In a nut shell (a very small one).

Summer came and went. How and where?? I've no clue! It seems to me it went by in a haze of stitches, birthdays, a new pet, a short trip to the other side of the pond, another closer to home and much wandering, and plotting.

This year we couldn't go on our traditional road trip, so we got a pet. How's that for planning? What really happened is that we finally succumbed to our little one's demands for a kitty. It seemed like the perfect time to get a pet (we have been postponing this for 12 years or so).

We feel absolutely delighted and blessed to have her in our lives. I'm  astonished to the hours she keeps, she loves sleeping on top of my fabrics (my precious indigo), and loves all things related to keeping you distracted to what you're supposed to do. Oh! And my phone is filled with pictures of her...

Spending two wonderful weeks with my mother and sister (and my little one who travelled with me), was simply the best therapy one could hope to get if one needed therapy ;) I'm feeling energized (except for the part where jet lag was involved), full to the brim with vitamin D and ready to stitch well into winter (providing the cat lets me).

So far so good!

Wishing you all the best, and a lovely crisp and gorgeous autumn, or spring if you're on the other side.
Giova (the most inconstant blogger there is).

100 days of Persuasion

What?? One hundred days of what??? If you follow me on Instagram, you have probably seen the images below, if not, well here they are.

It started as a challenge, and I really had no clue what I was doing. On a whim I picked the hashtag (you need one), and I thought easy peasy, I'll just finish embroidering the handkerchief I started more than a year ago. Hahahaha!!

Can you imagine seeing 100 pictures of the same handkerchief??

Well, I can't! And so, I embarked on making things that related to sentences, places, objects that appeared in the book. (Persuasion by Jane Austen).

A sort of visual album, my own version of certain things and moments that occur in the book. I have been either making things, as you can see, but I have also managed to make my life easier by finding everyday images that can relate to certain passages or places in the book.

Daunting? Difficult? Perhaps both, but it has been good for me to force myself to imagine things I could make, and also to get me away from so much blue. I do miss my blue though!

Nurse Rooke, for example, appears for a tiny instance, but I immediately thought of her (above), so I set out to make her. I learned to make these particular dolls from Julie Arkell, and you can see the others I made here, here and here.

Fortunately there are many instances where LOVE is mentioned, so that one is a bit easy. This one became a brooch, and it is for sale here.

Now all I have left, are 73 more to do. To be honest, I don't know how much more I can squeeze my brain to come up with, but I'll be more than happy if I reach the 50 mark.

Wishing you a lovely and very creative week,
Giova

Off to the fair

"Sometimes what you're most afraid of doing is the very thing that will you set you free."

- I don't know where I got this from

"Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it."

-Maya Angelou

Even if I grew up making little things to sell at school or in front of my mother's shop I never had a table at a fair. I had always thought about it, but I was always too scared to put myself "out there." 

At the beginning of this year I told myself I would just do it and not think too much. Just do it, the thoughts can come up later. And then the timing wasn't right (when is it ever?).  I had only 15 days to make things as I had been traveling quite a lot, and I can never really find the time or energy to make things when I'm out and about. 

Of course many thoughts came and went like; Will I sell? Will people like what I do? Would people even notice the table?

Many things happened those two days, mostly in mind. The reality is always very different from what we imagined. I did sell. The people that approached my table did like what I do. And yes some people noticed my table.

The fair was the wrong fair for me and my work, it ended up being very different from what I had perceived the year before, but that has even made me more excited to find another fair that is actually better suited for me and my work. I think the first step is always the hardest, but once you're "out there" you simply are, and there is no turning back.

I have added this embroidered tree to my Etsy shop, and will be adding a few more things this week.

If you have ever thought of having a table at a fair or market, I really can't recommend it enough. Find the strength, do what you love and show it.

Lots of love, and happy spring,

Giova

Birds and ... more birds

I can't believe January is almost gone. Happy 2016!!  I hope you get to do everything you put your mind to... and then some more.

Half of my month went in a daze of shorts, sandals, and warm blue skies... the other half in a mist of cold and grey, nursing a sick kid.

