Playing with Brickstitch

Brickstitch is quite addictive in a lot of ways; it’s very geometric and the final product often looks as though the fabric was woven rather than embroidered, especially from a distance.

I hypothesize that this is due to the embroidery stitches all being parallel.

In any case, I like to work patterns out in a software program called inkscape which is a free vector based drawing program available in windows, mac os, and linux (and I use it under linux).

Celtic Knots in BrickstitchSo I was doodling, and created the following pattern.  In dark colours you can’t see the implied knotwork (in black the boundaries are just plain invisible, sadly) but in lighter colours the knotwork should be subtle but visible.  Since I will be embroidering an entire pouch in gold, green, and blue for the hubby, we will test that theory most assiduously.

Except that hubby wants the following colour changes:

  • blue and green become medium blue
  • tan becomes green (but I’m going to use two tones of green since each figure 8 is actually two intertwined ribbons)
  • yellow becomes gold.

Kingdom Arts & sciences Championship 2015 – The Final Post

Having returned home from the championship, I had a blast.  I enjoyed entering, I enjoyed judging other entries, I enjoyed geeking out with fellow artisans …

And since I am human, I enjoyed winning.

But my very favourite comment was from a lady who had judged my research paper, and who had enjoyed the paper so much she asked for permission to share it with her daughter.  Mission to make a paper about math accessible to non-mathies accomplished!

Documentation Uploaded

So the documentation is as complete as it is going to be, and is uploaded to the Projects Page.  Next step is packing up, and getting ready to move on out.

This is a bittersweet championship.  I just don’t see the point in entering any more.  What did me in was having to change my documentation up when the new category criteria and guidelines were posted on Tuesday, for the competition on Saturday.

Kingdom Arts & Sciences Championship, 2015

Next Saturday, 19 Sept 2015, Gleann Abhann will host its tenth annual Kingdom Arts & Sciences Championship (and will be celebrating 10 years as a Kingdom, to boot), and I have been working feverishly to get all the entries together.

 

As of last night I have finished (not counting documentation):

  1. The research paper on mathematical textbooks and bookkeeping
  2. Tabletwoven seal tags based on seal tags circa 1200
  3. An alms pouch, embroidered with an original design based on my personal heraldry

In progress is a meditation journal; I’ve taught the drawing of Celtic Knots before, and started creating a journal of knots and their skeleton structures so that students can see some possible knots and can use the skeleton structures to recreate those same knots.

 

Dixie Weaver will also be at the event, ready to sell silk, books, and other sundries.