A new stop on The Floss Box Fall 2012 embroidery blog tour. This time we are visiting Janet Brandt’s blog Embroidery and the World of Possibilities. If you haven’t visited Janet before, be sure you do, her works are delightful!
Stop 1: Sew in Love
Stop 2: Isabell on Flickr, aka ColourinStitch
Stop 3: SewAmy
Stop 4: Kitty and Me Design by Pam Kellogg
Stop 5: Embroidery and the World of Possibilities
How long have you been embroidering?
I have
been stitching for as long I can remember. One of my very first shopping
memories is loving a display of embroidery floss at a dime store. The
threads were yellow/gold and that color sends a thrill
through me to this day.
My parents owned a women’s clothing store
and salesmen would send us boxes filled with scraps of fabric from the
cutting room floor. Great fun for doll clothes! It was also a great
environment for all things fiber. My sisters and I did display work from
a very early age and I started drawing the newspaper ads when I was 13.
How did you learn?
My
great grandmother lived with us and she was always stitching. And my
grandmother was an accomplished needle worker. I don’t remember any
lessons at their knees or anything quite that formal but I loved seeing
what they were doing. I’m sure they must have taught me some of the
basics. I played with all sorts of creative materials on my own. I was
always holed up in my bedroom making something. And I read books and
magazines, anything I could get my hands on. I now have a very serious
library of titles related to all things textile. Over the years I’ve
embroidered, made
dolls, hooked rugs, made quilts,and have now returned to embroidery.
Never
enough! If I get in a couple hours of stitching a day I am very happy.
Some days the hands are just too tired. Other day there is design work
to do either on the computer or drawn by hand.
What are your favorite types of embroidery?
I
love a variety of techniques. I now bring my experiences of crochet,
dollmaking, quilting, drawing and applique home to my embroidery work. I
use, I borrow, from everywhere to get the effect I want.
I started
playing with stumpwork just a couple years ago. And my own version of
crewel embroidery. Because I dyed my own wool fabric colors for rug
hooking, I am able to dye my wool yarns for stitching.
Everything! Well almost, my hands and nails are just too rough for silk!
I have always been in love with the ethnic embroideries of the world,
eastern Europe in particular. All that red is so delicious! I love their
timelessness and the universal themes they depict. Hearts, hands, birds
and trees are found in most cultures.
Over
the years I taught classes in rug hooking, applique and embroidery. The
most important lesson I think I can share with any student is to have
fun. And to listen to what makes you happy personally. After all that’s
why we do this.
More practical advice is to start small and if
possible with a kit/class. Be patient with yourself, and realistic with
your expectations. Practice makes perfect is a well repeated phrase for
good reason!
Over
the years most of my work has been done for publications in books and
magazines as how-to articles. I’ve written 4 quilting books and one book
about the creative spirit in all of us. I use my embroidered and
applique wool quilts to illustrated that book. I’d love to carry on in
that vein and publish my
embroidery work one day soon. I am using my embroidery to tell the
traditional stories and the stories of a “World of Possibilities” that I
am creating.
What else do you enjoy doing?
I
just became a docent at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. The training
was 13 months of amazing classes of art history as well as practice
giving tours and, most important, engaging the audience. I want people
to enjoy going to a museum and not fell intimidated. It’s just art and
we’re all creative people!
