Category Archives: Sale

Life As We Know It

Welcome to Week 2 of my Summer Stories Archival Sale!

The five pieces described below are 20% off in my web shop, now through 11:59pm July 17th.
Use the coupon code Life20 at checkout.

Although these pieces span an 8 year period, they all speak to something that was top of mind for me when I made them: how do I juggle the many ingredients of every busy day, accomplishing what needs to be done while still making room for creativity? I had considered labeling this category “Parenthood” because that was my main directive during those years. But in retrospect, so many of the issues that I was confronting were hardly unique to being a parent – or any particular stage of life. Balancing limited hours, bumps in the road, being mindful of one’s actions and looking back to consider how to improve are just a part of life as we all know it.

As I mentioned in my last post, although I had the luxury of a full room to devote to art-making, my studio space was limited in terms of the materials I could use and how messy I could be with them. I had reached the point where I wanted to explore surface design in order to stretch beyond store-bought fabrics and to customize the cloth I was using in my work, but I needed to find ways to accomplish that within the constraints of my space.

The bottom line is that any perceived stumbling block can also be a call to ingenuity.
At the time, taking family photographs to the local copy shop to have customized tee shirts printed was very popular. In fact, we did just that before a large family celebration of my grandfather in-law’s 100th birthday. It got me to thinking: if one could print photos on cloth with clarity, why couldn’t that be true of a drawing or a painting?

I began to experiment with a couple of approaches.
Using oil pastels, I made abstract drawings, taking them to my copy shop to have them copied and then transferred onto cotton sateen fabric which I supplied. There was a learning curve; the colors of the copy appeared much more saturated than my original drawings and the resulting fabric didn’t have quite the same soft “hand” that it had before being printed with the transfer, but for my purposes it was a total success!

The best aspect of the copied transfers was that they picked up every textural detail from the surface of my originals. In addition to the oil pastels, I painted on brown paper grocery bags – a process that allowed for the texture of my brush strokes and for the wrinkles and folds inherent to the bags to appear on the finished printed fabric. I also made collages with the paintings before having them copied and printed, a process that presented the opportunity to have a collage effect within the printed image rather than only achieving a collage afterward by cutting the fabric and re-sewing it together.

Keep in mind, this was well before the existence of Spoonflower. How much easier and more exact this process would be for me today! But now I see these pieces as markers of possibility, both in terms of circumventing creative obstacles and in regard to a specific season within my own journey.

Thanks for being here!

Compartmentalized

Compartmentalized ©2003 Elizabeth Fram, Silk, cotton & synthetic fabrics, Heat transfer of original oil pastel drawing, Machine pieced, Hand appliqué, Machine and hand quilted, Hand embroidered, 17″H x 17″W, SALE Price: $400. This was one of my first stabs at incorporating fabric that I had designed, made from transfers of an oil pastel drawing. This piece speaks to the fact that life at the time was a series of stops and starts, all sorted into various compartments that required constant tending and nurturing so that nothing fell through the cracks.

This photocopy of my drawing was used for the transfer print in Compartmentalized. I only used a tiny section of it in the finished quilt, cutting and sewing together small areas of the printed fabric to add within the piece.

Compartmentalized, detail ©2003 Elizabeth Fram If you look closely, you can recognize the orange section from the far right of the copied drawing above, and also see that the copy’s image was reversed in the process of printing it on fabric.

Compartmentalized, detail quilted and embroidered

Compartmentalized, detail ©2003 Elizabeth Fram The textural “conversation” between quilting, embroidery and a variety of fabrics, all in chorus together, is a huge part of my attraction to working with textiles.

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Room For Adjustment

Room for Adjustment ©2004 Elizabeth Fram, Silk, cotton & synthetic fabrics, Discharge, Direct drawing with colored pencil, Pieced and appliquéd, Hand and machine quilted, Hand embroidery, 26″H x 51″W, SALE Price: $760. Becoming a parent was the perfect proving ground for realizing that no matter how much you try to get everything perfectly lined up, something will invariable throw your plans to the wind. Once this work was pieced together it felt just a bit too organized and stagnant. Taking a huge leap of faith, I sliced it right down the middle, readjusting so that it was slightly off-kilter. I can be very brave in my work, maybe not so much in life. Take a risk, try something radical, make room for adjustments.

