Backs are intriguing to a stitcher like myself. My early learning in embroidery always included guidance on the importance of neatly finishing off as I came to the end of each thread and started a new one. It’s ingrained, automatic, my normal level of craftsmanship. After all, for household linens like tablecloths and mats, serviettes and the like, they need to hold up to plenty of repeated washing and use, and securely finishing off ensures some level of durability. But I also associate this hidden-but-still-important-detail ethic with the training we had in the Brownies and Girl Guides – that we had to polish the backs of the brass badges on our uniforms even though they would not be seen by others. The Brownies and Girl Guides movements paralled the Scouting movement for boys founded by Robert Baden-Powell, Our uniforms were subject to weekly inspection, and our patrol lost points if we failed inspection on some detail. OMG, it was so military, but good training in leading fairly orderly lives, I guess – attention to detail and finishing off a task properly, all that.
In my other blog, https://www.pickledgizzards.com, I recently posted about how the 1970’s Golden Hands Magazine had a huge influence on the keen stitcher I later became. I remember seeing some brighly coloured, richly embroidered head and shoulder portrait profiles by an artist who I think came from somewhere in the sunny Mediterranean, possibly Italy or Greece. They were unusual and therefore very interesting because, the reverse sides of these were framed and exhibited in an art gallery. In the magazine article the fronts and framed backs of each wer presented side by side for us to compare them. Despite the knots, hanging ends and travelling threads etc of the backs, we still saw the expression or personality of each subject- serene, happy, angry etc, and as if through some kind of filter. I did put AI onto trying to find the artist or the Golden Hands article, but though I learned a lot about the needle painting style of embroidery popular in that era, the pieces were not by a recognises textile artist, and that the way the GH magazine itself was documented it was not easily searchable by today’s methods. I’d really need to be able to physically go through the middle issues of Golden Hands, but if I do still own mine, they’re in storage in Australia; and it’s also possible I gave them away before one of our moves sometime; so that quest is over for the moment at least.
At times I have taken pics of some of my own backs too, because of their interesting patterns. Here’s Green Mosaic a 12″sq. work for the 2022 SAQA Benefit Auction – not too different from the front.
The next images are of “Out of Order 3” showing (1) the reverse of the surface design stitching before layering and quilting, and (2) the image resulting from my interaction with ChatGPT that I wrote about In an earlier post on this blog
“Out of Order 3” is currently showing with the SAQA Global Exhibition “AI: Artitistic Interpretations”, at the Louisiana State University Art Museum. It will tour to various venus until the end of 2029.
Yesterday I took a pic of the reverse side of what I’m currently working on, Out of Order 7, but though it seems interesting in my hands as I’m working it, the photo it isn’t really, and I won’t bother AI over it.