Life is always balancing itself out, teaching me a few things, and I'm always grateful for all of it.

Two days ago I started reading this book, which was a Christmas present from my sister. What an amazing, inspiring and wonderful read. Can't think of a better book to start the year with.

I have also joined this Valentine's day swap, and I will show you what I will send in a few weeks. As you already might know I LOVE Valentine's day. Hearts just make me happy, and so I have started embroidering a few and adding them little by little here.

Soon I'll be going to Edinburgh for the very first time in my life. And I'm not only looking forward to seeing the city, but also meeting some of my Paper Love friends. We have a very active group on Facebook, and now we have an actual face to face meeting... I just couldn't be more excited about it.

This picture just makes me so happy, I had to share it with you.

And finally...I finished my bird!!!  I'm very happy with it, as it is my first attempt at working in a bigger format -other than the tiny pieces I embroider to sell. I'm trying to push myself, to get out of my comfort zone, to try and translate certain feelings and experiences into the fabric. So far it has been a wonderful experience, and I'm looking forward to finish my latest piece so that I can show it to you.

Sending you a very big and warm hug. I really hope all is well at your end,
Giova

A roof in the palm of your hand

I wanted to show you my latest commission. It is a really small brooch (6 x 6.5 cms), and it is supposed to be the central bay of the Mausoleum of Galla Placida in Ravenna. These are the symbols of the four evangelists surrounding the cross and floating in a blue sky of stars. OK, pheeewww!! You can see it here or read more about this magnificent place here. 

I have always wanted to visit this place (it is still on my bucket list) and as an "ex-art historian" I knew exactly what this place was when the person mentioned what they wanted.

On the other hand, as an "amateur embroiderer" I must say it was quite a challenge to try to fit a roof on a tiny square, but I was very curious to see how I would manage. Obviously the blue sky was one big factor pulling me in, but the figures were not. Somehow the more work I did, the closer it started resembling the actual roof... but by no means it is a replica.

I am happy with the result and I think the new owner is quite pleased as well. Pheewww!!

I hope all is well at your end. I feel I want to complain about the weather, but I won't, after all I am not south of the equator, but soon will be close enough. I am quite excited about it!! For that reason,
I have added a discount on my Etsy shop, just use the code: THANKFUL. I will be closing it the 12th of December.
Giova

A bird Spirit and some other thoughts

First of all I would like to introduce you to my recent piece "Bird Spirit." I'm exploring with different things lately and this is one of those results. I hope I captured his essence and I hope you can see mine as well. It is about nothing and everything, solitude and what we carry around with us, the things that are not visible…

Secondly I want to write a bit more about the subject of depression, just to say some things that were left out last monday...

I haven't had depression for the past 15 or 16 years, in fact my husband doesn't know that part of me. He does know my moody self rather well though. But even if I haven't felt depression lately, I did feel it for many years. So what I meant on monday is that I felt it was creeping back at me. My last pregnancy left me with a hormonal imbalance and lately my downs have been really down - like down there on the minus 10th floor or something. It doesn't mean I am depressed, … I don't think it is something I should feel ashamed of now, but I did many years ago. It was mostly how people made me feel -on top of what I was already feeling.  Some people said to me, among many other things; that depression is a joke, that we are just unhappy and  ungrateful people, that it is all in our heads… Guess what? Yes, it is all in our heads - a chemical imbalance - that most of the times need to be treated with medicine…

Depression doesn't go away because you stop listening to sad music, or exercise daily, pray to God and every saint there is, change the way you dress, read the right books, surround yourself with flowers and nature… It doesn't work like that. Just like explaining what depression is to a person who has never felt it - you simply can't. I doesn't go away because you wish it so… and the harder you fight it, the stronger it clings on to you.

I've had feelings of sadness, melancholy, frustration, failure, abandonment, you name it, I've felt it, haven't we all? - but those feelings are not depression… I can't explain what depression is, because I only know my depression, no one else's, and we are all different.

