How neat is the back of your embroidery (or cross stitch if you're a cross stitcher)? This seems like an innocent question, but it's really not. This is one of those questions that could either create a really fun debate or get me kicked out of some sewing circles.
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| I love Myrna, but I don't want to get kicked out of a JoAnn's for being impertinent. |
Historically, an embroiderer was judged not only by the front of the piece, but by the fact that the back basically was perfect. No weird knots, no errant threads - basically the back of a piece was an exact match to the front. Some people seal the back of a piece to hide the back and to give the piece a finished look. This post is a nice summary of the generational divide in how embroiderers treat the back of their work. Like Amina, I'm on the divide between a more traditional approach and the more "rebellious" (that makes me laugh) new school of artists who aren't as focused on perfection when it comes to the back of a piece. As a museum docent, I appreciate this debate since it brings to life so much of what I talk about when guiding visitors in the museum. New techniques and new schools of thought are the norm in any kind of art. These philosophies and techniques have to evolve - that's how creativity and innovation work.
If I'm making a piece for someone, I try my best to make the back as neat as possible. I don't sell my work right now, so it's easier to make a choice to be more concerned or less concerned about the back since no one is paying me. If I do start to sell my work, I'll probably need to make up my mind about back. I like the idea of sealing the back with another fabric; it does look more finished. However, I also really love the back of embroidery. The jumble of lines, the way the stitches don't look anything like you would expect from the back; it's an entirely different viewing experience.
Today's piece is an experiment in creating a piece from the back. I focused on lines and stitches in this experiment rather than trying to create a specific image. Eventually, I'll do a larger, less abstract piece in this technique, but for now, these smaller experiments will help me figure out how to use the various stitches to make the finished image. The pattern transfer was drawn on the back of the fabric instead of the front, and I set up my hoop so I was stitching the back of the fabric as if it were the front. What you see on the front of the fabric is what would normally be hidden. I decided to err on the side of neat for today; I really want to see how the stitches look.
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| The back as the front. |
Stitches: back, stem, running, and split stitches
Thread palette DMC 600 (3 and 6 strands)
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