Room for Adjustment detail colored pencil

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Unexpected Circumstances

Unexpected Circumstances ©2004 Elizabeth Fram, Silk, cotton & synthetic fabrics, Heat transfer of original oil pastel drawing, hand appliquéd, Hand and machine quilted, Hand embroidery, 37″H x 31″W, SALE Price: $640. There’s no getting around it – sh*t happens. You can either fight it or go with it. At the end of the day, as my husband’s centenarian grandfather would say, we all just do the best we can.

For Unexpected Circumstances, I made an oil pastel drawing and then had it copied in both black & white and colored versions. I brought those copies home and re-configured them by cutting and combining the two iterations in a new conglomeration of both. It was this resulting collage that I had transferred onto fabric and used within this piece, as seen directly below.

Unexpected Circumstances, detail ©2004 Elizabeth Fram While it’s all but impossible to see in this photo, I embroidered with dark blue thread on top of the printed collage, adding to the energy of the pastel marks captured in the fabric transfer.

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Tadasana

Tadasana ©2011 Elizabeth Fram, Silk & cotton, Paint, Dye, Hand appliquéd, Hand and machine quilted, Hand embroidery, 31″H x 19″W, SALE Price: $520. Tadasana is the word for Mountain Pose. This piece was made on the heels of a very busy and at times stressful period in our lives. I had been maintaining a very modest but regular yoga practice and found it was a huge help. This piece honors the peace and grounding I found through both that practice and our return to Vermont, the Green Mountain State.

Tadasana, detail ©2011 Elizabeth Fram This piece includes a bit of very contained mono-printing, made a couple of years before inserting it here. Textile paint and minimal dyeing were wet processes that I could explore in a friend’s studio and our garage. The embroidery (in white, by the stroke of yellow paint) is subtle, but integral to the pattern.

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Hindsight

Hindsight ©2006 Elizabeth Fram, Silk & cotton, Heat transfer of original painting, Hand appliquéd, Machine and hand quilted, Hand embroidered, 34.5″H x 24″, SALE Price: $600. Slowly working through the time-consuming and methodical processes of hand sewing gives one plenty of time to think and to look back on past actions and discussions. It’s in my nature to reflect on what went right, what went wrong and how one might approach things in the future. And isn’t that also a large part of trying to do one’s best at parenting? In some ways, such mulling is much like collage – a piecing together of known elements into a new configuration.

This is the original collage I created for Hindsight. Although made initially to become a fabric transfer, I went through a brief period of composing collages with painted brown paper as an exercise in-and-of itself. They weren’t made with exhibiting in mind, and certainly aren’t archival, rather they were an exercise done for fun and for myself alone.

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And finally, a quick look into the studio as promised…

When I first began this piece I was only planning to paint the eyes and to leave a lot of white space surrounded by monochromatic stitching. But as the work progressed it seemed to have its own ideas, one thing leading to another, until here we are. I’m still wrestling with the stitching on the face, but there’s something about it that won’t let me go. So I guess that’s just to say I have a lot to consider moving forward. I am learning from others’ responses that the house form is perhaps too subtle to be seen without prompting. That’s also something to think about for future pieces.

Meanwhile…

The Equivalents

I am so happy to have received this book from an Eye of the Needle reader. Not only was it a much appreciated gift in general terms, but also in light of one of the themes running through this post (reread my very first sentence). I had planned to put it aside for later in the summer, but once I began its introduction while eating lunch last week, I couldn’t put it down. It revolves around 5 artists/writers and their participation in the Radcliffe Institute for Independent Study. Were you aware of this fellowship opportunity for “intellectually displaced” women? It offered its fellows “a stipend, an office, access to Harvard’s libraries and professors and the gift of unfettered time”. That’s an opportunity we all might aspire toward; in the early 1960s it was unimaginable. Fascinating and highly recommended!

