ハッピー ハンヌカー ♥
(Have a latke for me.)
Showing posts with label embroidery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label embroidery. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Monday, July 12, 2010
ゆびぬき：yubinuki, Japanese thimbles
Once again, I have been side-tracked into another J-craft. I officially cannot resist pretty things. Not even a little bit.
These are seriously awesome, though.
The word yubinuki simply means "thimble" in Japanese. It can refer to the bucket thimbles we're accustomed to in the west, leather cuff thimbles, metal pad thimbles, or any one of several "thing that goes on your finger when you are sewing" accessories.
What we've specifically got here are kaga yubinuki (加賀指ぬき). They are padded fabric rings decorated with silk thread. The origin of this style of thimble is credited to the Kaga region of old Japan, modern day Ishikawa prefecture, hence the term kaga yubinuki. When the term "yubinuki" is used in English, it is almost always in reference to this unique type of embroidered thimble.
I discovered yubinuki by way of a related craft called temari (てまり), a topic upon which I really, really hope to do a tutorial soon. The two are related in that they both apply colorful geometric patterns of silk thread to a padded, curved surface. Yubinuki, however, are easier in my humble opinion: there are fewer divisions to keep track of, only one stitch to remember, and they are generally much smaller.
The materials to make a yubinuki are fantastically simple. You need only a small piece of fabric, a needle, some thread in a few colors, some strips of paper, and a little padding. The Japanese use loose-fiber silk padding, but for those stitching in the west, I find that a bit of an unrolled cotton ball works just as well. (Polyfil does NOT work very well, as it is very springy and hard to wrap around the ring base without bits of it sticking out everywhere.)
もし日本語が読めれば、こちらには簡単な how-to があります。:D
If you can read Japanese, here is a simple tutorial all on one page. A more complete tutorial and the pattern to make the double yabane (arrow-tail) pattern can be found here. Even if you don't read Japanese, it's worth a look at just the pictures in each tutorial -- you'll quickly get the feel for what is being done.
Yubinuki instructions in English are a little harder to come by. Fortunately, there is Chloe Patricia and her blog, Ma Mercerie. Madam Patricia gives excellent tutorials for building a thimble base, stitching, making and using patterns, and more, all in English. パツリシア様、大変お世話になりました！
Once you're comfortable with building a ring base, all you need to do is learn the knot to start a new thread on the ring:
...and the single stitch used to make all the various patterns:
What allows for the variety of patterns is the number of divisions you mark on the ring (how many zig-zags of each thread), and in what order the different colors of threads reach across each other. After you get used to the basic stitch, you'll likely be able to mentally de-construct a finished yubinuki and understand the pattern used to make it. I'll be posting the basic ones as I finish graphing them out. :D
Until then:
Tutorials
Base-making tutorial: excellent pictures, Japanese text - also shows how to divide strips without measuring, using a line set or graph (from てんとう虫がやって来た)
Base and stitch tutorial: in Japanese (from Fujix Ltd. publishing)
Base and double yabane pattern tutorial: in Japanese, click each link in order from top to bottom to get a breakdown of materials, base making, divisions, stitch method, and pattern (from Thimble Japan)
Galleries
From 茶飲み話: works from 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009 (all separate links)
From Zuccaさん: handmade yubinuki gallery
From Quilt-Yui: handmade yubinuki divided by design type (click the various links beneath the words 店主のギャラリー, the fourth menu item down in the left-hand frame)
From 人鳥官: yubinuki and quilting, link goes directly to yubinuki section
Blogs
Small pieces (category 加賀指ぬき)
Amerika tsukuri (full of yubinuki, temari, and miniatures of both)
...and there are a ton more. Try copy-pasting the Japanese term 加賀ゆびぬき (kaga yubinuki) into a GIS. Or, you know, just click here. :D
All actual pictures of kaga yubinuki in this post have been blatantly stolen from the Internet; I wanted to credit them, but I lost the links to the sites from which I saved them, 'cause I'm an idiot. -_-; すばらしい加賀指ぬきの写真は無断に盗まれてしまいました。もしかして、あなた様の写真がこちらに見つけて、おしえてください。大変申し訳ありません。
I'll be back soon with a step-by-step of some patterns~
These are seriously awesome, though.
the above images are all yubinuki,and all blatantly stolen from the Internet
What we've specifically got here are kaga yubinuki (加賀指ぬき). They are padded fabric rings decorated with silk thread. The origin of this style of thimble is credited to the Kaga region of old Japan, modern day Ishikawa prefecture, hence the term kaga yubinuki. When the term "yubinuki" is used in English, it is almost always in reference to this unique type of embroidered thimble.
