I’m a day late with the newsletter this week. (Maybe you noticed, maybe you didn’t!) But, better late than never—especially because I'm thrilled to share with you an interview with Deanna Skow of Six Eyes Stitches.
I discovered Deanna's work through her Spotlight embroidery series. As the name suggests, the pieces have a spotlight effect and illuminate a portion of the composition. In Deanna’s case, this is often achieved as a clever hoop-within-a-hoop design.
I spoke with Deanna about her work, how Spotlight came to be, how she approaches her artwork, and advice for other creatives. Read our interview below, and be sure to follow Deanna on Instagram, where she's @six_eyes_stitches. You can purchase her work in her Six Eyes Stitches online store.
Thank you for reading Orts! If you value this type of work and would like to support it, pledges are optional but greatly appreciated.
What is your artistic background?
I have been an artist all my life. In college, I studied in all the mediums from painting to printmaking. I’ve dabbled in just about every art medium one can use. I spent a lot of time in the fiber arts in the last 10–15 years: knitting, sewing, quilting, crochet. In 2018, hand embroidery caught my attention. I’m self-taught. I spent about a year exploring the medium through other hand-embroidery artists’ patterns before branching out and trying my own designs.
Spotlight is such a fun series, and I love how some pieces utilize an embroidery hoop within a hoop. What inspired Spotlight?
My spotlight series has been inspired by several artists I admire combined with my love for capturing simple everyday moments. My first spotlight piece was an image of a woman sitting on a couch working on a hand embroidery piece. I stitch what I know. In terms of the style, I have drawn from two inspirations.
The first is the work of Sarah K. Benning, specifically the pieces she created for The Washington Post in 2019. I instantly fell in love with the contrast of the light and shadow of her pieces not only because it is visually intriguing but also, it is like a sneaky cheat code. Anyone who has worked with hand embroidery knows that it is a massively time-consuming art form. Filling in an entire hoop in color can take weeks to months. This style of highlighting lighted pieces and leaving the shadow in line drawing can cut my work time in half! I was delighted to discover when reading about Benning’s work that this was her reasoning for adapting this style, as well. Great minds think alike!
In terms of the double hoop, it was a technique I tried nearly four years ago when I was playing around with creating windows in my work. I had seen the artist, Jessica Long post a tutorial on making wreathes using two hoops but in her work she cut out the fabric from the middle hoop. I played around with this idea using instead a smaller hoop and leaving the fabric in with an outside scene, giving the look of a window.
What time of planning must go into a Spotlight piece? Can you give us a 30,000-feet view of your process?
My process starts with my iPad. I like to draw out my designs in the app, Procreate. I like this app because I am not the most skilled drawer and an app like Procreate can help straighten my lines and make my images cleaner. Once I finish my design, I print it onto a water-soluble fabric that I stitch over. In my last few pieces, the fabric in the smaller inner hoop has a second piece of fabric that I attach using an iron-on fusible interfacing.
Once again as a time saver, I’ve chosen fabrics that have a landscape or skyline scene and hand embroidery embellishments over that second piece of fabric to make up the window of my pieces. Lately, I’ve been really enjoying recreating famous works of art, so the inside scene of my pieces usually have some sort of gallery wall element.
Do you know what’s next for your Spotlight collection?
I just returned from a two-week trip through France and I am overwhelmed with the inspiration I came home with! There will certainly be more art gallery walls and Parisian scenes in my upcoming pieces.
What is your advice to anyone looking to try something new in their embroidery?
One thing I embraced early in my embroidery journey is to not be afraid of mistakes. In creating these double hoop pieces, I made a ton of mistakes and hit loads of road blocks. I think if you want to branch out and try something new in embroidery, you must not be afraid to fail and move on. It’s the best way to learn.
Talk to you next week,
|
|
Sara Barnes
Embroidery illustrator and writer
|
