Embroidery Tutorial with French Coiled Wire Bullion

Here's a simple video tutorial on how to embroider with that coiled wire bullion from India. It used to be impossible to find, but now it's readily available in several colors. (Click here to search on Etsy.) Basically you snip several lengths and then string them on your needle as you would a long bugle bead. But unlike glass bugle beads, you can get curved effects with the flexible coiled wire.

~~~~~~~~~~

New In My Etsy Shop This Week

Check out the new vintage goodies...

Copper Bell Charms with Blue Glass Beads

Vintage Wooden Ruler Pieces

Fancy Copper Link Chain

Extra Large Sliced Cowry Shells

Little Leather Holy Bible Books

~~~~~

The Springs

Near Richmond, Kentucky circa 1980

In a country without saints or shrines
I knew one who made his pilgrimage
to springs, where in his life's dry years
his mind held on. Everlasting,
people called them, and gave them names.
The water broke into sounds and shinings
at the vein mouth, bearing the taste
of the place, the deep rock, sweetness
out of the dark. He bent and drank
in bondage to the ground.

--Wendell Berry 

~~~~~~~~~~ 

Pipestone Cuff Bracelet WIP

Click the image for a close-up

Been picking my way through this bead embroidery project using

pipestone (bauxite) heishi. It is so exquisite but the holes are small so

I have to use a size 16-0 needle.

Click the image for a close-up

Ingredients are freshwater pearls, Czech glass nailhead beads,

Czech charlottes (true-cuts), and the pipestone heishi sprinkled

with antique faceted steel cut beads.

~~~~~

Art School

"It's like you're walking around with this enormous suitcase full of magic and you are never allowed to open it, because the rules say that the things in that suitcase are not worthy of artistic consideration. Worlds, childhood memories, pretend, fantasy, archaeology -- all that. And so, until I could open that suitcase, I didn't really have anything to work with. It was like trying to paint with your hands tied behind your back." 

-- Melissa Zink

The other day while on my walk I took a quick detour into the Albuquerque Museum, where I was reminded how much I love the exhibit there of many fine contemporary New Mexico artists. Since I seem to be revisiting my own experiences in the UNM art department in the early 1980's, I especially liked this quote by Melissa Zink, who managed to survive art school, marriage, and children to eventually become a  full-time artist in northern New Mexico.

Here is more about Melissa and her artwork:

• http://www.laterbloomer.com/melissa-zink , an article by Debra Eve
• http://voodoonotes.blogspot.com/2009/07/melissa-zink-1932-2009.html, a blogpost by Rice Freeman-Zachary
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZT_TdqlP0mo, a video tour of her work exhibited in Taos

~~~~~~~~~~