Hello, my friends! I hope things are going well. Mostly I’ve migrated by blabbings onto my Patreon page, at MsFledermaus Arts, but it really doesn’t hurt to have a quick word here now and again.
Recently a friend of mine recommended me as a teacher for a community education embroidery class. After I fought of the Impostor’s Syndrome, I applied and was accepted! Since I was a last-minute replacement for someone, I had about a week to make up a coherent embroidery sampler, make a stitch guide, and trace off a handful of the new sampler designs on some good fabric for beginners. It went pretty well, so much so that since I have a handful left over, I’m offering a few in my online shop just for fun.
And the people I know have been flooding me with requests for more samplers and patterns. And I love you so much, I really do, so what could I do but whomp up somthing fun for you? So you’ll also find the “Bad Sampler”, full of fun weird things that are a pain to stitch but also very educational. You want to practice stitching teeth? Well, now you can, on a box that’s waving lollipops at you to entice you nearer. It’s great fun, and I’m planning to work on one as well, just because I also like fun.
This weekend I’m planning to draw up more patterns to offer too, since so many of you asked so nicely. My weird little head is just chock full of ideas that can’t wait to take life on a piece of fabric. And I can’t wait to share it all with you…
Hello, my lovelies! It’s been a busy time here at the House of Maus, and I’ve been stitching my little fingers off. But it’s been so rewarding! I’ve made large things, little things, itty bitty things, and loads and loads of Guardian Eyes. And this fancy, bold fellow…
These are his pretties and not yours,nope, nope…
I plan to be making more like him very soon, all a touch different, but all based on Canuck the Crow and his bold and sassy ways.
Also, I’m working on a couple of little Mystery boxes to offer soon for the holiday season. What’s in a Mystery box, I hear you ask? Well, sparkly things. A sculpture or two. Tiny paintings. Tiny embroideries. A knitted something or other. All in a handpainted box for you to treasure! I should have a couple out in the shop soon for you to salivate over, once I’m done making the happy innards…
And this week? I’ll be carving pumpkins and decorating the porch and getting ready for another Samhain. I’ve been waiting for Halloween so very, very long, and I’m so happy that it’s finally here! And while I’ll still be making things, I’ll also be taking it easy and enjoying the autumn before it disappears. I hope you all get to do the same!! And thank you, thank you so very much for all of your kindness and support…
Ah, summer, and the living is slightly spooky around the edges…Who else craves Halloween in the hottest part of summer? I suspect it’s a lot of you!
This last month I’ve been gratifyingly busy with all my happy stitchery! I went a little viral on a couple of Facebook groups, and requests have been flooding in for my Guardian Eyes, so I’ve been stabbing away, making as many as my little stabby hands can. Even with all that fun goings-on, I did manage to finish a few other pieces as well, and they’ve all found new homes…
(I will always, always love making Baba Yaga huts. )
Down the road, I’d like to release embroidery kits, so that people can have some fun with my designs. I’ve been drawing up patterns when I’m not stitching away on other things, and it’s great fun. I’d like to stuff a little box full of floss and a pattern, a hoop and some predrawn fabric, some directions and maybe a little surprise. I do love adding little surprises to things I send out. I’m also working on some Fall and Halloween stationary to put in the Redbubble shop, because Autumn is wonderful and so is sending out sweet cards to friends. This part of summer is the part where I’m really starting to crave October, so very much…
At any rate, fall is shaping up to be busy and interesting, with a few extra treats in the shop. And I’ve got some fun requests to play with. But in between all of this, I’m still trying out different kinds of Guardian Eyes, in different colors, shapes and mediums, as well as other embroideries that are demanding my attention. I have a boatload of Delicate Swears I want to stitch up, as well as offended mice, curious bunnies and sardonic ghosts. And if you’d like something special, leave me a note in the comments, or email me, or say hello on Facebook. (I’ve got kind of a longish list now, though, so commissions will definitely take some time.)
