Hand Stitching a New Wall Drawing

"Wall Drawing#3" ©2010 Ayn Hanna, 18" x 17.5", Textile Painting (cotton & velvet fabrics, fabric paint, cotton embroidery threads)

I started this latest piece from the Wall Drawing series during a Leslie Gabrielse workshop in September.  I first posted some thoughts from this workshop experience here.

While the subject matter and imagery are familiar, the construction methods were all new to me – this piece was completely done by hand by collaging and overlapping pieces of fabric and pinning them together, adding some paint with stencils and then hand-stitching the layers together, adding texture with a variety of hand-embroidery stitches.

"Wall Drawing #3"(detail) ©2010 Ayn Hanna

I’ve always admired hand-stitched work, especially for the texture and line quality that you just can’t achieve through any other stitching methods, and for the low tech human-ness present in every piece.  But I never really knew much about it.

Watching Leslie conduct the needle and thread across the fabric surfaces and seeing the magic of the thread drawn marks was all it took to really hook me into this process.  I like the slowed down speed of creating with hand stitching – it’s a meditative, rhythmic, thoughtful process, something soothing to look forward to doing a little bit of every day.  It’s good thinking time.

"Wall Drawing #3" (detail) ©2010 Ayn Hanna

Wall Drawing #3 was completed with no deadlines, just playing and having fun.  I learned and practiced a few of the many embroidery stitches – running, blanket, cross hatch, seed, back, and French knot.

I’ve found a new repetitive meditative way to create, a process that allows easy connection to one’s quiet thoughts and feelings, and generates new work by drawing, with thread.

"Wall Drawing #3" (detail) ©2010 Ayn Hanna