Don’t forget to use the coupon code Life20 for your 20% discount in my web shop. These five pieces will remain on sale through 11:59pm July 17th. And don’t forget, free shipping within the continental US, with hanging slats included.

The next sale will begin with my July 25th blog post in two weeks.
Keep an eye on my web shop, as the next five pieces will be available to preview soon after this sale ends. You can find them under the category “Etudes”.

Japanese Gardens

Welcome to the first post of my Summer Stories Archival Sale!

As a reminder, the five works below are now on sale in my web shop at 20% off the regular price. Use coupon code Garden20 at checkout.

For anyone joining in for the first time, these works will be available at the sale price for one week. Sale ends at 11:59 pm July 3rd.

On to this week’s stories:

In my mid-twenties, I was incredibly fortunate to have been invited by a well-to-do elderly cousin on a tour of China, with stops in Japan and Hong Kong bookending the trip. She tapped me to accompany her as a female companion, and I felt at the time as though I was stepping into a Henry James novel. Of course it was an incredibly formative adventure in many ways.

For an untraveled young woman from New England, floating down the Yangtze for a couple of weeks, taking in the many wonders along the way, was unbelievable. It’s hard to describe what it felt like to suddenly be physically within a landscape that, while so different from the West, seemed achingly familiar considering the imagery I had encountered while studying Asian art in college. It was like walking into a dream.

Throughout the trip, I fell in love with the aesthetic sensibilities and detailed workmanship of both China and Japan, a quality that seemed to permeate so many aspects of their day-to-day lives. I became especially smitten with the gardens we visited, particularly in Tokyo. Since then I have sought out Japanese gardens wherever possible — Portland, Seattle, Montreal, San Francisco, Hawaii — the lists goes on. And some twenty years after my trip, in the midst of raising our growing, busy family, I began to consider Japanese gardens as a source of inspiration for my artwork.

I chose to switch from paints and pastels to art quilts when our children were very young since, as a medium, the non-toxic nature of fabric and sewing fit easily within an erratic schedule filled with interruptions and curious little fingers. As time progressed and our family life became busier, I found myself returning to Japanese gardens for the insights – parallels even – they provided to life and art. And, during that busy, busy period, I often found myself seeking the overarching sense of tranquility they represented.

I wrote in one of my artist statements at the time: “Through the garden’s deftly controlled organic and geometric forms, a sense of organized quiet overtakes the potential chaos of a living, growing, ever-changing environment”.

Looking back, that description might well be a metaphor for what art-making brought to my daily routine with busy teenagers. I was definitely in search of organized quiet and sought to create it with my art. The slow processes of hand-sewing and embroidery were a way to carve out a corner of calm. Plus, as it turns out, drawing a comparison between the gardens and my day-to-day was yet another way to acknowledge beauty in the ordinary, an idea that has remained a mainstay of my work.

Autumn Leaf on Wet Stones

I love Autumn and I love rainy days…all the better for being productive in the studio.
Light reflected off the wet flagstones of our Pennsylvania walkway, plastered with fallen leaves from the nearby Japanese maple, was a beautiful marker of the season.

Pennsylvania walkway with Japanese maple leaves

A picture of our wet, leaf-strewn PA walkway

Discharging fabric (removing color via bleach or other chemicals to create surface patterns) proved a wonderful way to capture this quality of light and wetness. A small hand-dyed orange rectangle, backed with gold metallic fabric, then embroidered in shades of red, orange and cream, references the poetry of a single fallen leaf.

The swath of ombre reddish/orange to gold fabric on the right provides balance – a compositional device learned through studying Asian art, as well as visiting Japanese gardens and reading about Ikebana flower arranging. It is also a nod to my personal preference for asymmetry. The arc could be interpreted as the path of a falling leaf, but it is also an element that I repeated in a number of works made around that time.

