Books, Fish, and News

Good morning, and welcome to a Late Start on Tuesday!

Here in the studio we’ve been catching up on the kit and box launch for Garden Swirl (which happened this past Friday). We’ve been organizing and sorting and answering your emails, trying to make sure orders are combined as you want, that we’re holding orders for those who want them held, we’re shipping orders for those who want them shipped, and on and on. Oh, the Excitement of Launching a Kit! We love it – but it can get complicated. Thanks for your patience!

On the News Front:

We are restocking Garden Swirl kits as quickly as we can. Give us about two weeks. I’ll let you know when they’re available.

We are re-stocking boxes as quickly as we can. I’ll let you know when we have more available.

And now, on to other topics.

What do books and fish have in common? Why, I’ll tell you!

I have two Major Items on my to-do list this week and next, aside from concentrating on the stitch-along for Garden Swirl and creating a few other morsels of content for you.

These get the classification “Major Items” because I’m particularly excited about them – and they are going to be particularly time-consuming – but fun!

And that’s really all these topics, books and fish, have in common – the fact that I’m excited about them.

On the book side, I have a small collection of brand spanking new books that I’m working my way through so that I can review them for you. I have not yet broken open Tennessee Samplers – this is going to be more of an academic book, and it’s going to take some seriously dedicated reading time. I can’t wait!

The other books are happy discoveries that I made while browsing online for recently published embroidery-related books. I thought they looked really promising, so I ordered them. I haven’t had a chance to explore all of them in depth, but I’ve browsed through them, and I can’t wait to share them in detail with you.

I’m always excited when I have a new stack of books to tackle!

And then there’s the fish.

It’s more like biblical fish, as you can see – although the fellow in the top right corner looks more like something out of Dr. Seuss than something from an illuminated manuscript – but I digress…

I’m very excited to be starting a new embroidery project. It’s called a maniturigium – and a long, long, long time ago, I wrote about one here.

The maniturgium is a strip of linen used in the ordination of a priest, to wipe chrism (holy oil) from his hands after they have been anointed. His hands are wrapped with the strip of linen briefly during the ceremony. After the ordination of the priest, the maniturgium is often presented to the priest’s mother, whose hands are wrapped with it when she is buried.

Often – but not always, and not necessarily – the maniturgium is embellished either with embroidery or paint. Often, they will include a particular favorite motto, biblical quote, short prayer, or phrase that has particular meaning to the ordinand. And if time and interest allow, they might be further embellished.

I’m getting ready to design one for embroidering. If you haven’t figured it out, it’s going to have a fishy theme. The ordinand’s name is Peter, and Christ’s apostle, Peter, was a fisherman. The quote that will be on the maniturgium – more on that later – is also related to fishing, Christ, St. Peter, and the apostles in general.

Embroidery with a Theme

When I start to design something that’s themed like this project is, I usually begin by collecting images that will give me ideas and inspiration. I make an “idea board” of sorts, by collecting images, doing some research on styles, era, and so forth. I like especially to look at illuminated manuscripts.

I also look around at fonts, to get ideas of writing styles that will fit the theme.

Right now, I’m playing with a net-fish-biblical-era-boat theme, and I’m looking at different styles of fonts that fit a more ancient or perhaps medieval “scripture” look.

But first, it’s really just a matter of collecting images that I can use for inspiration, that might give me a firmer grasp of what I want to portray.

No matter what type of project I’m getting ready to do – whether it’s religious, secular, sophisticated, playful – I always start by pulling together images that can help me form a solid notion of what I want to portray, before I actually settle down to doodling up a design.

Why I Like It

I’m very excited about this project, especially because it is wholly “recreational” for me (not business-related at all), and yet it is purposeful. I like it when those two aspects come together in one project.

I also like it because I have a lot of leeway for artistic license. My mind is bobbing about in an endless sea of possibilities right now, with the maritime theme. It’s a theme I particularly love. I think it’s going to be great fun!

And finally, I like it because I’m not necessarily pressed for time on it – I don’t have to rush this maniturgium. The first one I ever embroidered had a three-day deadline, which didn’t give me a lot of room to play around.

More Later!

I’ll share more on this project with you later, as it develops. I’ll try to keep track of the design process, material choices, stitching, and construction methods, for those who are curious.

And speaking of More Later… I have a couple new pieces of studio equipment to share with you, too. One is a lighted magnifier! I’ll be using it quite a bit on the above project, if necessary. I’m going to show that to you soon, and share the source.

Oh so many things coming up!

Hope you’re involved in projects that you’re excited about, too!