I discovered yubinuki by way of a related craft called temari (てまり), a topic upon which I really, really hope to do a tutorial soon. The two are related in that they both apply colorful geometric patterns of silk thread to a padded, curved surface. Yubinuki, however, are easier in my humble opinion: there are fewer divisions to keep track of, only one stitch to remember, and they are generally much smaller.
The materials to make a yubinuki are fantastically simple. You need only a small piece of fabric, a needle, some thread in a few colors, some strips of paper, and a little padding. The Japanese use loose-fiber silk padding, but for those stitching in the west, I find that a bit of an unrolled cotton ball works just as well. (Polyfil does NOT work very well, as it is very springy and hard to wrap around the ring base without bits of it sticking out everywhere.)
もし日本語が読めれば、こちらには簡単な how-to があります。:D
If you can read Japanese, here is a simple tutorial all on one page. A more complete tutorial and the pattern to make the double yabane (arrow-tail) pattern can be found here. Even if you don't read Japanese, it's worth a look at just the pictures in each tutorial -- you'll quickly get the feel for what is being done.
Yubinuki instructions in English are a little harder to come by. Fortunately, there is Chloe Patricia and her blog, Ma Mercerie. Madam Patricia gives excellent tutorials for building a thimble base, stitching, making and using patterns, and more, all in English. パツリシア様、大変お世話になりました！
Once you're comfortable with building a ring base, all you need to do is learn the knot to start a new thread on the ring:
...and the single stitch used to make all the various patterns:
What allows for the variety of patterns is the number of divisions you mark on the ring (how many zig-zags of each thread), and in what order the different colors of threads reach across each other. After you get used to the basic stitch, you'll likely be able to mentally de-construct a finished yubinuki and understand the pattern used to make it. I'll be posting the basic ones as I finish graphing them out. :D
Until then:
Tutorials
Base-making tutorial: excellent pictures, Japanese text - also shows how to divide strips without measuring, using a line set or graph (from てんとう虫がやって来た)
Base and stitch tutorial: in Japanese (from Fujix Ltd. publishing)
Base and double yabane pattern tutorial: in Japanese, click each link in order from top to bottom to get a breakdown of materials, base making, divisions, stitch method, and pattern (from Thimble Japan)
Galleries
From 茶飲み話: works from 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009 (all separate links)
From Zuccaさん: handmade yubinuki gallery
From Quilt-Yui: handmade yubinuki divided by design type (click the various links beneath the words 店主のギャラリー, the fourth menu item down in the left-hand frame)
From 人鳥官: yubinuki and quilting, link goes directly to yubinuki section
Blogs
Small pieces (category 加賀指ぬき)
Amerika tsukuri (full of yubinuki, temari, and miniatures of both)
...and there are a ton more. Try copy-pasting the Japanese term 加賀ゆびぬき (kaga yubinuki) into a GIS. Or, you know, just click here. :D
All actual pictures of kaga yubinuki in this post have been blatantly stolen from the Internet; I wanted to credit them, but I lost the links to the sites from which I saved them, 'cause I'm an idiot. -_-; すばらしい加賀指ぬきの写真は無断に盗まれてしまいました。もしかして、あなた様の写真がこちらに見つけて、おしえてください。大変申し訳ありません。
I'll be back soon with a step-by-step of some patterns~
Sunday, December 6, 2009
2 + 2
Some people out there are freaking awesome. Some people can take several simple things and make them into one awesome thing.
For example, the mathematical proof I shall hereafter call "Lovebiser's Equation":
Some people
And SOME people are fans of great video games and even pick out all the right items to properly katamaru and get them in the picture for plus 10 points.
*redwork and blackwork are essentially the same thing, except redwork is done in red. Seriously.
For example, the mathematical proof I shall hereafter call "Lovebiser's Equation":
tripart embroidered ornament by Lovebiser
click image to go to very clever tutorial
Some people
And SOME people are fans of great video games and even pick out all the right items to properly katamaru and get them in the picture for plus 10 points.
Let's all petition her to make a Prince pattern. XD
皆さん、このまま色々な小物を作ってがんばりましょう！
Everybody 'round the world, let's keep making stuff! :D
Monday, June 1, 2009
夏 : なつ, "natsu", meaning "summer"
やっとうなつだ！ It’s officially Summer now if you go by the three-month divisions. Happy June to you!
