workshop weighs in at over 220 pages of material on stitches, designing them, exploring them and using them.
For those already enrolled and those thinking about taking it the course is structured in such a way that each week I take a principal of design and apply it to stitches.
The first week introduces the course covering such things as deciding on what format for your sampler might take, suggestions on how you might think about and choose a colour scheme, and I talk about equipment needed and how it is used. I cover how to start and finish your embroidery and finally I look at a few stitches that can act as borders.
In week 2 I look at Point as an element of design. Most people understand what we mean when we talk about a point of emphasis in a work but many people do not understand that the concept of point is applied in numerous ways in design. In design language a point the simplest unit or I like to think of it as a fragment of design. When you apply this to stitching, the concept of a point can be a single stitch or part of a stitch. This week we will look at single isolated stitches and how to break stitches into fragments and change various parts of a stitch in order to develop new stitches or approach stitches with a fresh eye.
Week 3 we will examine stitches that lend themselves to a linear
treatment. What is a linear element? How can lines be represented in stitches? There are obvious stitches such as stem stitch and outline stitch but what happens to a line when it is represented using Chain stitch or one of its many varieties. What stitches can be whipped to create lines? What other stitches can be used as a linear element. What stitches produce ridged lines? How interesting can you make a line? When we vary our threads what sort of line does it produce? What sort of line is created with couching? How might this design principle be applied to either contemporary or traditional embroidery? In other words what can you do with it?
Week 4 we will be examining scale and density as design elements. Stitches can be worked far apart or closely together even overlapped. What happens when we think about these design considerations and apply it to Buttonhole and its varieties, to Chevron and it varieties and to Cretan stitch? What happens when we introduce lacing these stitches, threading or whipping them with another yarn. What do they look like and what can you make from this exploration?
Week 5 we will be looking at direction, movement and shape Your stitches can be worked back-to-back or flipped. When you do this you are changing the direction and angle of stitches. What happens when we do this to Herringbone and varieties? What happens to isolated stitches? How do these influence the look of a shape? What happens when we think about these design considerations and apply it to Buttonhole and its varieties, to Chevron and it varieties and to Cretan stitch? Can these same design considerations be applied to beading?
Week 6 we look at texture and building textured surfaces. The knotted stitches such as French knot and Bullion stitches add texture but what about knotted Cretan, knotted feather and the Palistrina stitches? How do we control texture? What happens when we combine these stitches with beads or found objects In this last week we pull all these elements together and further explore textured crusty surfaces a little more exploring more stitches such as Cast on stitch, Double cast on stitch, Drizzle stitch, double drizzle stitch and Woven stitches. What happens when we contrast high texture with linear stitches? When we play with scale? What sort of mass do they hold?
Each week I introduce some stitches and their varieties that are not online in my stitch dictionary for people to explore. As you can see the workshop covers a lot of ground and hopefully people will enjoy it. Since the class starts on November 2nd I now have a bit of time to actually get some Christmas stitching done! Of course the Encrusted Crazy Quilting class has started and students are making their blocks and having fun exploring colour so the forums are busy but that is the fun part of this process for me. It is the writing that is a bit of grind.
So with all this writing I have not had time to turn up a link of the day so sorry and after that piece of self promotion I am off to stitch … guiltless as the job is done… dancing off to my workroom and waving
Thanks for the tips and the appetizer.
Leonie , Alice, and all that are enrolled in my stitch class – I too am looking forward to it as it is the fun part for me I love the mix of people that log in to the forums in the CQ class there are people from Scandinavia, Europe, Canada, Japan, USA, Britian, Australia and New Zealand – it is a wonderful mix and sort of gives me a thrill to encounter students from all over the globe.
Judy hope to see you join us in 2007
Dear Sharon,
here I am again, the forum sounds so positive, I have done writing classes on line here in Tasmania a couple of years back so will try to put aside time in early 2007 to do one of your classes, I love your stitching though I am primarily a quilter. Judy.
Hello Sharon:
I have just returned from teaching and judging at the Toronto “CreativFestival “and I’m in a heap too! I’ve signed up for your wonderful class and now have a week or so to get my act together. I appreciate how hard you work for your students. You are an inspiration to us all. Looking forward to stitching ” with you”. Take care,Leonie
Thank you for all your hard work. Sitting here in the UK I have just signed up for this course and I’m really looking forward to it. Isn’t the internet wonderful when it works like this? People from all over the world taking a class together – amazing.
I am looking forward to it too – its always fun ot talk to everyone in forums
Pat and anyone else who is interested I have spoken to Barb at Joggles and she is happy to run them again early in the new year
I can’t wait for it to start. You are such a wonderful and helpful teacher.
I would love to take this class but I am already loving the CQ embelliskment class and they overlap quite a bit. Is there a chance that they will be repeated? I realise I could probably just print them off but it wouldn’t be the same without the shared traumas in the forums!!
Pat T
Meret – the lessons are run through joggles.com there is a weekly class which is released each week and a forum which you can log in to any time and leave a message. I check in every day and answer questions and give feed back. The forums are fun and they get quite chatty but not everyone uses them all the time. I hope that answers your question
Dear Sharon
Just would like to know, if your stitching-class has a fix hour where we “meet” us once a week or is it so, that always on the same day per week you will put the new “lession” into the class-homepage? Hope you understand what I mean.
Thanks for your reply and hugs from switzerland
meret
Thanks for sharing what is in the class. I can’t wait to start!!
Well, I’m excited!!! Bring it on.
you just go ahead and gulitlessly go stitch, Sharon- you deserve it- what a worker!!! Cannot wait to take one of your classes someday!!! Keep up the wonderful, helpful work- you are the best!