Cross-Stitched Cars

I received an email from the curator of an upcoming exhibition in Berlin called "Strich und Faden" and was blown away by the work of Lithuanian artist Severija Incirauskaite-Kriauneviciene. She has several examples of her unbelievable cross-stitching on car hoods, car doors, skillets, platters and watering cans. Field trip to Berlin, anyone?

From the Strich und Faden website:

The folksy expression "nach Strich und Faden" has its origin in the craft of weaving, where it was used when testing the cloth's quality. It means to do something thoroughly, with great artistry and precision, or according to the rules of an art or craft. In contemporary language it has gained connotations of trickery, deceit and travesty.

This also brought to mind the playful work of Lynette Andreason who embroiders on jewelry and metal platters to great effect.

Link: Strich und Faden exhibit in Berlin
Link: Severija Incirauskaite-Kriauneviciene

Related: Isolated Chain Stitch
The Sultan's Elephant

Kate Bingaman Burt

Kate Bingaman Burt, who is famous for her beautifully obsessive hand-drawn script (she lettered the Handmade Nation book) and meticulously hand-drawn recreations of her store receipts and bank statements, has created some wonderful embroidered dresses, that document her outstanding debt and purchases she's made. Kate will be part of a small show of contemporary embroidery that I'm curating for the fall called "Over and Under" and these dresses will be on display. More info on this show coming.

This work also reminds me of the embroidered works and dresses by New Yorker columnist and illustrator Maira Kalman. Kalman also authored the gloriously poignant and personal memoir The Principles of Uncertainty, which includes several photos of her embroidery and stories about the work's meaning to her.

Obsessive Consumption - Kate Bingaman Burt

Joetta Maue

While I was in DC speaking at the Summit of Awesome, I had the pleasure of getting to meet Joetta Maue, whose work I'd only seen online. She had several of her embroidered works on display at the market, which make use of existing doilies and finished textiles she further embellishes with her own needlework.

Link

Gary Baseman Chou Altar

(photo via Supertouch)

Oh, how I wish I could have torn myself away and attended the opening of Gary Baseman's solo show in L.A. to worship at the Enlightened Chou altar! Thank goodness there are photos of it. (Thanks Rzl for the tip.)

(photo via Supertouch)

There it is! In the black frame in the lower right hand corner. Yay. Super happy and excited about this collab. You can see details of my embroidered version of Gary's Enlightened Chou on flickr. If you're in LA, Gary's show will be hanging at Corey Helford Gallery through the end of May (Coop's show opens May 29th).

Beautiful Mess

Shannon Genova (aka Giggly Mama) sent me an image of her Sublime Stitching pattern-turned-tattoo. But, then, I took a sneaky peek at her flickr set and saw that she's been embroidering up a storm. I loved what I saw. Especially this "beautiful mess" of therapeutic embroidery: free-form, no pattern at all- just soothing stitching.

Link