Smocking - "the end"

This is the last post about my smocking days ... the days when I applied that stitchery to art pieces ... the days when I was studious about color.

Purple & Orange Harmony - 15"x 12"

 Shadowed Hues - 14" x 13"

The one above was juried into The National Needlework Association show that traveled the United States for one year in the 1980's. Here's a close-up of the trellis stitch cross-over patterning.

Rows of the pure hues are laid on top of and off-set over rows of muted tones.  I used only DMC floss.  It was a challenge to blend within a color, let alone to blend into the next hue, even though DMC had lots and lots of colors from which to select.

This one hangs above the coat rack in our front entrance.

Point-Counter-Point - 19" x 9"

My color objective for this one was to combine yellow and violet, whereas, the one at the top was focused on orange and violet.  As I recall, both of these were made while I was taking a year-long correspondence color course through the Embroidery Guild of America.

I loved manipulating the smocked fabric into shapes.

Silk Fan - 20" x 14" (frame)

The thread, fan fabric, and background are all silk.  I just happened to have that mother-of-pearl button to finish the bottom. The gold leaf frame was built especially for this piece by a friend's husband.

As I recall, my color objective was to keep it monochromatic by shading from pink to coral. The rows of trellis stitches were worked in a diagonal pattern across the fabric ... more playing.

This is the last smocked art piece that I created.

Untitled - 16" x 9"

 I had covered a shadow box frame that was made for this piece with the same heavy gray linen that I used as the foundation fabric for the smocking.  However, I didn't like the joins at the corners so it never got mounted.  Here's a photo of it in process.

Then I had the idea twenty years ago to combine this smocked panel with quilted piecing.  I worked on that for most of a week long workshop with Nancy Halpern at Arrowmont Design & Craft School.  I had so much trouble with cutting the parallelogram shapes for the piecing that I decided I really needed to learn the craft of quilting ... that's when the current leg of my creative journey began.  Before it's over, I may get this piece finished  ... all the materials are wrapped up and stored away.

I thank all of you who have left comments in this series of posts.  I very much enjoyed my years of smocking.  During that time of stitching and teaching I learned so much about color and design. Without that experience I would not be where I am today in this amazing journey of making art.

PS: To see all the posts about smocking, click on the "smocking" label at the end of this one.