I only hope that if you are suffering from this illness you go out there and find help in any way you can.
I suffered in silence for many years until I could no longer do it. In my experience there is light at the end of the tunnel, but it also takes a looong time to find it, and once you find it - it doesn't necessarily mean it will be a constant, and bright light all the time. Life is never the same. It is filled with many ups and downs and beautiful and ugly moments along the way.

Here are a Few Things I'm enjoying at the moment:

- the view from my desk.
- this photographer's landscapes which I find stunning.
-I relish this newsletter every week, it is a joy to receive. I can't recommend it enough.
-And this work for some reason is giving me the strength to keep going on with mine. I've always been in awe of her work, but lately even more.

I hope all is well at your end, and that you have a beautiful yellow tree to look at,
Giova

Getting a grip

It has been more than a while. I didn't expect this break to take so long, but I sort of let it slip by, and the more time I was away the harder it was to come back.  Strange… I would have thought that after that "resting period" it would've been easier to get back, but no!

I'm rusty. I thought I was done and had nothing more to share, plus a lot of past demons kept resurfacing and I needed to be strong… to make them go away. But they just won't go away, they are there and perhaps they will always be, as a reminder of sorts…

Sometimes I think I am so fragile -handle with care- at other times I surprise myself with the strength that I have -unbreakable- but it is never the two at the same time -what a shame- … anyway this is starting to look like a never ending story… I'll just say that my hair fell out in chunks which led me to a doctor that said; "you have a thyroid problem take this medicine probably for the rest of your life." which made me look for an alternative route, but during this search I've been visiting the dark abyss of what used to be my old depressive self. Oh, boy!! I thought I will never have to see that self again, not look at her scared eyes in the mirror and ask her, NOW WHAT???

I will find a way out, this time with out any medicine (crossing fingers), I'm writing on my journal again, and I'm back at my sofa stitching, doing what I love, little by little, hoping, praying…

This is one of my recent works. Very personal... not at all what I usually show here, but what the heck! I'm all about opening up and confronting my "demons."

I hope you are well where ever you are, and thank you for still being here - if you are-
Giova

On Commissions and compromises

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I had been asked by someone to make 8 "badges/patches' for 8 different jackets.

I have made several "commissions" before, but mostly to people that I know. I met the commissioner here, after he saw one of my brooches on someone who had purchased one that same day. He briefly explained what he wanted for the 8 jackets, and a few days later we met to discuss all the details.

Basically, all the patches needed to be different, and the cost not so high. He also gave me these fabrics, and I was to incorporate pieces of them on the patches, other than that... free reign. So how do you give someone 8 ideas and not charge too much?? How do you make something for someone you don't really know, especially their taste?? Hmmm, questions, questions…..

I simply started by not thinking too much. I made the one above, and then 2 more. All different ideas. After I finished those, I thought it was too much… eight different ideas, all full of details and stitches, and a lot of my time. Scratch that and start over...

I needed a simplified version of this one, something that I could actually make 8 times without raking my brain. I needed to make a compromise with myself. I needed to know where to draw the line. Not an easy thing when you want to give the very best of yourself. It is after all, your work!

This was my compromise which ended up being the commission. They are supposed to be the label of the jackets- men's jackets, and they have one thing in common, the shape of a fingerprint.

I'm very happy with the result, and so was the "commissioner." I'm glad they are all different but that they have a common ground, so it was much easier for me to work around a central theme, and not wear myself down.

I also forgot to mention it was fun and exciting. The what to do, and how to do it, to repeat without actually being repetitive, and the stitches, the million stitches that make me so very happy to be able to do what I LOVE to do, is the best thing EVER.

Even if these are so different to what I usually work on, departures from what I'm used to doing, are wonderful distractions, and very, very inspiring.

I have a trip coming, an unplanned trip - business, not pleasure. I'm not sure I'll be able to write, but maybe I will, I never really know.

I wish you wonderful days, filled with blue skies and warm winds,
and thank you so much for tuning in, and leaving comments here and elsewhere,
Giova

Mend, darn, repair

I've been itching to learn how to darn since last year. My alter ego, who is hanging from a very appropriate spot in my living room is a constant reminder of that, so when this past saturday I entered a yarn store, and lo' and behold Tom of Holland was there, and my knees were all shaky, I thought; "now or never." I mean, if an encounter with the king of darning won't persuade you, who will??

