I’ve been teaching myself and exploring this technique for the past year. I have been seeing many examples of the technique in online shows. There are some basic elements that come from the field of mathematics. Parabola’s and astroids being the makeup of most. Some forms are individual, some mirror each other. We all recognize ”String Art” designs and this techniques follows that avenue as well. All the curves are the result of how the straight lines are combined. It’s a simple stitch really but the combinations and arrangements of elements, how color is used and how many faces each ball receives has everything to do with the outcome. The members of this grouping are all from 41 to 50 cm. circumference. They are stitched with #8 perle cotton. The self imposed challenge for the grouping was to use a very limited palette and to recombine the basic elements in arrangements I hadn’t seen anywhere else. The starkness of this color group really challenged my love of the broad spectrum colors, however, limiting the palette was a great teaching tool for me. . Simple divisions, C 8, C 10, they each work wonderfully. They all require added support lines. What was most interesting is that a white mari using black thread appears very differently than the same design using a black mari and white thread.
Oh yes, size does matter! But then I’ve prefered making larger sphere’s from the beginning. Big girl balls have so much more presence.
Another wonderful aspect of this design study has been an online connection with a Temari friend from Australia. We have Temari in common, this technique in particular we have pursued together and the mutual benefit has been remarkable. It is a complete pleasure to share the why’s and whatfore’s, good grief moments, successes and redo event’s we’ve each had along the way. I feel as though without her support and input along this path I’d never have stuck with the learning curve.
Oh I am so happy. After 3 balls start to finish using this design, I got it. Hoopla, bells and whistles. Don’t get me wrong here, all 3 look good even in their individual details. This follows the colorway from the Cosmo book and I’m glad I waited for the 3rd ball to use it. I struggled with design the first 2 times, it just wasn’t quite the ‘rightness’ I was wanting. Well, perseverance furthers. What a great feeling. 37cm. circumference, using 5/2 mercerized cotton. It’s my first time using this thread for embroidery and I like it a lot.
They look different don’t they? Same design but the 2nd, the green dominant one has different proportions to the design elements. I missed an essential design detail in the first, purple dominant one. The little triangles at the big triangle centers. Made them with the 2nd ball. Hooray! Both are the same circumference, believe it or not. Perception is everything. I started my initial rows closer to the pentagonal pole centers with the 2nd, leaving a bit less space for the green rows to build up, this also allowed the big triangles to get bigger. The difference between these two is a great reminder of how very much I still have to learn and take into consideration when figuring out how to begin a new design.
Color dominance and the differences between them, has me contemplating even a 3rd one. Perhaps in the colorway of the original design in Cosmo 3.
What a huge and complex Temari puzzle. The Temari Challenge mentor group I learn with had a photo with Japanese instructions. The size is what was clear at the start but no real idea on how to proceed, at least for me. Once again 2 layers stitched at the same time, one row of each at a time. Now as I begin a second one putting all the ‘learning’ from the first into play I can see what I missed in the order of the final stitching pathways. I missed some small triangles at the edges of larger triangles that form by weaving under and over previous rows. I hope my 2nd attempt will be the one that engages these additional triangles into the overall design. More to come……..fingers crossed.
The design for this Temari was a puzzle. Having seen one and had discussion through the conversation thread on Temari Challenge on how to do it, I contacted my Russian Temari friend and asked her if she could help me figure out how to do the design. Language is always a big issue. She sent me 2 partial stage photos and I went at it from there. The first one was indeed a bit of struggle. The following 2 went quite easy as I used the ”faults” in the first to modify the process for the next 2.
What a fun reveal! Any colorway really works like a charm. I used some variegated thread colors in the last 2 and like the effect. Over-all designs such as these are difficult in that what’s showing at the finish isn’t revealed at the start. You are stitching on 2 layers at the same time. I have the nagging apprehension that all the pointy bits should be aligned and approaching the pocket bits but aren’t. Thread tension and shape of the first rows was where I had the biggest change in technique. The second 2 Temari were much easier in that those changes made the rest of the stitching smoother and the final grooming considerably easier.
I guess the final thing is that I recognize in this design that I’m learning more and have more working knowledge of just how to visualize what needs doing. Now that is a breath of fresh air!
This was a wonderful adaptation of the last design. Jumping from a C 8 grid to a C 10 grid. The way that the continuous designs came together pleases me in every way. Bigger sphere at 51 cm, and smaller thread offer a lot of detail. Maybe it’s the bright flower spots that give me the happy feeling. Every time I sat down to work on this one I could feel that happy portal pop open. The whole medium gives me an endless stream of pleasure but this particular sphere seems even more joyous. The continuous design of green began with a question. I made an error when I laid out the center support lines for this design and while trying to decide if pulling it out and redoing was the right thing to do I determined that I really liked the spaces inside each center. they became a secondary pattern that would appear in each star center.
She’s big and beautiful at 45 cm. This ball is the January Temari Challenge project called, Safflower. This mentoring group is a wonderful and ”instructive island”. I started this project with the purpose of learning more advanced techniques and using a smaller thread. Both these areas make me doubt myself in several ways. Those being the advancement of skills and techniques beyond where my comfort level is snugged in. The ultraviolet color way is a continuing direction this year. It’s a great challenge in and of itself as it’s not a go to color for me. All this and more is why I like this group and having a mentoring format to work with, a place of openess, encouragement and generosity. True delight in the learning by doing atmosphere that is offered.
Learning to read and puzzle out what is actually happening and how it does so when the design direction is written in Japanese. Understanding line, proportion and construction as well how color translates is huge. Trying different thread size and behavior is a welcome addition to the skills bag. Guess what? The smaller guage thread used in this manner is wonderful.
The Pantone color of year for 2018 is Ultraviolet. I’ve made a start at a series that will be added to throughout the year. The largest in the foreground is the newest and I’ve kept it more dominant in the colorway. It will be fun to see where the color takes me. It ”feels” different working this color. With Temari the ball is more or less in my face for the duration of the ball, so seeing the color is easy. To me the pallet is blue, violet, red. All those ingredients make the base. I do follow design directions of course, then again I don’t. For the big ultraviolet ball I wanted to try a structural marking I had never done before, something called S4–with extra guidelines. It makes a marking on the surface of 6 squares and 8 hexagons, all with equal length sides. It was quite easy to set the grid. In emphasizing the 4-6 combinations I kept to that beginning with the 1st layer of forms. The 2nd separate layer connects the centers of the 14 shapes using interwoven bands of color. To my eye it worked very nicely, both line and color. Something new for my tool kit.