Thread Sketching

 Beth gave me the book, Push Stitchery, as a present.  Rosie James, one of the 30 artists in the book, does thread sketching.  Here is a link to her blog.  And here is a link to Rosie's interview on Wacky Short Creations. 

I had seen thread painting before and only been mildly interested.   Perhaps because I knew I would never have the patience to do all that endless stitching.  But I don't remember seeing thread sketching and I really like it.  Of course, that means I want to find out more about it so that I can try it.  Here is what I have found out about it so far.


The first thing I discovered is that the two terms are used interchangeably alot.  I think they are very different things.  Here is a good example of what I consider to be thread sketching.   And here is an example of what I consider to be thread painting. See the differences?  The thread painting is all about the color that you are adding and filling in the space.  Sketching is about line and I agree with Rosie that black seems to work best. Of course, lots of artist do a mix such as Lesley at the Sketchbook Challenge.


Now I have also found that I am particular about the type of thread sketching that I prefer (see footnote).  For my style I want to not just echo quilt or to outline the shape.   Nor do I want  to stitch every single blessed line that a shape has. What I particularly like about Rosie James's work is that it is more like gestural drawing--it doesn't have every line but enough that you get the essence of the object or person.  Gerdiary does that too.  So that is what I want to do in my thread sketching.

Footnote: I am very pointedly not saying that one style is better than another or that any other artist is wrong for doing it differently.  I am saying what my preferences are and you can agree or disagree with me as far as your preferences go.

I was able to find several tutorials or instructions in various blogs and have  the April/May 2011 QA that has an article on it.  I have listed several of the options here but my very most favorite is Gina at Clutterpunk because she pays attention to the quality of the line.
 
1.  Gina at Clutterpunk

2.  Leni Levenson  Wiener 
Leni has a video on Vol 3 of In Stitches emag but I don't have the copy of that. She also has a book that you can find out more about by going to her website and clicking the "books" tab.

3.   Nettie's instructions.

4. Cyd at Completely Blocked

Time for me to put my sewing machine to work!