Milkweed - Embroidered Linocut

With flower nectar and milk-laden leaves

Who nourishes the Monarch?

Mother Milkweed

INSPIRATION

In September of 2022 I received an email from the Weaver's Guild Exhibition Committee asking if I would be interested in having a solo show.  Of course I said, yes.  And then they asked if I might be able to make new work that had embroidery incorporated into the pieces, like one they had seen of mine in a previous show.  At that point I had only ever made one piece with embroidery.  It was a piece called "The Weaver" which you can see here.  I remembered it was a little difficult to sew that piece, but figured it was because the piece was so large.  I have always been interested in combining different materials and thought this would be a good chance to do so on a smaller scale.  

When I started brainstorming about what plants might lend themselves naturally to having embroidered elements, the milkweed plant was the first thing that popped into my head.  I could picture using either the real seeds or embroidery thread to depict the silk parachutes blowing in the wind.  So in October George and I went for a walk at Winton Woods dam to look for photo references. 

SKETCH

I ended up combining a couple of my photos in Photoshop to get the composition I wanted and then drew my sketch.  Below is a closeup of the first seed pod.

And here is the final sketch on tracing paper.

TRANSFER

The nice thing about using tracing paper is that you can flip it over and rub it with a credit card to transfer the image.  Below you can see the image transferred nicely onto the Safety-Kut plate.

CARVING

The carving is always my favorite part. I love my flexcut carving tools and am slowly getting to know my fancy "Sankaku To" Japanese v-gouge.   

I recently invested in a tabletop Ott light and it makes a world of difference.  Below you can see with light and without.

Once I am done carving the design I usually cut away the excess plate so it will not catch any ink and cause extraneous marks.  It is best not to cut too much away or the plate becomes too wonky and will stretch while burnishing.

This video shows the carving process and has a fun song, so turn on your volume!

(Music: "Yummy Yummy" by Lesfm from Pixabay)

TEARING PAPER

For this project I decided to try a new paper.  Instead of my usual Stonehenge paper I bought Nepalese Lotka paper.  In December 2022 I took a chine collé class at Tiger Lily Press and my teacher, Maureen George, showed us how to tear this type of paper using water.  In the video below I show this process.

In the end I did love the look of the deckle edge.  But I failed to press the paper well after tearing and every piece curled.  I still have a big stack of prints that I need to spray the back of and press.  So if you decide to go this route, be sure to press your paper plat before it dries! 

PRINTING

Lately I have found it is helpful to pick a color swatch from my Sherwin Williams fan deck or my giant box of paint swatches I have collected over the years.  This color then serves as a guide when I mix the ink.  It is best if I mix the color the day before printing, but it rarely happens.  I usually end up trying to mix the color the day of printing and spend at least the first hour trying to get the perfect color.  Then I begin to feel stressed because it has been over an hour and I haven't even printed yet!  This time was no different.  Below you can see my printing set up.

I love how the plate looks with wet ink on it.

I couldn't resist including this photo because it shows my two helpers.  George always jokes that we should have named the studio "Cat Hair Studio."

In the following video you can see the printing process from start to finish.

(Music: Inspiring Ambiance by Scott Holmes)

PRINT

I was very happy with how the print looked on the Nepalese Lotka paper.  I experimented with using both sides of the paper.  Most of the prints were on the smooth side, but there were probably a couple on the rough side.  I liked both, but the rougher side is harder to print as you have to burnish harder to make sure of an even print.  The print below was on the smooth side. 

Below is a closeup of the double pods.

SEED MATERIAL 

I haven't mentioned yet that part of my inspiration for this piece was randomly walking into a spinning demo by Pat Maley at the Weaver's Guild.  Pat was spinning cotton and showing people how to extract the cotton from the seed pod.  She also mentioned flax and showed different examples of the final threads you can get with both.  It got me thinking about perhaps using the real milkweed seeds in my piece, or maybe using flax thread. 

I collected seeds and pressed them for a couple months.  I even experimented with dipping them in liquid "YES" paste and then pressing them between wax paper.  That experiment failed when I realized the threads of the milkweed were too thin and the paper glued together.  Luckily I also pressed lots of them without the glue.  Below you can see them laid out onto the print.

I liked how they looked but realized the threads would not be as visible as I wanted... especially if I glued them flat.  Plus, at this point I was firming up the idea that the common "thread" woven into all the new work for the show would be "regular" embroidery thread. 