Stay well out there, be careful, and thank you all, so very much for your kind, kind love of my art. You all bring me a lot of happiness…
It all started years ago, at a local surplus store. They had a wide variety of things for sale, and it was always a mix of the practical, the interesting and the completely insane. I loved going in and seeing what I could stumble on for art projects, and you never really knew what would be available. And one day…they had eyes. Not just a few, but huge bins full of shiny glass taxidermy eyes of all colors, shapes and sizes! Some taxidermy business had decided to dump off it’s whole collection of them, and artists like me scooped them up by the handfuls and carted away as much as we could carry. I used them in polymer clay dolls, in pendants, in strange jars with eyes in the lids, on rocks that I mailed off to friends for no reason at all. I gave some to friends to play with. They were a bonanza, a complete wonderland of possibility…
it took years for me to whittle that pile of glass eyes down. But I finally did, And I was down to just a tiny handful, augmented by a few pretty glass and acrylic human-style eyes given to me by a friend, as a thank you for the handful of glass animal eyes I gave her. And as I was poking around in my embroidery stash, I found my small bag of leftover eyes, and thought to myself, “Hey, wouldnt’ this be really pretty surrounded by needlework? ” So I started to play around with the concept, with felt and leftover bits of old leather and beads and floss. And it turned out…pretty damn great!
When you look at my art, sometimes it looks back at you…
So I needed to make more! And that meant I had to dig around online, since those magical bins at the surplus store were long gone, now filled with wooden beads or auto parts or Baby Yoda heads. So I dug. And like most things on Teh Interwebs, the quality and pricing were all over the map. I learned I could get handfuls of cheap eyes, or a pair of antique German porcelain eyes for eyewatering amounts of cash. With some assiduous hunting, I found some lovely dolls eyes in various sizes, just right for my projects. I also had to refresh my memory on things like peyote beading, and assesed my embarrassingly large stash of beads. And I started to stitch…
I called them Guardian Eyes, since I felt like I wanted them to be (mostly) benevolent watchers over a space, with possibly a good side-eye to energies and presences that were unwanted. You know how a stern look from a parent or older loved one could make you stop in your tracks? That’s pretty much the idea…only magical, with an extra dose of love and sparkling thread and beautiful beadwork…
And it’s been such a gratifying thing, to see how much people seem to appreciate what I’m trying for and eagerly giving them homes, where they can look out over their new domains and keep a gentle watch. I plan to keep them coming, along with all the other interesting things I like making. And now that the Pandemic is starting to slow a little, maybe sometime soon I can go back to that surplus store and see what else those magical bins are holding, now that all those wonderful eyes have gone…
It’s funny, really. I taught myself some embroidery basics out of a library book when I was a tween, ages ago, and only really started up again a little over a year ago. I consider myself still to be a raw, rank amateur. But with lots of practice and a mindset that says, “Well, lets experiment with a thing and see if it actually works” it’s been a wonderful journey so far, And recently other people have been asking me for advice. Me?! I mean, I’m still new myself. I make mistakes all the time. And yet, those mistakes have been schooling me in The Art of Stubborn Problem Solving…
Okay, so maybe I’m not a rank amateur anymore…
So after all those mistakes, I have a handful of helpful embroidery tips I can share which are actually helpful to other people. How about that?
First off: Sourcing supplies. I started getting my supplies in thrift stores before the Pandemic, and they”re still not bad places to stumble on treasure troves of floss and sewing bits and bobs, or even fabric if you have a good eye and a little luck. One of my favorite finds was a scrap of eggplant-colored silk, which made an astoundingly good backing for various pieces. Of course you can hit online sources for a lot of your starting up supplies, and online marketplaces can be useful if you keep your wits about you, but it can be nice to save a few bucks and run across colors and tools you never would have bought otherwise. Estate sales can be goldmines for embroidery and beadwork as well, and a good haul can last you for years. Obviously if you’re going to thrift stores and estate sales be mindful, wash your hands, wear a mask. These days I do most of my shopping as online as possible due to the Pandemic.
What kind of supplies? I’m glad you asked…
Fabric: I’m a bit lucky here; since I don’t really crossstitch, I dont’ have to rely on Aida cloth for my stitching. I prefer tighter fabric as a background, and neutral or dark colors. Usually a good cotton will work just fine, and I really like linen–a little of it can go a long way for me, though it can be expensive. Fat quarters for quilting can be your best friend, but if someone you know has leftovers from making clothing or something it’s worth having a gawk at the scraps.
