Combining Photos and Floss

 A few days ago I came across some creative uses of embroidery floss on Facebook and was intrigued by the possibilities. I searched a bit online and found a book, From Thread to Needle by Charlotte Vannier, that had some interesting ideas. I checked the library, but no luck there. They did offer to order it from another library and I'm still waiting for it to arrive. In the meantime, I checked Pinterest and that led me to some YouTube videos.

I watched a few and gathered some tips. That was enough to motivate me to give it a whirl.  I found an old photo of my dad's brother, Bill, when he was a young man.  It was somewhat damaged so if I ruined it completely, it would not be so terrible.  The photo came to me from my dad's sister, Helen. She even wrote a note on the back apologizing for the damage. At least I had evidence that proved I didn't destroy it.

The point of 'doctoring' this photo was to hide the damage and practice the methods of my new-found interest.

Obviously some sort of plan was first on the agenda.  I knew I couldn't draw on the photo so I laid tracing paper over the photo so I could outline the shape and from there, develop my idea.  In several pieces of work I saw online, the artist had covered the faces in the photos completely with floss.  Others added elaborate stitching around the heads and some did a web-like stitch over the faces.  That seemed like a place to start.

Some parts of the design did not work out the way I intended so there were changes in stitching placement as I went along. As with most creative projects, it took on a life of it's own.

For this trial project I didn't think it was necessary to stock up on floss.  I just used what I had on hand.  I considered some the the fancy stuff wrapped on the flat cardboard on the left, but once I got into it, I knew that was not going to work.

I used this little tool to punch holes for the needle to pass through. From what I saw on YouTube, the holes can be made with the needle, but it all depends on the thickness of the paper. This method worked fine, however, I could not create all the holes at one time and then be able to figure out what-was-what when I removed the tracing paper. I will research a better system for my next one.

So, still recognizable but decorative rather than disfigured.

Because of the smudge in the bottom right corner, I decided to add Wilfred's initials there to somewhat camouflage the discoloration.

Obviously the smudge is still visible but now it looks like it's part of something.

 I improvised a frame for this post because who knows when or if it will get framed. But, one thing is certain, I'm not finished experimenting with embroidery floss.