Also, as an extra bonus, I was starting to have an additional goal of weaving mystical elements into the pieces if possible. I originally bought the Virgin Mary beads for some little maple helicopter seeds I printed in my chine collé class.  I thought I would use them as the seed heads.  Instead, I ended up making two large maple helicopters so I put the beads aside.  When I let go of the idea of using real milkweed seeds I knew the Virgin Mary beads would work perfectly.  I didn't know how perfectly until I saw them side by side!  It felt like the universe had worked some pretty amazing magic!

SEED PLACEMENT

When I first envisioned this piece I thought I was going to have five seeds blowing away in the wind.  Below you can see my playing with that positioning.

I ended up lowering the number to three seeds.

SEWING

Part of what helped me make the decision to have three seeds was making a sample embroidered seed and then scanning the print and my sample into Photoshop.  It then became clear that three seeds was all I could fit.  It was also very helpful to print out my Photoshop mockup onto a transparency.  I then used it as a guide to make the holes before embroidering.   Below you can see the transparency with my hammer and awl.

Here you can see the print after hammering the holes and before sewing.

Below is a photo of my first sample seed.  I wasn't sure how it was going to go, but I did know that I wanted to attempt to have a slight curve on the lower threads.  I started by sewing the lowest holes first.  Then when I sewed the holes above it, I "grabbed" the lower thread.  I was hoping they would make more of a curve, but I think the effect was better than sewing straight lines from the middle to each hole.

FINAL PRINT

The best photo I have of the final print was taken on this plastic grid.  

FRAMED

Finding a frame that would accommodate three-dimensional objects was a bit of a task.  I finally ended up purchasing frames from Wayfair that had a nice built-in spacer.  I would never have known they had it from the description on the website, but luckily my neighbor had bought some and I saw them in person.  It is possible to add your own spacers, but sometimes the frame is not thick enough to fit the extra depth.  Weirdly, Wayfair accidentally sent me MANY extra frames...so I will be offering framed prints on the website.

SHOW

For the show at the Weaver's Guild I made a label for each print with pertinent information and a couple of quotes that I felt went with each piece. 
 

As most of you know if you read my post about the show, I have been especially drawn to Buddhism in recent years.  But I have never written much about my Catholic upbringing. If I had to choose one thing that resonated with me from my time going to church all those years, it would be the Virgin Mary.  I remember there was a statue of her at the front of the church.  I loved to look at it.  It was a statue of her in her blue robes with her arms down at her sides.  I thought she was beautiful and liked to think I could feel love emanating from her.  I didn't know it then, but the subject of the Divine Mother has come to fascinate me.  I love reading about the subject and all of her various forms.  

One of my original ideas for the show was to convey the idea that the miraculous is everywhere if we only have eyes to see it.  When I saw how real milkweed seeds all appear to be stamped with her form it made me ridiculously happy.  I love the idea that "All forms are the Mother."  If we can't find her in a plant called "milkweed" than I don't know where else to look.    

Expand the word, "Mother"

Let it emcompass the hills,

the morning,

that which feeds you.

Mother is much too big a word

for one person alone to hold.

Take it off her shoulders,

Hand it to community,

warm baths, anything that soothes and restores.

Healing is learning to know where to find The Mother

in her myriad forms

whenever you need her.

—Chelan Harkin, Susceptible to Light

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

Faith In A Seed: Solo Exhibition

FAITH IN A SEED

At the end of April I opened my first solo, "Faith In A Seed," at the Weavers Guild of Cincinnati.  The day was truly magical.

When I arrived the exhibition committee was busy setting up the food which was not only beautiful but delicious!

THE TALK

When I walked out to give my talk and saw my friends and family filling the room to capacity, it made me want to cry.  I felt so supported in that moment and I want to thank every person who came out.  I truly felt the love!

I was both nervous and excited to give my talk.  I haven't had to speak in public in a long time and was a bit rusty.  I planned my talk so that I could ease into it by reading this wonderful quote that encapsulated the whole theme of my talk.

I then moved on to my first question, "Why embroider paper?"  The short answer to that question was that Barbara Moss, the head of the Exhibition Committee, contacted me last September and asked me if I wanted to have a solo show.  I, of course, answered, "Yes."  She then said they had seen a piece I had embroidered into at the Kennedy Heights Arts Center a year ago and "could I make new work that would have embroidery?"  I said yes and that is the short answer to why I made five new pieces with embroidery.

But I have long been interested in combining different materials in my work.  And when I looked back I could see the roots of this in cards that I had embroidered for my family for various occasions.  The brown and pink Valentine's Day card at the top shows how I was starting to become interested specifically in how printed paper can interact with embroidery.  Plus, I had to admit, I just think it looks cool!

I also told a short story that while in college in the 90s I was employed at Cox Arboretum in Dayton.  And one of my first assignments on the job was to pick a quote and put it on the bulletin board.  I remember choosing the quote below and I think it has been working on my psyche ever since!

