Lynne Stone
Fibre Artist - Botanical Embroidery
Embroidery
After selling my Computer business, I enrolled at Box Hill TAFE in "Certificate of Art & Design (Embroidery). This was a 2 year course, one day per week plus as much homework as you cared to undertake.
Early in the second year the Tutor was talking us through the requirements for our first major project for the year. Into my head popped an image of a branch of pink eucalypt blossoms. I was going to make that branch. Why? How? Who knows, but since that moment I have been focussed on making 3 dimensional models of Australian native plants.
It took a lot of work to get to the first acceptable shapes - I house-sat in Marysville, working all the daylight hours every day, and after 10 days I had managed to produce one useable gumnut! But that was a major breakthrough, and successes followed until I had my first branch of Euclayptus leucoxylon ready for consideration in the half-year assessment.
I put it into the Embroiderers' Guild Annual Exhibition in Melbourne and was immediately commissioned to create a smaller piece to be taken to New York as a wedding present. With encouragement like that, no wonder I became serious about the subject.
I didn't want to go back to the computer industry, so I sold my house with the intention of moving to the country, where house prices were cheaper .... but I found I didn't want to be tied to another house and garden. Instead, I bought a Toyota Coaster bus, had it fitted out as a motorhome with solar panels to run the sewing machine, and took off to explore Australia. After 10 years living in the bus I added a land-base for use during the warmer months. This allows me to get a bit more work done, with space to spead out and the luxury of not having to pack everything away every day.
My techniques have developed over the thirteen years since the TAFE course. I wore out my old sewing machine and replaced it with a top-of-the-line Pfaff, which allows me to do both normal sewing and to stitch out shapes that I can programme on my computer. This has let me achieve much fine detail that would be impossible freehand.
I've explored lots of possibilities for threads for stamens. For fine stamens I have found Guttermann Skala to be good. It doesn't have a twist, so it looks good. Serafil, from 20 to 200 gauge fills in for the flowers that are not suitable for Skala. Its got a twist, but is sometimes more "lively" than Skala. These are synthetic threads, so I dye them using Disperse Dyes, which need heat and pressure to get good colour (ie, a hot iron), When I don't have the electricity to run the iron I heat up my cast iron frying pan, using greaseproof paper to keep the work clean.
All the other bits are made of Viscose Rayon in its various forms. To dye these I use Fibre Reactive Dyes, Procion or Remazol. Setting these is improved by keeping the work in a warm, moist environment. Rather than using up gas on steaming (and getting hot in the process), I pop the pieces into a plastic bag and keep it on the dashboard in the sun for a day or two. The perfect "solar steamer".
The stems are made of wire, I have experimented with lots of different types. Cake wire seems to rust sometimes, copper wire was too soft, brass was difficult to find except by unwinding picture wire, harpsichord strings are brittle .. etc, etc. In Hanoi, Vietnam I discovered shops selling wire for electrical use, and bought Nickel/Chromium, which is strong and flexible and suitable for most pieces. I know it is available in Australia but can;t find where to buy it in other than short lengths, so I guess I'll just have to keep going back to Vietnam every few years.
In 2007 I discovered that fly fishers use faux furs in some of their creations. Some experiments established that it makes excellent fluffy balls for wattles, but somewhat lacking sheen. Then I chanced upon a huge reel of carpet fibre that had been donated to Territory Craft in Alice Spings. Apparently all the locals had taken what they could use, and still the roll was huge and getting in the way, so they gave it to me. Thanks to Territory Craft, Alice Springs, I now have that little bit of sparkle to add life to my new-style wattle blossoms.