Floss: I’m mostly a DMC girl, though I’ve been learning over time that sewing threads of all kinds can be adapted to hand embroidery with a little patience and experimentation. I prefer the sewing metallics to the embroidery ones, since they’re smaller and a bit easier to use. Keep an eye out for spools of machine embroidery thread on sale; they can be used by hand if you double or triple them up, and they’re often durable and shiny. The cheaper flosses seem to work just fine too, but for darker colors like reds and blues and purples you want to wash a quick sample on a swatch of fabric to see if they bleed, and how much. The nice thing about DMC is I’ve had zero problems with bleeds, and they also ship extra needles when you order floss packets from their company, which is always a delight. There’s silk floss out in the market of various qualities, and again, watch carefully for bleeds when your fabric is washed. Also? Floss conditioner can be super useful, especially if, like me, you often run into snags and knots from your floss while you’re working.
Hoops: I like looking everywhere for hoops to work with. Wooden ones are my favorite for framing, since I can paint them or wrap them with ribbon. Plastic hoops are everywhere, and they’re cheap, but they’re ugly and I find them a little frustrating. Often you’ll see “wooden” hoops that are actually rubber that squeeze into a frame, and they’re surprisingly good for projects, so snap them up when you see them. Be careful online; while there’s a huge upswing in what’s available since embroidery has become more popular, sometimes the quality can be disappointing. Often a good hoop can be a little spendier, but here quality can make or break your mounted piece. You can see I’ve got a weakness for the small frames, and they’re all over the map for quality, but if you keep an eye out for the things you like soon you’ll have a feel for the hoops that work best for you.
Patterns: My best recommendation is to start hunting down Facebook groups and Instagram creators that you like that offer patterns. it’s way more fun to have a pattern from somebody whose work you already really like, and to give your money to small creators that work hard to give you something special.
But what if you don’t like patterns? What if you want to make up something cool of your own? Well then, you will need some of my very bestest friends when it comes to designing an embroidery pattern: A small light box, copy paper, the humble graphite pencil, and a handful of water-soluble pens, which will often come free with a wide assortment of online embroidery supplies. Copy paper is useful because it’s so thin; and you can work out your proportions and design without worrying too much about the paper. once you have something you like, you can trace it onto your fabric with the light box and the pens, and if you don’t have a light box you can easily use a window and a bit of tape instead.
So, now that you have your happy compilation of stuff, a design you want to stitch and some free time, what other things are good to keep in mind? Some of the things I’ve found useful for my projects are short floss lengths so they don’t tangle as much, sharp needles, a pincushion you really enjoy, and some catnip to distract any overly-helpful cats you may happen to have around. A tasty beverage is always welcome, and maybe a podcast or two to keep you company. (I really like “On a cold Dark Night” for a lot of my stitching time…)
Once you’re finished, there’s the fun of washing and mounting your new lovely thing. Washing veeeeeeerry gently in cool water and a touch of gentle soap will extend the life of your piece, so it’s a good habit to get into. Ironing it afterward can be helpful for creases, but watch the heat. When it goes back into your hoop, tighten it up as much as you can to take out any wobbles. I like to do a running stitch around the backside of my pieces, tighten it up, adjust it until I like the way it looks, then stitch a felt backing to the back to keep things neat. (It’s also a nice place to put a signature for your piece.) A ribbon for the top, and voila! Ready for hanging…
I know this list is hopelessly plain, and there’s loads of things I haven’t covered, but I think this a decent overview for someone starting out. I hope it’s helpful, and feel free to ask questions in the comment section. Happy stabbing, my dears!!
When new people come to my page and look over the shop and especially the gallery, they will see cute flowers, spooky cobwebs, knitted cosyness, and lots and lots of yarn. But they also see…the swearings. What I like to call, “The Delicate Swears”. They’re often tiny, but not always; sometimes they fill a large frame with flowers and sweetness and a big fat “What the Fuck” in the center. They can be a little jarring if you’re not expecting them. I’ve gotten a little criticism here and there about “Do you really have to make these vulgar things, Madam?” My answer, is, “Oh yes. I most certainly do. I will make twice as many of them now, and you can see yourself out. Asshole…”
It all started innocently enough. When the Pandemic started, I had just begun playing around with embroidery. I was admiring so many beautiful things in frames that other people had done. Whimsical things, picture perfect things, shimmering translucent things…and saucy, saucy things. I knew in the abstract that embroidery had come a very long way indeed, but I was delighted by all of it. And then I tried my hand at a few myself. Small things. Tiny frames full of little flowers, with something extra expressive in the middle. Large, swooping lines of beautiful vines, with “This is Bullshit” or “Fuck This Shit” in the middle. Roses, lavender, clover, tansy, all with something scathing in there somewhere. And my friends kept asking for more, and more…
Why is it so satisfying to have a good, sweary embroidery? Why is it so satisfying to make them? Because it is, it really is. Every time I make something with a lot of cussedness in it, I’m delighted with myself. And honestly, it’s cathartic as hell to stab something ear-searing into some linen. It’s been such a long, hard year, and people are so very, very, burned out, frustrated and just over all of it. And yet, it still goes, chugging along. The Pandemic, the unrest, the weather, trying to have a normal life in the face of the most un-normal year we’ve had in our lifetimes. It’s sometimes nice to have a small piece of something pretty that agrees with your frustration, that validates it. That little circle with “Goddammit All Anyway” is now your very bestest friend.
