Just Resting by Susan Casson

Needle art and fibre art are two forms of artistic endeavours that have a lot in common, in fact more than you may initially realise.

As needlework is one of the many disciplines used in fibre art, it stands to reason that you could also consider fibre art a welcome guest to the world of embroidery.

In fact, if you compare the definitions of the two, they could almost be considered one and the same:

Fibre Art: a form of visual art that uses fibres, fabrics, and textile techniques as its primary medium to create expressive, conceptual, or sculptural works.

Now look what happens if we use the exact same description to define embroidery, with only one minor tweak:

Embroidery: a form of visual art that uses threads, fabrics, and textile techniques as its primary medium to create expressive, conceptual, or sculptural works.

Some may question using the terms ‘textile techniques’ and ‘sculptural works’ when talking about embroidery, yet this is an interesting observation as to how the art of needlework has, and continues to, evolve and expand its terms of reference.

The project Just Resting from Inspirations issue #127 is a fascinating example of what happens when a designer, in this case the talented Susan Casson, brings to the design table an expansive toolkit to create stitched art.

While this piece sits beautifully within the pages of Inspirations magazine, it would also be equally at home in the pages of a fibre art publication, such is the diversity of technique and skill on show.

For example, Susan begins her creative process here by hand-painting a piece of silk habutai to create a background that imitates a grassy field. She then accentuates the long slender reeds of grass by embellishing them with straight stitch.

An array of elegant white daisies are then added to the grassy field using a combination of French knots, ribbon embroidery and detached chain stitch. The flowers are sized and arranged in such a way to create perspective.

Now that we have a spectacular backdrop to set the scene it’s time to welcome our stars to the stage - a male and female fairy wren who are very much in love.

The wren bodies are worked as slips, stitched separately onto quilter’s muslin then cut out and applied to the painted silk. Fibre-fill is used to pad the shapes and the tails are worked as detached elements supported with a wire outline stitched to the wrong side of the work, then attached to the fabric only at the base.

To complete this wonderful scene, two cleverly shaded stumpwork fence posts are positioned and then, the most realistic looking miniature barbwire you’ve ever see, is fashioned and perfectly placed so it sits threaded between the fence posts where it forms the perfect perch for the two wrens.

And in a move that could quite possibly tip the scales in favour of this becoming a bona fide fibre art piece, Susan includes the added embellishment of found material - tiny bird feathers couched into position as if they are caught up in the barbwire.

So, whether you are into embroidery, fibre art or love a bit of both, the project Just Resting is a brilliant and rare blend of the two.

Ready-to-Stitch kits for this project include the painted background pre-printed onto the fabric so you don’t have to worry about painting it yourself, along with all the materials you require other than the feathers… we didn’t want to take away the fun of finding them yourself!