52 Weeks of Art: Week 33

Week 33: Thread Painting

Welcome to week 33 of 52 weeks of art! What are we doing this week?

     We've got some more fiber art this week. This time it's thread painting. What is thread painting? It's also called needle painting, and it uses a series of long and short stitches in various colors to create a painting-like masterpiece. Thread painting isn't embroidery. It's similar in that it uses fabric, needle, and thread. but embroidery uses more stitches. Thread painting uses just straight stitches - long and short.

     Here's some examples of some amazing thread painted art:

Cayce Zavaglia is amazingly talented. You can see some of her work here.

Victoria Matthewson is another incredibly talented artist. You can see her stuff here. 

Nicole O'laughlin is also extremely talented. You can see her work here.

    All of these ladies are so incredible. I follow them all on Instagram and I am constantly amazed with their talent. I knew that I wouldn't be able to create anything of their caliber this week, but I was going to try my best.

     I pulled out all my supplies and got to work.

This is like 2 hours of work.

Here's another hourish of work.

Another six hours of work.

More hours worth of work.

I stopped counting the hours by this point.

It looks like a little bit of something now.

Getting there! This took about 5 hours. 

I added some more trees and leaves.

     Well, I think this is the first time I haven't been able to finish a medium in a week. I thought I could make it. The cross stitch took me about 40ish hours or something, so I thought I could get this done. But, I couldn't. It's soooo close, though. I need to finish up the trees and add some clouds. Hopefully I will be able to update this soon with the finished piece. I even gave myself some extra time to try and finish it, it jut wasn't going to happen.

      If anyone ever says that tiny art is faster and easier to do than something larger - don't believe them! Tiny art is just as time consuming and difficult as larger scale art. In fact, some tiny art is even more difficult!  

     

   

On to rating thread painting...

     Just a reminder on the criteria for rating each medium.

Ease of use: How easy was this medium to use.

Affordability: How affordable supplies are for each medium.

Accessibility: How easily accessible supplies are for each medium. Example, are specific tools required that are hard to find?

Fun to Use: How much enjoyment I got out of using this medium

     So, for thread painting, my rating is: 17

Ease of use: 4

 Alright, if you can stitch at all, you can do thread painting. However, that doesn't mean you'll be able to achieve photo realistic quality.

Affordability: 5

  Thread costs $0.60-$0.80 for a skein. Depending on how many colors you use, thread painting isn't going to cost you too much. Also, you can stitch a lot with one skein.

Accessibility: 5

     You can get some thread from any arts and crafts store. Or online. I prefer to use the DMC brand of embroidery floss, but you can use whatever you like.

Fun to Use: 3

 Thread painting was fun and frustrating. I like seeing how all these tiny little stitches turn into a complete picture. I don't like how long it takes to finish.

     If you would like to go on this epic art adventure with me, next week we will be doing...

     If you choose to follow along, please post your work using #52weekartadventure!