Hello Everyone
Hope the New Year is going well for you so far? My year has started with a bang and I find myself busy busy preparing for Paris, getting translations done, fulfilling a mountain of orders, preparing new kit instructions and getting uniforms ready for the new school term! Two people have come forward and kindly offered to translate for my workshops in Paris, Paola Botti from Luxembourg for my Friday workshhop and Dominique Roubault from Paris for my Saturday workshop. Dominique also kindly agreed to translate all my notes and has even sent me information on the location of my hotel and the surrounding, recommended restaurants – what a star thank you Domini! The workshops are full but if you want more info on the event you can see here and I would love it if you came and introduced yourself: L”aiguille En Fete.
One of my New Year’s resolutions is to try and be more organised – as you know this is virtually impossible for any creative person, we normally have our head in stitching clouds, but in an effort to do this I am giving you an introduction to the blog posts I will be covering on Designing An Embroidery Project.
Having taken this first step I am obliged to carry on so here goes………………:)
There are approx seven stages required to compile a needle painting project for a kit or publication, each one vital to the success of the finished project.
- STAGE ONE – Choosing a project picture & gaining permission.
- STAGE TWO – Drawing the outline, and transferring onto fabric
- STAGE THREE – Choosing threads, colours and preparation.
- STAGE FOUR – Stitching the project – first time round
- STAGE FIVE – Stitching the project – second time round with step by step instructions.
- STAGE SIX – Final publication – putting instructions into step by step booklet form.
- STAGE SEVEN – Purchasing materials, screen printing, printing & kit packing
The process can take several weeks or months to complete and good preparation requires a basic knowledge (or ability to sub contract someone in each field) of the following. I certainly don’t profess to know it all and I do get some help from my daughter with the graphic design but mostly I am a one man band and have had to learn myself through trial and error over the years, so you will forgive me if I make mistakes occassionally!
- Sourcing picture/photo material from internet or other.
- Drawing, tracing and best materials to use.
- Embroidery techniques and materials.
- Sourcing materials for project and kits.
- Graphic design, layout, colours, print and packaging
- Use of graphic design software such as Corel Draw/Adobe.
- Familiarity with Microsoft Office software such as Excel & Word.
- Scanning or photography
- Online merchandizing and coding such as Paypal
- Website and blog hosting and creation.
- Marketing and distribution of products through internet and other.
Over the next several weeks I will post an article on each stage of the process together with photos and some of the ups and downs this entails. We will follow a live project which I will be stitching at the time so you can see how I make decisions for every aspect of the design and how it all comes together. In February I will leave you briefly to attend the L’Aiguille En Fete in Paris and then be back to continue the saga!
It is always a pleasure to talk about the thing I love most and share it with an interested audience (instead of the glazed look I normally get at dinner parties:)) I look forward to sharing this journey with you, in the meantime wherever you are in the world be it winter, spring or summer have a wonderful week and happy stitching. Trish