Also…we’re home more. So very, very, very much more. We’ve been looking at the walls of wherever we’re living for a very long time indeed. Here in The House of Maus, we’re both high risk for bad Covid outcomes, so we’ve been living a lockdown kind of life since last March. There’s been bouts of decorating mayhem here and there, to have something new to see every day. I remember when I was a museum guard, that feeling when somebody brought in a new piece of art to display. It was like your birthday; something new to see and appreciate! Something you haven’t already been staring at for months and months! And loads of people have wanted something new to see, something pretty and crassly cheerful. I know I have.
And I think the best part is, people want something made for them by somebody they like. Something that the megasites online can’t give them, something that isn’t a prefab piece of plastic that gets the heave-ho once it stops being fun anymore. It’s more comforting to know that maybe somebody was thinking of you, personally, when they were stabbing in that “Try Not To Murder Anyone Today”embroidery. That embroidery knows you. How you’re feeling. What you need to hear to get through the day. How much swearing you secretly do during a Zoom meeting. That embroidery gets you.
It’s really hard for me to keep the swears in the shop, they tend to fly out the door pretty quickly. But I feel like I need to keep up the stabbing. We all still have a long, hard road ahead of us, and only a pocketful of really good swears will get us out of our personal funks for a while. I promise, I will do my part…
How did I get into embroidering things? How did I learn to spin yarn? How did I start knitting? Why do I have a big honking weaving loom all of a sudden? How did I get *here*?
So many creative people ask themselves that question. More of us now than ever, since the Pandemic has given so many of us more free time to explore activities we hadn’t had the time to consider before now. And there’s lots of us that have creative interests that slide into one another, or start out as one thing and surface as another. I feel like it’s the mark of a curious mind. You toy with one art form, and think about how you could combine it with something else, or what to do to get an effect you want, and before you know it, you’re up to your eyebrows in yarn and embroidery floss and hot glue and gold foil. One art form very easily bleeds into another, and sometimes you need those combinations to reach out to the vision in your head that demands to be a real thing.
For example, I started knitting as an extension of some beadwork I was doing, a very long time ago. I saw a knitted purse with beads strung onto the yarn, and loved it so much. But I didn’t know the first thing about knitting! So after a couple of library books and a quick tutorial or two from a coworker, I had begun to knit small, simple things. And it was better than fun, it was glorious! After exploring lots of beading and knitting possibilities, I tried stringing beads on a thread and knitting it along with a yarn. Which was fine, but lacked structure. What if…I made the yarn myself, spinning in the beads? So that means I’d have to learn to spin, shouldn’t I? Where’s that dowel I know I have, and that old CD I don’t listen to? I bet I could make myself a crude drop spindle with those…
And before I knew it? Boom! A spinning wheel in my living room that I learned to fix up from a book. Lots of possibilities for yarns I couldn’t afford or never knew existed before. New friendships with local fiber farmers, who were kind and generous to a new customer. An astounding flexibility when it came to knitting projects. Out of a yarn? I could make more, however I wanted! And knitting friends wanted some too. So…time for an Etsy shop and more fibers to play with. And, wasn’t that color of fleece just a little bit dull? And aren’t you craving a wonderful plum color? How about trying out dyeing fibers next?
