Getting Started

I have decided that I am going to learn how to embroider for this project. I was inspired to choose this particular skill while reading the section in Handmade Nation about Jenny Hart. Some of the work that she did was so beautiful, and it made me want to see if I had the talent to create something as detailed and beautiful with a medium that I had never used before.

Also, I want to try embroidering portraits of celebrities or other figures in pop culture. It will make for a slight contradiction of sorts because what people tend to embroider is subtle in nature, and I am going to embroider is the opposite of subtle and more along the lines of what is known as kitsch. This refers to art that almost blurs the line of what is and is not art, because the subject matter that is portrayed in the work is usually not considered worthy of being depicted. However, in kitsch, the subject matter is presented in a way that makes it seem artful.

My mother has embroidered in the past, and she has given me a few tips about technique, but I will also experiment with the medium and see what works best for me. She helped me pick out the materials that I will be using, and I am sure that my mother will be very helpful when I have questions during this project.