I’ve been slacking off on the blog a little while the family tries to solve some other problems in the real world, like spiders on the wall, a jammed garage door, and unemployment. -_-; (Ongoing, fixed, and ongoing, respectively.)
In the meantime, there are just enough minutes in the day to goof off with thread:
I'm out of canvas. :(
...and paint pots. I'll be back later with a tutorial for a watermelon pot.
I’ve been slacking off on the blog a little while the family tries to solve some other problems in the real world, like spiders on the wall, a jammed garage door, and unemployment. -_-; (Ongoing, fixed, and ongoing, respectively.)
In the meantime, there are just enough minutes in the day to goof off with thread:
I'm out of canvas. :(
...and paint pots. I'll be back later with a tutorial for a watermelon pot.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
String Graffiti
That's what it looks like to me, anyway. :3
A work in progress. Behold its desaturated, scanner-flattened glory.
Having been inspired anew to try my hand at embroidery, I am working on a needle roll. The plan is to stitch pretty colors all over this lovely piece of black cloth I've got, back it with muslin and a strip of thick velvet, load it with all my runaway needles, and roll the whole thing up with a loop-and-button closure. If it works, you can expect a pattern and a tutorial.
German brick stitch/Gobelin stitch be damned; I quickly got carried away and gave in to the temptation to stitch sideways and crossways and every which ways, hoping to pin down (no pun intended) a few of the more traditional Japanese fill patterns. I've got the 矢羽根 (yabane, arrow-tail pattern) and 十字 (juuji, cross pattern) down fairly well. I'm also experimenting with 七宝 (shippou, cloisonne pattern), but it's messy. Hmm.
I'll chart and post the first two patterns. They're not that hard, actually; you could probably just read them from the image.
A side note: By the numbers, this is 28-threads-per-inch jobelin cloth, stitched with 4 strands of cotton floss (DMC). Three strands will also give coverage without encroaching on bare rows, but it's noticeably thinner.
A work in progress. Behold its desaturated, scanner-flattened glory.
German brick stitch/Gobelin stitch be damned; I quickly got carried away and gave in to the temptation to stitch sideways and crossways and every which ways, hoping to pin down (no pun intended) a few of the more traditional Japanese fill patterns. I've got the 矢羽根 (yabane, arrow-tail pattern) and 十字 (juuji, cross pattern) down fairly well. I'm also experimenting with 七宝 (shippou, cloisonne pattern), but it's messy. Hmm.
I'll chart and post the first two patterns. They're not that hard, actually; you could probably just read them from the image.
A side note: By the numbers, this is 28-threads-per-inch jobelin cloth, stitched with 4 strands of cotton floss (DMC). Three strands will also give coverage without encroaching on bare rows, but it's noticeably thinner.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Medievaluable
I really do not have an excuse for all the made up words. ._.
Oh god oh god, the new store is so very big. I keep getting lost. I also, however, keep finding terribly fun things to experiment with. You can expect some softies to start showing up in lovely printed or dyed cotton fabric soon, some paint+ink tutorials, more beading, and embroidery.
On the topic of embroidery, I have recently had the good fortune of discovering Medieval Arts and Crafts by Ms. Kathy Storm. She specializes in... well, Medieval art and craft traditions; including iconography and small authentic items done in a wonderful type of embroidery called German brick stitch (upright Gobelin stitch in modern terms, when applied as a single element). She has close to a dozen patterns charted and available for free right on the blog, along with pictures of finished purses and needle cases and a whole library of links to explore.
If you, like I, have an unyielding aversion to cross stitch, the German brick stitch might very well be your key to enjoying embroidery. It's simpler, faster, smoother, and highly geometric. It also has a fascinating history, which you can learn all about from the venerable House Wymarc. You can also snag some more patterns there - very cleanly charted and easy to follow.
I'll be at the store if anyone's looking for me, probably buried in an avalanche of fleece bolts. (Send help!)
Oh god oh god, the new store is so very big. I keep getting lost. I also, however, keep finding terribly fun things to experiment with. You can expect some softies to start showing up in lovely printed or dyed cotton fabric soon, some paint+ink tutorials, more beading, and embroidery.
On the topic of embroidery, I have recently had the good fortune of discovering Medieval Arts and Crafts by Ms. Kathy Storm. She specializes in... well, Medieval art and craft traditions; including iconography and small authentic items done in a wonderful type of embroidery called German brick stitch (upright Gobelin stitch in modern terms, when applied as a single element). She has close to a dozen patterns charted and available for free right on the blog, along with pictures of finished purses and needle cases and a whole library of links to explore.