I still have a length of the sheer, synthetic ombre fabric (left) used in Autumn Leaf and a number of other artworks. It looks a lot more Spring-like when backed by white board as in this photo, but laid over black silk it offers the perfect Autumn palette. At one point I ran across a shop that carried lightweight metallic fabric in a variety of colors (right) and I bought a little of every color they had on hand. It doesn’t take much, but that small touch of metallic gold peaking out from behind the embroidered “leaf” gives it the punch it needs to hold its own in the midst of the more somber expanse of the rest of the piece, while simultaneously echoing the length of color on the right.

Incorporating a variety of unexpected fabrics, such as the examples above, became a central component in my art quilts. I looked for interesting and unusual fabrics everywhere, especially when traveling, certain that whatever I brought home would eventually be the perfect element for a future piece. The more unusual the texture or quality of the fabric, the better. Needless to say, over time I have amassed a wonderful collection.

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Sunlight on the Forest Floor

Despite the deep shade underneath a tree canopy, the colors within a forest are rich and lovely. Any walk in the woods calls to mind the magic of fairy tales through the awesome beauty of nature. Watching my step on forest trails, I have always been struck by the sometimes subtle, sometimes vibrant contrast between the vast variety of greens and yellows, paired as they are with the russet brown of the soil.

Sunlight on the Forest Floor, detail Art Quilt embroidery

Sunlight on the Forest Floor, detail ©2004 Elizabeth Fram Curving embroidery snakes through an open area of red-brown fabric, surrounded by quilting that echoes its shape. The hand-made stitches are reminiscent of fallen pine needles or, taken as a whole, perhaps a dropped branch.

Walking along, one can’t help but notice the places where the sun breaks through the tree cover above. Those areas always seem to be places of enhanced sensory details – such as the scent of balsam needles, leaves glistening with moisture, or the intricacies of spider webs, standing out as the masterworks of complexity they are.

Collaging diverse fabrics together is one way to call to mind the universal nuances of such an encounter while encouraging the recall of a viewer’s personal memories.

Sunlight on the Forest Floor, detail ©2004 Elizabeth Fram Again, an eclectic choice of fabrics best conveys the impressions of everything mentioned above. The sparkling iridescent “fabric” in the center of this piece is cut from a party favor bag, left over from one of my daughter’s birthday parties. The discharged fabric (red and tan) began as red, but once discharged the underlying color was tan, not white as one might expect.

Sunlight on the Forest Floor Detail, Art Quilt

The unusual base fabric on the right side of the piece is an example of a special find. It is a synthetic composed of three layers, blue, gold and red. I’ve separated them above so you can see the individual components. I thought this fabric was perfect for conveying the beauty and complexity of soil that is rich in organic matter.

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Riffle

Water features are a key element in any Japanese garden. We’ve never included water in our home gardens because we didn’t want to attract mosquitoes. But water adds so much to a garden experience, and it’s extra special when you can cross it via stepping stones.

Riffle, detail © 2005 Elizabeth Fram This piece is an example of painting directly on fabric, not printing, but painting with a brush. I tore strips of tape and placed them on the cloth to create a mask, then painted in the spaces between. Each area of color is surrounded with hand quilting. On the vertical area to the right, the regularity of large hand stitches and machine-stitched quilting creates a contrast with the more organic painted areas on the left.

A riffle is the rippling on the surface of water, so not only does the word conjure a visual image, but also one of sound. The trickling of water is integral within most Japanese gardens. I pushed myself to interpret the idea of a riffle in four different ways: discharge patterning, quilting, pleating, and with paint.

Riffle, detail © 2005 Elizabeth Fram I have incorporated many sheer fabrics in my work throughout the years, appreciating their transparency and the multitude of ways they might be manipulated for a variety of textures. I created water-like pleating in the block of sheer fabric on the left by pressing those irregular “pleats” into the fabric before appliquéing it to the green background. Each shape was hand-quilted in place to emphasize the effect.

