Teasel - Embroidered Linocut

"All the knots come to the comb." —Italian proverb

INSPIRATION

When I look back through my thousands of photos of plants, teasel is always there in every season.  I love it the spring when the combs are a lovely shade of green and I love it in the fall when the combs turn brown and the bracts curl upwards.  But it was my photos of the plant in summer that came to mind when thinking about a plant that might lend itself to embroidery.  Right now in the heat of the summer, teasel produces its lovely "tutu" of purple or white flowers.  At the base of each spine is a little ball which eventually becomes a flower.  These flowers, when blooming all together, form a ring around the teasel comb.  I loved the idea of printing the comb in green onto paper and then sewing on purple beads for the "tutu."

SKETCH

As always, I began by drawing the teasel on sketch paper.  

TRANSFER

The design can easily be transferred to the block by turning it over and rubbing the back with a card. This video shows that step.

CARVING

I then use my Flexcut carving tools to carve the design out of my "Safety-Kut" plate.

This video shows the carving process.

CLEAN PLATE

Once the carving is done I clean the plate with vegetable oil.  This is especially important when the color printed will be lighter...in this case green.  (You can get away with skipping this step if you are printing with black ink).

I absolutely love to photograph the plate at this stage.  I love how the light plays with all the ridges and valleys.

TEST PRINT

Once the carving is done, I like to pull a quick test print using a stamp pad.  It is a quick and easy way to see what you have without all the clean-up of regular printing.

CUT EXCESS AWAY

It is rather silly that I carve the way I do.  From the very beginning I could carve the excess away, but I like how the carved lines look.  And so I leave this step until the very end.

This video shows how I cleaned the plate with vegetable oil, stamped the plate to pull a test print, and cut the excess away.

COLOR

Fairly recently I started using my Sherwin-Williams fan deck of colors to help guide me when mixing my ink.  I choose my favorite color and then attempt to get as close as I can to it.  Sometimes it isn't the correct color in the end (as was the case this time), but I think it helps give me a good starting place.  

PRINTING

The day before printing I usually tear all my paper down to size.  It is also best to mix the color the day before, but I usually end up doing it right before printing because I don't like the extra clean up.  Below is the plate with a nice coat of green ink.

In this video I show how I roll ink onto the plate, place the paper down, burnish, and pull the print.  Plus, I have a special visitor!

I  ended up having to tear additional paper in the middle of printing because I thought the color of the first few prints was too light.

Below you can see the print before adding the embroidery.

I had a good time taking a few close-up angle shots on the dining room table.

BEADS

I let the prints dry a couple weeks before starting to play with my bead choice.  I played around A LOT with different beads for this print.  I originally ordered the translucent lucite beads but when they arrived I didn't like how they looked.  They seemed too uniform. 

I then found these beautiful purple Czech glass flower beads and thought I would use only those.  But again it was too uniform.  I finally ended up mixing them and really liked the effect.  

SEWING

I fussed and fussed with the beads to find the perfect placement.  I then took a photo of them with a ruler and printed it onto a transparency with the thought that I would poke all the holes ahead of time.  But sometimes you can't always sew the beads exactly where you planned because of slight movements of the beads when the thread tightens.  In the end I just used the transparency as a guide and did my best to eye-ball the placement.  

FINAL PRINT

Below you can see the final print with the embroidery.

To soften the transition between the print and the row of flowers I ended up adding tiny clear and translucent beads to represent "up and coming" blooms.

I was relieved to finally put the finished print into the flat files next to the "Passionflower" print.

FRAMING

And, of course, I was even more relieved to finally frame the piece for my show at the Weavers Guild.

SHOW

The "Teasel" was purchased during the show by my dear friend, Jenny.  It made me so happy she bought the piece because I have such fun memories of dragging her around to all the bead stores in Cincinnati.  A huge thank you to her for supporting me in so many ways.

Below is the label from the show.

CONCLUSION

“Seek the wisdom that will untie your knot.

Seek the path that demands your whole being.”

― Rumi

While researching teasel I came across numerous interesting references to its medicinal and physical uses.  Its genus Dipsacus means "to be thirsty" and refers to the plant's bowl-like form where the leaves meet the stem that collects both rainwater and dew.  The water "was long believed to have rejuvenating spiritual powers and was considered to be magical. The Irish believed it to be the wine of the fairies and it was forbidden to drink it" (Source). The Roman's referred to the plant as "Venus's basin" and the Christian's "Mary's basin" (Source).  The water was believed to have curative and cosmetic powers, especially for the eyes (Source).  In Chinese medicine the plant is called Xu Duan, which means, “restore what is broken.” (Source)

The water is also important to the plant as it provides a source of nutrients when insects fall into its waters. "It is partially carnivorous. That water is holy for the plant as well people—it is its own composting system" (Source). 

The physical shape of the plant's comb has also been historically important.  "The word 'to tease,' as in 'to tease out a knot' is the root for the name 'teasel' because the dried heads were used for centuries as carding combs for wool, before metal spines were created in factories. The Latin species name fullonum is related to the word 'to full' which means 'to card wool before spinning'" (Source).  

When I was Googling "Mary's Basin", teasel and knots, I came across something interesting.  Apparently Mother Mary is often referred to as "the Undoer of Knots."  I had never heard of this before and loved the idea.  There are even specific novenas you can pray asking for your knots to be undone.  One line of the prayer states, "In your hand there is no knot that cannot be undone." 
 

Painting by Johann Georg Melchior Schmidtner

In addition to teasel research, I have been thinking about knots for two very different reasons.  Last month was extremely dry here in Cincinnati and I have been watering a lot.  I am not proud of it, but sometimes when I am pulling the hose out and I see a knot I get crazy frustrated.  If I am really antsy, I might even give the hose a hard yank to see if it will magically come undone.  I think that has worked zero percent of the time.  I have found that most of the time, there is a true not...meaning that I have to go all the way back and feed the nozzle through the knot to get it undone.  But every so often there is a knot that is only caused by the hose being twisted back on itself.  In these cases all I have to do is lessen the tension a bit and the tangle is released.  Whenever this happens I feel like it is a message to me to slow down.  In these cases very little effort is required; all that is needed is a little attention.

"You untangle a knot with slow teasing, not sharp pulling,
and believe me we have here a knot such as I have never seen.
But I will unpick it. I will."

—C.J. Sansom

The other reason I have been thinking about knots is that I have had a tight muscle in my lower back (OK who are we kidding...in my butt).  Just last week my friend Mary recommended I get an acupressure mat that she has found effective.  When she showed it to me I was surprised to see that it was not the comforting mat I had envisioned, but a BED OF NAILS!!!  She swears that lying on this bed of nails relieves the knots in the muscles of her back.  (I currently have it in my cart on Amazon and have not yet pulled the trigger.)  

Somehow, the spiny comb of the plant I just made a print of is used to "tease out knots"...the plant collects water in bowls called Mary's basin...Mary is the undoer of knots...I have had knots in my water hose...and I am about to buy a spiny mat that gets out the knots in my muscles.  My brain is in a knot just thinking about all these connections.  When I feel confused I like to sit back and see what really "sticks out" to me as important.  When I did so, the takeaway message from this plant was,

"When broken,

pray to the Great Undoer of Knots,

be she clad in robes or spines,

and be restored."

The "Teasel" print is now available at NessyPress.com.

TEASEL

To see clearly how

to loosen the knots

take a drink from my basin

dive into in my waters

comb in hand

spine meets flesh

release the tension

all consumed

until you appear

a purple flower 

no knot

cannot be undone