Embroidery and Elsa Mora

It seems like this fall has been a whirl of activity.
As I've been travelling, or sitting in the evening unwinding, I've been embroidering.

I got totally enspired by Elsa Mora, a Californian artist who works in several media, including paper cutting, doll making, book art, pen and paper...the list goes on for quite a while.  She does all this while maintaining 5 blogs and raising two children. wow.
Plus, I totally want her studio. oh, and her brooch collection.

The piece that particularly inspired me was this. And this and this.

I was in lust. I totally want a brooch like that. I would love the piece it's a part of, but the brooch, I simply have to have.  However, I'm broke, and therefore can't buy it.  So, that means I have to create something like that, without plagiarizing her work, but getting what I want.  Good thing I'm creative. :)
Large embroidery projects get onerous after a while, but surely I could do something small like that!  So, I got out my random collection of embroidery floss (mostly stuff that people gave me, figuring I was crafty like that), and made this:

Not too shabby for a first try.  I also didn't look at the image that inspired me while I was designing this, on purpose so that I would create my own image and not simply copy Elsa's brilliant work.

It worked up pretty quickly, in a night or two. I have some brooch settings I inherited from my grandfather that I'm going to set it into, whenever I get around to it.

Inspired by that, I decided to make another piece, that I think turned out very well:

 I had a lot of fun learning the lattice work couching, and the boullion stitch.  However, I think my favorite part is the tiny green seed stitches that are like leaves around the white french-knot "blossoms." They're barely visible, but they add dimensionality, and help the blossoms stand out from the background.  The whole piece is only a little bigger than a playing card.

I'm thinking of making some more small embroidery pieces for Christmas gifts.  In the meantime, I'm working on this sampler for my brother and his wife.  They're expecting their first child together.  I think the middle is going to have the child's name in it.  It's an embroidery pattern printed in blue.  You can tell I get bored with one part of the pattern while working this big.  I work on another section, then go back to plugging away at the couching fill for that heart.  I'm going to do a different fill for each heart, in shades of pink and wheat.

I thought I'd also share with you my current favorite pair of earrings.  They're made from antique buttons, probably victorian.  All I did was remove the back loop and glue on posts.  They're kicky, but don't get in the way of my scarves, and they go with everything.

PS. here's a link to some free embroidery patterns Elsa Mora made.
enjoy!