I believe that my whole life has indeed changed from noticing the miracle of a single flower, acorn cap, or seed pod.  In the talk I described how this idea of finding the miraculous in the mundane has been a theme that has pervaded my work from day one until the present... and is indeed the purpose behind all of my work.

The next portion of the talk was describing the process I went through to make the new embroidered work.  I used the "Buddha Seeds" as my example and showed videos of each step.  I am going to write a blog post about each piece, so if you are interested in the process, it is coming soon!

ARTIST STATEMENT

During my talk I described how each piece took me on quite a journey.  There were amazing highs and some real low points.  But every single time I learned something more about myself.  Even while working on my artist statement for the show I had a major epiphany.  I had written the bulk of the statement a couple weeks prior to the show and in it I kept using metaphors related to seeds.  I described how a seed was planted in me and how that seed grew and produced flowers and fruit.

The last week before the show I kept fussing with the wording of my artist statement.  I would think I was finished and would save the "final" jpg and send it off to the committee chair.  Not only that, but I would print it out and mount it to foam core for the show.  I probably did it five times thinking I was finished (and had to go buy more foam core!)  But days before the show I had a major realization that I had to include in the final sentence.  Here is the statement in its entirety (see below image for legible words).

"It is not lost on me that my favorite subjects (plants and their seed pods) are symbols of fertility.  And that my artistic journey began ten years ago after my struggle with infertility.  When I look back on that now I don’t think it is a coincidence.  My “descent” into infertility was a very real walk into the darkness.  Sometimes the path was excruciatingly painful.  Spending years in the dark, you get to know it well.  I was desperate to end my suffering and coming from an academic background I asked myself, “Who knows about suffering?”  In my mind, the answer was “The Buddhists do!”  I threw myself into studying suffering and how to end it.  I read book after book.  What I didn’t know then was that a seed was planted in that darkness…a seed that began to grow.

I wouldn’t have put it this way at the time, but my lack of fertility success gave me the gift of time.  It allowed me to investigate my interest in three things: spirituality, plants, and printmaking.  My intense study of suffering/healing/self-help eventually led me to a meditation retreat that changed my life.  I sat for days in the darkness of my closed eyelids.  And through some miracle of fate, I found something in that darkness that was so achingly beautiful I am forever and profoundly altered.  Sitting in that dark, rich silence I discovered a light in me that I never knew existed and to this day brings tears to my eyes. When I returned home, I quit all my paying jobs and very soon began working on my printmaking full-time. 

I became obsessed with plants, particularly the structure of seed pods.  I would go on long walks and would stumble across an acorn cap or dried seed pod.  I loved photographing them.  Often when I would get home and look at the photos close-up, I would be left in awe.  Their forms are miraculous and yet we all walk by them every day and don’t even notice!  I knew I wanted to enlarge the images and make prints to draw attention to their incredible beauty. 

And every single print I made took me on quite a journey.  Printmaking is a long, drawn-out process for me.  I would spend a week on the sketch, a month on the carving, and depending on the number of colors, another one to four weeks printing.  Each print would offer up unique challenges.  By the time the final print was pulled, I would know each plant’s curves, nooks, and crannies intimately.  When I completed each print, I would finally sit down to write the blog post.  And I could see the plant and the print were my greatest teachers.  As I was working on the “Chinese Lantern” image of a seed in its spherical “cage” I found it was teaching me about having good, protective boundaries.  Or when I would have a rough day printing, I learned about self-care, tenacity, and the balance between the two.  And when making design decisions I learned to listen to my intuition.  I would often find interesting connections and synchronicities that I could not have imagined existed.  One time I was working on a print of a seed pod to represent Women’s Suffrage.  I selected an image of a pod online to use as a reference and later found it was from a “She Oak” tree (that became the title of the piece). Or I would put the image of the Buddha on a seed husk and find out there is a centuries old term that describes it perfectly (Tathagatagharbha!). 

When I was asked to create new work for the Weavers Guild show with embroidery, I loved the challenge.  At first, I focused on finding plants that might naturally lend themselves to adding threads.  And then I realized another theme was presenting itself.  To convey the idea that one can find the miraculous in the mundane, I started incorporating “mystical” elements into the pieces.  Whether you call it magic, the divine, the mystery, Buddha-nature, God, or simply life, there is something astonishing happening here!  In every leaf, petal, seed and flower it is there!  Indeed, the more I look, the more I find!  It is my hope the viewer senses the magic woven into these pieces…and recognizes this golden thread that surrounds and connects us all.