What’s in that pot, Maus? What is it? Wool, you say? You sure? It looks…not good…
Dyeing fibers leads to playing with the concept of felting, if you agitate the dyewater too much. And taking a knitted hat that’s waaaay too big and felting it made for a sturdy little hat with lots of structure for…embroidery? Why not? Hey, where’s that embroidery book you learned from when you were a kid? And it ends up being an excellent way to use up handspun odds and ends that aren’t enough to knit with but are too gorgeous to toss out. Also, weaving is good for things like that too. How about trying out that rigid-heddle loom for a big honking shawl?
And then…the Pandemic hit. And not only did I have my own art supplies to plow through, but also supplies I inherited from my mother, who had loads of crafting stuff I hadn’t really explore before now, Woodburning tools, a really large and imposing hot glue gun, crochet hooks of every size and…whoa. Loads of embroidery floss. Now, where’s that old bamboo hoop I used to have?…
And that’s where I am these days, now that I’m home full-time. I just finished a pair of wristwarmers that I embroidered, and a felted hat, and some hooped embroideries with swearing in them, and I’m almost done with a green alpaca yarn that might need some beads. All of these things are complimentary to each other, and none can really crowd out my love of any of the others. And I’m hopeful that this winter more of us will have the opportunity to try out something they haven’t had a chance to do but always wanted to. Or reaquainting themselves with an art form, like meeting an old friend. Winter’s good for exactly this sort of experimentation, and this yearning for a new way to express creativity is such a good way to work out problems and anxieties. It helps me stay away from my phone for a while, and stops the doomscrolling and the worrying for a little while…
What will you have by springtime that you didn’t have before, and never realized could be something you could do?
My dear friends, I gotta say, I’m grateful beyond words that I have so many requests for embroidered fun! Quite a few people have gone into the shop lately and messaged me with things like, ‘Hey, where are all those delicate swears you keep making? I don’t see any!” That’s because they seem to fly out the door as soon as I can make them! (If you *are* craving something you’ve seen me doing and don’t see it in the shop anymore, drop me a line! I’m happy to make something, just for you!)
Honestly, I need all of those flying F’s I can make. And apparently others do too.
It’s a comfort to me, besides all the swearing and stabbing. I am the luckiest duck that I can stay home right now and do this, After saying that, though, I will admit that there it’s still a bit spooky for me. My proper “working life” was so regimented, and I’m still adapting to this new life, even months later. I have a fair amount of anxiety anyway, so sailing in these uncharted waters is such a departure from the life of a uniformed Guardian of Culture. I still have dreams about going back to work at the museum. I miss the art, and my coworkers. But the payoffs are better than I expected. I’m up to my eyebrows in commissions, Redbubble sends me a check every now and then, and my sweet fellow’s health improves every day. I have a lot to be grateful for.
And all of you sweet people are part of this strange new life. I’m grateful beyond words for you. Because of you I get to experiment, and play with new art forms. And every day I learn a little bit more, and can bring that knowledge with me into some new idea that probably never would have happened otherwise.
Acorns? Acorns! Alas, this pretty thing already has a home. But I’m definitely making more!
Anyway, thank you. Thank you so much for your love, your anticipation of whatever strange idea I come up with, and your company. It’s always better to travel an unfamiliar road with friends…
So. These last few weeks I find my dear friends have a lot more swearing to do than the usual. There’s a lot of burn out, a lot of stress and fatigue and worry about an uncertain future. Personally I’ve been channeling a lot of my worries and stress through stabbing and swearing at things. Sometimes with pretty, pretty flowers, to soften the blow of all the cussing. and yet, the cussing remains…
Flying Fucks, catching the sweet breezes…
A tiny little thing, about the size of a dollar coin…
The demand has been huge, and gratifying. I’m now booked up for a while, happily stitching my unladylike profanities into whatever I can. I’ve even bought more supplies to keep the obscenity-train chugging right along.
That said, there are other things I’ve made too. There was definitely swearing involved for both these projects, but they weren’t nearly as overtly involved as the other pieces. A tiny teacup, a tiny glowing fairy. Some drawings that are going into the shop later. They’re also gratifying, in their own way…
A tiny teacup! With flowers!
A tiny fairy, in with my teacup collection.
These days, I think it’s important to vent. To get things out. To have some tiny, delicate thing that agrees with you about how you feel. Something pretty, and crass, and expressive in a way only the needle arts can express. I’m just grateful people want to share their cusses with me, and delight in my stabbing them into linen.
The next few months will be even more stressful for everybody. I suspect I’m going to have a lot of stitch-swearing to work on…
