Thank you everyone who chimed in on my question about embroidery. More than 50 of you shared your opinion!
I am not sure if I am any wiser. Well, maybe a little. It seems that there is some consensus that 'free embroidery' and cross stitch both come under Embroidery in the Needlecraft category - along with hardanger, stumpwork and what have you. I guess you could say they are all one happy stitchy family.
But some do see the different types of Embroidery as different crafts in some way and looking at the Feeling Stitchy Flickr pool the vast majority is definitely of the 'free embroidery' type. Which is interesting. Some people who do, for example, crewel or counted cross stitch might think the group isn't for them.
Floresita, please correct me if I'm wrong- The group is open to everything that is stitched. I think it is really interesting to see what the different types of embroidery are all about. Some may be more restricted when it comes to colours or materials, but you can get inspiration from that too, even if you don't do, say, redwork, and have no intention to.
I, for one, would love to see more stuff that isn't 'free embroidery'. The possibilities are, literally, endless and it would be a durn shame to exclude any of the stitchy stuff.
"I guess you could say they are all one happy stitchy family"
ReplyDeleteI think that's beautifully and accurately put! And a very good way to sort out this debacle!
I don't really know about the differences either. In a way my definition of embroidery goes by anything that goes under the umbrella of the syllabus of the only foundation degree in Hand Embroidery here in the UK (the syllabus being one of those things I regularly day dream over, as I actually can't do it because of the fees, but I still like dreaming ;) ). To quote a bit of the syllabus 'Techniques likely to be covered include crewelwork, blackwork, whitework, silk shading, raised work, goldwork, appliqué and canvaswork.' I like that line because it does remind me that there's more to challenge me out there (that I can do myself, not necessarily just through a degree course).
ReplyDeleteActually, your post the other day, prompted me to go out and refresh my cross stitch skills (as I mainly do free embroidery) and I'm very happily working on some lovely designs now :)
I love free embroidery because it's like 3D drawing, but all forms are so cool. Wouldn't it be neato to see a piece that combined all forms, free, hardanger, pulled, smocked, blackwork, cutwork, bargello??? That's what I'm working up to!
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely, every type of embroidery is welcome! I think some groups tend to be very specific, but we're the catch-all for any type of embroidery out there! If you embroidered it, we wanna see it. :)
ReplyDeleteMy favorite avenue is free embroidery because I don't like the math of counted cross stitch, but for sure all kinds of stitchery fit into the category of stitchery because whatever vehicle we use we get a very common enjoyment and piece out of it.
ReplyDelete