Ten years ago a seed was planted in the darkness.  It wasn’t the seed I wanted or expected.  But the seed has grown, flowered and produced fruit.  It has taken me on a journey from, “This is the worst thing that ever happened to me... to the best thing.”  I am so very thankful for this exact journey and grateful I don’t control everything.  I can see now that creativity comes from emptiness, that my suffering led to inexplicable joy, and that “the design” is created by both light and dark.  I have learned to have faith in life itself... and I have learned to have faith in a seed.  I finally realized, that seed is me...that seed is me."

 

“I have great faith in a seed.

Convince me that you have a seed there,

and I am prepared to expect wonders.”

— Henry David Thoreau

I was a bit anxious about sharing all of that with everyone.  But for some reason I feel compelled to start making my outside look more like my inside.  It is a scary thing to be so vulnerable, but I think this life is about trying to be "me" to the fullest extent I can.  A bird is singing right now outside my window, and it makes me think that we all have our unique song and we are all deeply longing to sing.

PHOTOS OF SHOW

Tathagatagargha

I was so enjoying myself talking to everyone at the show that I completely forgot to take pictures!  So most of these photos are from family and friends (thank you Mark, Mary, Dad, Jenny, Katie's Mom, and George).

Milkweed, Columbine

Passionflower, Teasel

I plan on featuring each new piece in a blog post and will be adding them to my website with each blog post.

Barbara, the exhibition chair, asked me if I had any frame holders to hold my cards up.  I looked around the house and couldn't find any.  But then I found the perfect card holder in these old seed pods and it made me weirdly happy.

 

All the prints in this post are now available on my website, NessyPress.com.

THANK YOU

A big thank you to the Weavers Guild for hosting the show and asking me to go on this journey.  I also want to thank Jenny Thacker for loaning me her "She Oak" print at the last minute and for being such a supportive friend.  My Dad also loaned me his "Weaver" print for the show.  He not only loaned me his truck to transport it, but he wrapped it up so well it was like Ft. Knox trying to open it! Thank you for your love and support Dad!  I also want to thank my Mom who is my biggest supporter.  My Mom owns more prints of mine than anyone else in the world and she has no more wall space in her house!  Thank you Mom!

I also wanted to especially thank those who purchased prints.  It made me feel like all that hard work was worth it and literally helps support me and the work. 

And finally I want to thank my husband George without whom none of this work would not be possible.  He also kept me VERY well fed throughout the months and put up with A LOT of, "I need your opinion or help or shoulder to cry on."  His patience, encouragement, and love has helped water, nurture and tend this seed that is me and I couldn't have a better partner on this crazy journey.  Thank you.    

Macramé Wreaths

“Do anything, but let it produce joy.” – Walt Whitman

Instead of printing Christmas cards this year I decided to take a break and try something new.  I thought I would make my family macramé wreaths and ornaments.  I watched quite a few YouTube videos before I found the one I liked best.  If you would like to make this ornament here is the link to my favorite instructional video.  

I altered the video instructions just a bit and used #5 macramé thread on a 2.7 inch wood ring.  I then cut fifteen 14 inch pieces, plus one 26 inch piece for the holding cord.  

A good life is like a weaving. Energy is created in the tension. The struggle, the pull and tug are everything.

— Joan Erikson

  Here is a timelapse video of the process:

As you can see below, the first one I made was not perfect, but I got better at it as I went along.

After making a handful of the wreath ornaments I got ambitious and thought I would try a bigger wreath.  I again watched A LOT of wreath making tutorials and found this one that I liked the best.

I altered the "recipe" of the video a bit because my ring was smaller than hers.  I used a 6 inch hoop and cut thirty-five 44 inch pieces of thread (7 cords for 5 sets).  I also used #6 thread. Here you can see me starting the wreath by attaching my threads to the hoop.  

When the wreath was finished I wanted to take a photo with something in it to show the scale.  Otus volunteered to help out with that.

"The world is bound in secret knots."  —  Athanasius Kircher

For the first wreath I used unpainted beads because I thought my Mom would like the subtle tones.  For the second one I made for my Dad I used red wooden beads.  Here you can see my makeshift setup.  I just happened to have a physical therapy band handy and it worked to hold the wreath as I knotted each set.

Below you can see both front and back.

I learned so much from making these wreaths and it brings me joy just looking at them.  I have always loved wreath/donut shapes.  I not only like the beauty of the wreath itself, but I also think it is a celebration of the empty space in the middle.  It is a contrast of cacophonous joy surrounding peaceful space and silence.  I hope your holiday season is filled with both joy and peace, and I send each and every one of you a warm hug from Nessy!

Love weaves itself from hundreds of threads.

—David Levithan