I love, LOVE imperfection, rough around the edges,  a wabi-sabi sort of view, and most of all fabrics with holes, tears and mending.

It is a fascination that I have, that hopefully doesn't have any roots in my childhood, or maybe it does (like most things), but I really don't want to know.

 I don't know how to darn, and I don't want to watch any how to's videos, I just want to learn as I go.

Some months ago my father called me to say that his "precious" sweaters had been under attack, and I was very insistent that he brought them over to me, and not to the trash.  Moths love cashmere, and so they were enamored with this sweater in particular. Which I am too. I'm hoping my father doesn't want it back.

The good thing is that not much is needed to repair a sweater, only a bit of knowledge (which right now, I don't even have a bit). The mushroom and wool on the left are for some socks that also need mending.

These are my first attempts. The sweater has soooo many holes, that I think I will be able to graduate with honors when I'm done repairing it.

I have started a new board on Pinterest with the exact same title as this post. Before I used to put all of those darns, under the embroidery board, but it really isn't embroidery, it is more like weaving.  Maybe you remember how my attempts at weaving went?  It is here, in case you don't.

For more darning inspiration head over to this amazing blog.

Next week is this blog's 3rd birthday and what better way to celebrate than a giveaway. So I hope you tune in.
Have a wonderful weekend,
Giova

Blog hop

I was asked by the lovely Alison Sye to be a part in a blog hop which links artists and makers from around the world. I was introduced (virtually) to Alison by Tina and from then I have been an avid follower of her beautiful work. These are the times I love the virtual world best!

The hop consists of answering 4 questions, and then linking to new artists/makers to continue with the flow of the hop.

words from a dream I had

How does my process work?
As a beginner embroiderer I must say my process is all about learning and practice. I'm interested not only in words and how they look, but also how the fabric and thread affects them. Another important aspect for me is how my mood alters my writing, and consequently the strength or lack of it that I put on each stitch. The hardest part for me is finding a text that resonates with me. As soon as I find it I look in my stash for a handkerchief that best fits the text, then I choose the type of letter and finally the thread's color and thickness.

I carry your heart by E.E. Cummings

How does my work differ from others of its genre?
As Alison said in her post, "nothing in this world is new." I believe this completely. We are all just recycling ideas, and trying our best to make them our own. We experiment, we try here and there with what works best for us and then we either keep at it, or move on. I don't like perfect or generic letters, and try my best to explore with different ways of writing and how a particular way of writing affects the poem or paragraph I've chosen. Each time I start a new handkerchief I consciously choose how the letters will look so that in a very minimal way it will alter the impact of the writing. That said, I really have no idea how my work differs from others of its genre.

Cloths of Heaven by W.B. Yeats

Why do I do what I do?
Apart from loving it with a passion?  I've been very creative throughout my life, and explored many arts and crafts, but it was only until  a few years ago when I started to embroider words that I felt a kind of bliss and sense of purpose, a feeling of "I have arrived," and knew at that instant that I had found something that I could do for the rest of my life.

Prayer by Hugo Williams

What am I working on?
Thankfully there is always something that needs to come out of my head, whether it is a diy craft for the blog or coming up with different things for my Etsy shop or new words that I feel compelled to embroider. There is always something!

Next week the artists I've chosen will answer the same questions, and I'm looking forward to reading their answers. They are:
Mirta from Miplusedesign who is an illustrator and print maker. Her work is a constant source of inspiration for me, with her nature inspired minimalistic drawings and transferring them to beautiful scarves and notebooks.

And Juliane from Fröken Skicklig who is a professional doll maker, and makes in my opinion the most idyllic settings for the dolls, and the most beautiful clothes for them ( I always wish I could dress like them).

You really should also check both of their Instagrams as the word beautiful falls short in both cases.

I wish you a lovely Thanksgiving day, filled with yummy food and surrounded by family and friends,

all the best,

Giova