city love affair again

This one took a while.... too many distractions.. too many new experiments... but I still loved it, so I finally finished it.

Presenting City Love Affair 4. My grandmothers vintage linen towel, a lot of vintage lace from oh so many sources, a TAP transfer, machine stitching and hand stitching. A portrait of a beautiful building belonging to a school I never went to, but might have if I had stayed in Russia.

sky and roof

not so little round window

lampwork

details details

City Love Affair 4 © Natalya Aikens 2016

So different from the rest of the work I am doing right now, but yet such a part of me still.

afterglow

If you are a subscriber to my newsletter, then you have already seen my latest artwork. I am delighted to share it here now.

In my previous blog post I shared the progress of this piece. Now I will share the details of the finished artwork. I thread-sketched the lower portion with the buildings and the street, and hand-stitched the sky. I was inspired by own photograph of a street scene in St. Petersburg, Russia. It was just after sunset and the sky was still glowing orange, threatening clouds just started floating across the sky, the street lights went on....and everything glowed.

irregular hand stitches in the clouds

thread snippets in the lights

city meets sky

pavement

Afterglow © Natalya Aikens 2015

Most textile art is hard to photograph and this piece presented an extra challenge due to the shiny plastic and the sheer chiffon. So really, you'll just have to come see it in person!

Afterglow will be a part of a group exhibit with my circle of art friends (Kristin LaFlamme, Vivien Zepf, Deborah Boschert and Robin Ferrier) at the Etui Fiber Arts Gallery in Larchmont, NY from June 2nd to June 30th. Hope you will be able to join us for an artist reception on Sunday, June 14th from 2 to 4PM.

in progress...

I have been hard at work in my studio. In June my art will be a part of a five person exhibit, I'll have more info to share soon. Meanwhile here are a few pictures to show my progress on the piece for that exhibit. The inspiration for this piece is nighttime in St. Petersburg, Russia....looks like I am heading back to my heritage for inspiration once again!

My base is a square piece of vintage linen, perhaps a small tablecloth in it's former life

I layered brightly colored plastic bags on and basted with small stitches in yellow thread

This is what it looked like after I finished basting

Then I thread-sketched buildings on clear plastic. I was trying to be really sketchy!

Here they are on top of the bright plastic, I did use a bit of gray for the pavement

A close up

Then I started layering navy lace scraps over the plastic. These will suggest night time clouds

Here's my night sky in progress, some navy silk chiffon was involved

Now I'll be basting the lace pieces and adding some hand stitching

My goal is to have this piece ready to share in it's full glory in my May newsletter which will be out mid month. Stay tuned!

framed

I totally adore the ladies in my local fiber arts group. I don't get to see them regularly due my kids schedules, so I really cherish the meetings that I do get to attend, and the exhibits that we put on together.

And we do have a wonderful new exhibit coming up in May at the Mahopac Public Library in Mahopac NY. We have been exhibiting in their lovely third floor gallery for so many years now that it feels like home. Please join us for the opening reception of "We've Been Framed" on May 10th from 2 to 4PM. Everyone had to create an artwork that would fit into a frame. All frames where painted the same navy color to unify all the artwork. I had a preview at a meeting recently and it is a wonderful variety of styles, techniques and imagery!

Here's my work for this exhibit. I inadvertently seem to have gone back to St. Pete Lace series and created this piece using thermofax screens on color catcher sheets and thread painting. The screen printed imagery is from my photographs of many many wrought iron railings of St. Petersburg, Russia and the eloquent words of Alexander Pushkin. And the thread painted man is an Atlant who holds up the entrance to the Hermitage.

head...

legs...

torso...

Atlant Spb 3 © Natalya Aikens 2015

Hope to see many local friends at the exhibit! Thank you!

holding up

That's what this guy does. He is an Atlant and together with the others Atlantes he holds up the entrance to the New Hermitage.

I admired his physique and took a picture. Yes I did. He's made of granite, very strong. I chose to manipulate him in Photoshop and print him on a dryer sheet. Then he needed a few stitches in silk thread....

holding up my mantle

Atlant Spb © 2014 Natalya Aikens

And now he's in my Etsy shop ready to hold up your mantle.... ;)

cathedral in the sky

That's not what this cathedral is called, but that how I came to think of it as I worked on its portrait. I took the photo that I used as my guide against the bluest brightest of skies. You'd think that would make for a great picture. It does. Because not only is the sky blue, but the cathedral is blue too. With white trim and golden domes...

