Thursday, October 11, 2018

Liz Maidment - Everybody's New Obsession



Liz Maidment of France does the most amazing embroidery.  It is not merely embroidery, she has taken it to a new level.

Nearly everyone in our group just fell in love with her work.  The miniature landscapes overwhelmed us with their twists and surprises.


In the two photos below, I give you an idea of scale by putting my hand over the frame.  
Disclaimer:  My hand is not really that fat looking, I do have long slender fingers that could be piano playing fingers if my parents would have given me piano lessons.



The trees and flowers below are on the same scale as the field above.  Most of her pieces were pretty much this same size.




 


 This scape below was larger, more the size of a dish towel.  the aspect of minimal stitching really appealed to me.






The ochre colored piece was sort of in between the others sizes.  Liz uses the backgrounds as a major part of her pieces.  The embroidery is what makes the backgrounds come alive.



She uses tiny bits of fabric pieces to make the flowers and animals come alive against the stitching and the backgrounds.

I commented that in the whole exhibit, there was probably not a complete yard of fabric!

Now I need you to continue to look at the photos and I will show you my idea at the end of the post.  You will find it......uh...…...interesting.






 

















 Ok....here you are at my attempt to recreate the background.

I sent off to Amazon Prime to get a Paint Atomizer.  It consists of two pipes set in an L angle.  the negative pressure of blowing though one pipe draws up paint through the other pipe and sprays the paint on the board.

There is a pretty steep learning curve with the equipment.

Yep, pretty steep.

I got everything set up to blow paint on the background fabric.  I tore newspaper for the masking material.  And dipped the pipette into the paint.

And blew.

Nothing.

Harder

Nothing.

I changed the angle on the paint atomizer, and blew.

Nothing.

Harder.

Nothing.

Changed the angle again.

Blew.

I nearly passed out from hyperventilation.  Really.  I had to sit there on the driveway with my head reeling while I recovered enough to continue living.



Nothing.

So I put my hand up in front of the pipette, and blew.

And blew a startling blast of green paint on the entirety of my bare palm.

So now I had the blowing part (partially) figured out, I had to get the control part figured out.

See that big blob of green?  That was my first blow, a bit of over doing it.  I worked out a system of blowing a few spirts and then recovering from hyperventilating, blowing a bit, hyperventilating a bit.









Right.  I realized at this point that I had purchased green, purple, black, white and yellow paint.

Not blue.

I guess I wasn't planning on any skies...…...right

That is OK, I need a lot more practice.  And better lung capacity.

But it already looks way cool as a new medium to use as a backgound.

Right?






6 comments:

  1. The embroideries are amazing! I hope you figure out how to blow that ink before you pass out! It will make a fabulous background for embroidery.

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  2. The smaller embroider pieces are VERY nice...I certainly appreciate all the work and workmanship involved...as to your new 'toy'...good luck! Too much of a learning curve for me and I don't have that much 'wind'...although, my hubby would differ on that statement~!

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  3. Her work is very pretty and I would never have guessed it was so small if you hadn't added your hand into the picture. I'm intrigued to see where your idea leads you, once you have recovered your breath!

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  4. You crack me up! I can just picture you sitting in your yard blowing on that thing that looks like a pot pipe and then getting all dizzy. The neighbors will be talking about that for days!
    Seriously though your latest eco dyed fabric would make a really nice background for an embroidered piece

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  5. Talk about two different posts! You had me enjoying the serene embroideries and really thinking about the landscapes and how Liz achieves the beautiful effect. And I thought of your rust-dyed fabrics and those fabrics that you buried in the back yard years ago.
    Then I read the hyperventilating story. I'd never heard of a paint atomizer, but my mental vision of you sitting cross-legged (Indian style) on the drive will definitely help me remember. You're hilarious!

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  6. Thank you for this amazing blog on my work. As for the mouth diffuser I had to laugh! I know exactly the problem but the secret is to blow as tho' it's a trumpet right from the stomach and not just the mouth. It's always been a challenge for students. I now mostly use spray bottles with pump for each colour but these are getting very difficult to find now

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