Riffle is essentially a series of mini compositions within one big overall composition, a challenge I set for myself that is reminiscent of how turning every corner within a Japanese garden often creates a new, equally enticing view of the same plants – just from a different angle. I greatly admire those gardeners’ design aptitude, both in creating a puzzle to unravel, and as a skill to strive for.

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One Mossy Stone

There are three things I most admire about moss: its jewel-like color, its velvety texture, and the fact that it seems to thrive on so little. I love the fact that even in the early days of Spring, moss pokes through the thinning snow with all the vibrancy of mid-summer. It is such a seemingly simple plant and yet so complex, very much like a raked Zen garden.

One Mossy Stone, detail ©2007 Elizabeth Fram The green of the stone was made by painting on interfacing. It is an example of creating my own surface design rather than relying solely on fabrics with ready-made, preprinted designs. I will write more about those explorations in one of my future story posts.

Raked gardens with thoughtfully placed large stones evoke islands floating in the sea. If those stones are covered with moss, the green stands out in such beautiful contrast to the grey of the raked gravel, creating a wonderful convergence of color with texture. One Mossy Stone speaks to the strength of that contrast.

If you look closely at this thread which was used within the center of the mossy “stone” above, you will see that it is slightly variegated between green and blue. It was hand-dyed by a Pennsylvania artist friend.

I am a big fan of variegated thread although I have never tried dyeing it myself. While I used it sparingly in this piece, as seen in the detail image above, it is a linchpin in most of my current stitched paintings, valued for its nuance and the color variations it makes possible within a very small area.
The brownish wool thread, to the left of the “stone” in the same detail image above, mimics the brown/ochre colors in the small fabric square nearby, enhancing a sense of definition and connection.

One Mossy Stone, detail ©2007 Elizabeth Fram Texture is such a major component of Japanese gardens, as it is for an art quilt. Discovering new ways to create texture with stitch became a means toward forging a strong connection between what I was making and the gardens that inspired me. The textural variations within the white-on-white and blue-grey areas of this piece create an active dynamic within largely monochromatic areas.

A couple of my favorite books during the time period One Mossy Stone was made were Being Home by Gunilla Norris and Plain and Simple by Sue Bender. Akin to a Zen garden, they highlight the strength to be gleaned by slowing down and appreciating simplicity.

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That First Peony

With all the rain we’ve had in the past week, our peonies are on their way out, but it has been a glorious year for them.
In my Pennsylvania garden, the peonies bloomed much earlier than they do here in Vermont. I often didn’t have a chance to clear the winter clutter beneath them until the first was already blooming. The contrast between the newly cleared soil (represented in brown silk on the right side of the piece) with the glorious first fully opened peony blossom, was always a thrill.

That First Peony, detail ©2007 Elizabeth Fram The central red/pink/green section, which represents the peony blossom, was cut from a relatively small mono-print on cotton fabric that I made using acrylic paint and textile medium. I was very excited by the brushstrokes which stood out so well on my plexiglass printing surface, transferring beautifully to the fabric.

This piece is another example of my experimentations with printing/dyeing my own patterns on fabric. They are pretty tame because, at the time, my studio was our wall-to-wall carpeted 4th bedroom. Obviously there was no sink and very little extra space, so not at all conducive to working with wet and messy processes.

That First Peony, detail ©2007 Elizabeth Fram The cream-colored silk with green patterning was one of my first forays into dyeing. I find it amusing how tentative the color appears to me now – and yet it is the perfect counterpoint to the all the stronger colors in this piece. It is a suitable ground for the embroidered curving lines that were enhanced by hand-quilting on either side. The textural effect of the small lime green square in the center was created by hand-quilted stippling.

