Autumn Nuno Slow Stitch Update
I haven’t updated you recently on my slow stitching project. I hate to admit it but after my last post in January, I got out of the habit of daily stitching. It’s amazing how easy it is to stop doing something and then find it hard to get back into the habit again. But I did start stitching again towards the end of March and I have made a little progress.
Here’s the entire piece now. I have added some darker values in the foreground trees, added a few leaves down in the trunk areas and stitched some of the “shrubbery” to the left of the trees. I also added some darker values in the middle ground area to give it more depth.
Here’s a closer look at the area to the left of the trees. I am planning on continuing the stitching in the foreground areas to give the look of bushes and undergrowth. So the slow stitching will continue. I could probably forgo the stitching in the foreground but I like the look of the dense stitching and want to cover the entire surface. It’s not about the time spent on this one but the journey.
I thought it would be interesting to compare a very early photo on the left to the way it looks now on the right. A bit different?
17 thoughts on “Autumn Nuno Slow Stitch Update”
Very different! Up close the dense stitching is beautiful and I imagine very satisfying to do.
Yes, it’s all too easy to let a good habit slide and it is hard to get it back. In this case just pretend that the lapse is simply a relaxing stay in a wayside inn during your journey.
Thanks! the dense stitching is very tactile and makes you want to touch it 🙂 Having a lapse in the journey as you point out is not a bad thing. So I’ll just continue along on my path and enjoy the journey.
I love this piece, Ruth: the way you’ve developed the definition of the whole and the dazzling amount of hand stitching. I’m glad you’ve been able to pick it up again. Do you have plans for it when finished or (to use Lyn’s metaphor) are you just enjoying the journey?
Thanks Lindsay! I am enjoying the journey but I will most likely frame it and put it up for sale. I know that I won’t get the price needed for the extraordinary amount of time put in but that’s OK.
I really like this Ruth, and it’s coming along so well. I was wondering how it was going only the other day. Looking forward to the next update.
Ann
Thanks Ann! Hopefully, I have gotten back into the habit enough that I can give another update in a month or so. It is definitely progressing although still slowly.
I really like how it’s progressing, Ruth. I like how it definitely looks more interesting with the added texture. I’m sure you’ll have a lot of hand stitching ahead of you, but am I the only one to think that’s part of the fun? 🙂
Thanks Leonor! That is definitely part of the fun. Taking 15-20 minutes a day doing what is really mindless stitching, gives me time to contemplate my day ahead.
Beautiful and so full of wonderful texture. I agree it’s tough to get back to things after you stop. I look forward to your updates, you have more patience than I do.
Thanks Marilyn, I don’t know about patience but I do have perseverance or is that stubbornness? 🙂
Whatever it works for you!
Your journey is definitely clear in the comparison between early & ‘current’, almost unrecognisable. So glad to hear that after your stop over (we all need them) you are off again and gathering speed, albeit slowly – if that is not a contradiction!
Enlarging the photo shows the number of stitches you have applied to create such texture. It draws the eye in and is almost luminescent with the gradation of colour. If only you had counted your stitches, I’m sure it would be in the multi 1000s!
Thanks Antje, I certainly would have lost count by now if I was counting stitches. I actually feel that I am getting much closer to the finish line. Hopefully, I will avoid further stoppages.
This has such wonderful texture, when it’s finished how will you mount it? I used to put all my artwork in box frames but more recently I’ve been using the frames without glass and find the work has greater impact without it.
Thanks Karen! I will frame it without glass. I stitch the Nuno felt down to a background cotton fabric and then lace it to matte board. I have written several posts in the past about the process.
It is funny how hard it can be ti find 5 or 10 min sometimes. If you had asked me I would have said you added texture but hadn’t changed it that much. I was great to see how much it has changed from early on.
Thanks Ann, it is amazing how much it has changed. I’m so used to what it looks like now that I was surprised too!