The cathedral that I'm referring to is St. Nicholas Cathedral in St. Petersburg Russia. Otherwise known as the Nikolsky Cathedral in Russian and also as the Sailor's Cathedral as it was the official cathedral of the naval regiments of the Russian navy who were stationed near. It also has a personal significance to me, my dad was baptized there. He was born in 1941 during the blockade of Leningrad and this cathedral was one of the few that functioned during that time.

Starting with some details, here's my portrait of Nikolsky Cathedral:

one golden dome

a golden edge

an entrance detail

another golden dome

Nikolsky Cathedral © Natalya Aikens 2014

Did you read my birthday newsletter yet? If you haven't yet decided which of my pieces is your favorite, do add this one to the list. And tell me about it so I can enter you in the drawing for my gift to you on my birthday, December 17th! Thanks for playing!

little art

I have been waiting to post about a finished artwork or two. But it seems with all the seasonal craziness I cannot finish any artwork of a decent size even though I have a couple close to being done... So I figured I'll post about this little artwork (only 5"x5") which has a destination.

can you guess what material I'm using?

silk thread and wood

just a little bit of stitching

Choir Lace Spb © Natalya Aikens

This piece came about from my experiments earlier this year and further experiments preparing for this little video. The image that I worked with in it, is from my photograph of Choir Singers bridge and it's shadow in St. Petersburg, Russia. You might recognize the motif as I have used it in many earlier pieces. Oh and Spb stands for St. Petersburg.
I mentioned earlier in the post that this piece has a destination. Yes it does! And if you're a subscriber to my newsletter, you'll find out about that destination when you receive the newsletter later this week! I love a good tease.....

the finish line

I can see it from here! I have been very slowly stitching away on this small portrait of the St. Nicholas Cathedral in St. Petersburg, Russia. Now it's a question of how much is too much and how much is not enough?

This started as a wool sweater that I pounded, ahem, felted into submission, to make it as flat as possible without loosing texture and pattern. I then strategically sprinkled thread clippings and tiny swatches for an indication of color and machine stitched the outline of the cathedral. All that went fairly quickly. The next part, the hand stitching part, is the slow part. I want the portrait to have a loose sketchy quality to it, almost like a quick watercolor sketch.

Here are a few close ups to show you where I am:

What do you think? Am I achieving the sketchy quality?

city love affair 4

This artwork is still in progress.... It took a spring and summer hiatus, because other artwork took precedence and truthfully I wasn't too happy with how it was coming along. Now it's back out on my design wall and I'm hoping soon it will tell me what type of stitches it wants.

Meanwhile I thought I'd share a few Instagram photos I had taken while stitching on it.

something stitchy

I needed something stitchy to do. Perhaps it's because I just finished two pieces that involved some hand stitching, but were done rather quickly and I couldn't savor them? Or maybe it's because the large piece that I am hand stitching is not cooperating at the moment? Or maybe I just wanted a small hand stitching project that could travel well? Whatever the real reason, I have put everything aside and answered the call of the thread and needle.

I have thoroughly enjoyed the intense hand stitching I have done on my cathedrals pieces, so I thought I'd start another. This time I wanted to experiment with some thick wool sweaters and the embellisher machine. The sweaters have seen better days, but were still lovely to touch and since it's all about touch I figured they'd be perfect for this project. I took off the sleeves and decided to needle felt one for a less bulky substrate. Seven broken felting needles later, I decided that my embellisher didn't like bulky sweaters. Too bad.

I tortured it a bit more as I felted in some light blue wool onto it.

I am depicting the Saint Nicholas Naval Cathedral in St.Petersburg, Russia.  It's a stunningly beautiful pale blue cathedral, made even more special to me because my father was baptized there eons ago.

Following along with reduce, reuse, recycle mantra, I dug into my thread clippings (yes I save them...) and pulled color appropriate selections that I arranged on my "canvas".

thread clippings arranged

pale blue tulle will keep everything in check

Then I sketched with other favorite sketching tool, my industrial Bernina, and outlined the cathedral in pale blue thread for my hand stitching guidelines. It's going to be a bit hard to see, but I want the hand stitching to be the star here, so my eyes will just have to do their best.

can you see my sketch?

here's a close up

Now for the next fun step! Auditioning thread. At the moment I have pulled out all I have in the right color scheme, some editing will take place soon. And then I'll get stitching!

a few possibilies

Hopefully in another week or so I'll have an update to share after I have put in a few stitches. Don't expect anything speedy here, I plan to savor this one.. Perhaps while I'm in a starting mood I'll start another on a red sweater sleeve....hhhmm?