If you, like I, have an unyielding aversion to cross stitch, the German brick stitch might very well be your key to enjoying embroidery. It's simpler, faster, smoother, and highly geometric. It also has a fascinating history, which you can learn all about from the venerable House Wymarc. You can also snag some more patterns there - very cleanly charted and easy to follow.
I'll be at the store if anyone's looking for me, probably buried in an avalanche of fleece bolts. (Send help!)
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Of French Knots
Well, back to life in Missouri.
Obama and McCain are somewhere in the vicinity, as are some angry cumulonimbi. Between dodging the heavier periods of rain and giving creative answers to the pollsters who call every hour ("I'm an abolitionist Whig who strongly supports the legalization of absinthe"), I have been fuffing about with string and things.
One thing I still like to do with string is make tiny little compositions entirely out of French knots (フランスノット).
French knots are a terrifically easy embroidery stitch that, when clustered together, make a cool, carpet-like texture. It's like pointillism with thread.
Red dogwood branch on a scrap of denim twill... well, it kind-of looks like dogwood. Just like pointillism, French knots don't allow for the sharpest detail.
Geometric flower on cotton shirting... or at least I think this is shirting. I don't know enough about fabric. As a base for French knots, just use a cheap, square-weave cotton fabric.
You can make French knots on any fabric with a moderately close weave that doesn't stretch. IE, gauzes, gossamer and knits are no good. (ガーゼ、ニットなどが使いにくいので、木綿を使った方がいいと思います.) Your knots will slip through to the wrong side of the fabric when you pull to tighten them, and you'll get frustrated and give up on French knots forever, and that'd be a damn shame. Use plain weave cotton instead. Beyond that, all you need is a needle (longer ones are easier to work with) and some bits of colorful string/yarn/thread/floss etc. (木綿以上、長い針と色々なきれいな糸しかいらない.)
The stitch, if you missed it, can be found here. Very simple.
(簡単ですので、フランスノットをやってみてください、ね。たのしみして！）
EDIT: Here's one more example.
Obama and McCain are somewhere in the vicinity, as are some angry cumulonimbi. Between dodging the heavier periods of rain and giving creative answers to the pollsters who call every hour ("I'm an abolitionist Whig who strongly supports the legalization of absinthe"), I have been fuffing about with string and things.
One thing I still like to do with string is make tiny little compositions entirely out of French knots (フランスノット).
French knots are a terrifically easy embroidery stitch that, when clustered together, make a cool, carpet-like texture. It's like pointillism with thread.
Red dogwood branch on a scrap of denim twill... well, it kind-of looks like dogwood. Just like pointillism, French knots don't allow for the sharpest detail.
Geometric flower on cotton shirting... or at least I think this is shirting. I don't know enough about fabric. As a base for French knots, just use a cheap, square-weave cotton fabric.
Even more fun than making figures, in my opinion, is just making little fields of French knots in different colors. It's good for using up all the little scraps of floss and yarn you might have left over from other crafts. You can stretch your finished abstracts over things, too, and make little bitty artworks.
A tiny pillow, about 3cm square, covered in some knots. It's fascinating, if completely useless.
A pattern of knots stretched over a pebble.
A tiny pillow, about 3cm square, covered in some knots. It's fascinating, if completely useless.
A pattern of knots stretched over a pebble.
You can make French knots on any fabric with a moderately close weave that doesn't stretch. IE, gauzes, gossamer and knits are no good. (ガーゼ、ニットなどが使いにくいので、木綿を使った方がいいと思います.) Your knots will slip through to the wrong side of the fabric when you pull to tighten them, and you'll get frustrated and give up on French knots forever, and that'd be a damn shame. Use plain weave cotton instead. Beyond that, all you need is a needle (longer ones are easier to work with) and some bits of colorful string/yarn/thread/floss etc. (木綿以上、長い針と色々なきれいな糸しかいらない.)
The stitch, if you missed it, can be found here. Very simple.
(簡単ですので、フランスノットをやってみてください、ね。たのしみして！）
EDIT: Here's one more example.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
I hate cross stitch
...but I enjoy having a grid to work on. Cross stitch fabric is a good medium for exactly two things, as far as I am concerned:
1) pixel art
2) visual representations of code
This makes me a nerd. -_-;
And if you can read that, you're a nerd too. Let's be friends!
1) pixel art
2) visual representations of code
Binary, for example.
This makes me a nerd. -_-;
And if you can read that, you're a nerd too. Let's be friends!
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