This piece was chosen through the Art in Embassies program to hang in the US Embassy at Riga, Latvia for four years. If you aren’t familiar with this program, it is a wonderful vehicle of diplomacy via art that was begun during the Kennedy administration.
The US State Department treats the art they borrow (and the artists they borrow from) with tremendous respect and deference. It has been a true honor to be asked to participate, with my work hanging in the US Embassies of both Riga and Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

That First Peony, detail ©2007 Elizabeth Fram Embroidery has been an integral part of my work since my very first art quilt. Not only does it create unique textures and marks that cannot be replicated by a machine, but by virtue of being hand-worked, I think it draws/encourages a somewhat personal connection between the viewer and myself.

Phew! You made it to the end!
Should you feel a connection with any of these pieces, don’t forget to use the coupon code Garden20 for your 20% discount in my web shop. These five pieces will remain on sale through 11:59pm July 3rd. And don’t forget, free shipping within the continental US and hanging slats are included.

The next sale will begin with my July 11th blog post in two weeks.
Keep an eye on my web shop, as the next five pieces will be available to preview soon after this sale ends. You can find them under the category “Life As We Know It”.

Thanks for your interest and see you in two weeks!

Summer Stories Archival Sale

Here’s the reality:
As one moves through a creative career, a lot of work is made and exhibited. Much of that work finds a home along the way, but some doesn’t. As one’s practice evolves, older work naturally tends to get sidelined in favor of newer pieces. Yet those older works never lose their value. They are markers of time and place and of processes that form the building blocks of an artistic journey.

Autumn Leaf on Wet Stones, detail Quilted and embroidered textile collage

With that in mind, rather than holding a “flash-in-the-pan” sale in my search for new homes for older works, I’ve decided to do something different here at Eye of the Needle — a project that will encompass the whole summer. While I will continue to share peeks into what’s currently developing in my studio, I mainly plan to center the next 5 posts on revisiting and sharing the stories of select archival work. I will highlight 5 different pieces in each of those upcoming blog posts throughout the summer.

One Mossy Stone, detail Quilted and embroidered textile collage

The five pieces highlighted in each post will be available in my web shop at a 20% discount for one week from the day each post is published (Thursday through the following Wednesday), starting June 27th. If you see something you like, don’t tarry as at the end of that week those particular pieces will revert to full price. However, a different 5 will be discussed and placed on sale in the next post — and so on throughout the summer, totaling 25 pieces overall. The last post of this project will be August 22nd, so the sale for the final five works will end on August 28, 2024.

Riffle, detail, appliqué and quilted textile collage

Revisiting older work is a window to understanding how an artistic practice evolves. It’s been fun for me to see that these works haven’t lost their “oomph” with time. They were a proving ground for the development of a visual and technical language that I rely on today, while still maintaining their relevance.

Hindsight is 20/20, and as I’ve sorted through these pieces in anticipation of this project, it’s become apparent how interconnected my art has remained over the past decades, regardless of the differences that have surfaced through the exploration of new materials and processes. For example, despite evolving from a mostly abstract sphere into a figurative realm, subject matter that celebrates the ordinary and a continued reliance on hand-stitched embroidery has remained constant.

Sunlight on the Forest Floor, detail quilted and embroidered textile collage

I hope you will enjoy reading the backstory surrounding these pieces and that you will perhaps find a moment of connection between them and your own stories. I would be honored if, as an honored reader, you might consider snapping up one of these works at the sale price to add to your own collection.

That First Peony, detail quilted, painted and embroidered textile collage

You can preview the first 5 works I will discuss in my next post (June 27th) in the Japanese Gardens section of my web shop; please come back in a couple of weeks when I’ll uncover their secrets. As is often the case, the thumbnail images on the Japanese Gardens page are automatically cropped into a square, obscuring a full view. If you check a work’s individual page you will see the work in full…or stay tuned for my next post where all the work will be displayed in detail.

As always, I am grateful for your interest and the time you choose to spend here with me. See you in two weeks!

Embroidered and watercolor portrait work in progress

I have been juggling this WIP alongside working through the many details of my upcoming Summer Stories Archival Sale. Each new step uncovers more questions and challenges regarding the direction I want to take with new work. I’m counting on figuring some of that out in the weeks ahead.