♡♡ Studio ♡♡

Before my holiday I had a major framing session in the studio; stretching, mounting and framing Mrs Heggardy's Windmill, All That Glitters and Medley Marshes! I quite enjoy the process of measuring and cutting the mountboard and then sticking in the little pins to stretch the fabric. They always look so much better when squared up and stretched out. I also go around the edges of the fabric pieces and will do tiny little invisible stitches to pull and stretch any fabric layers that are slightly wavy to keep them in place over a long period of time.
I can't remember if I have mentioned on here that I now have a 'How To' section on the right hand side of my blog for little picture heavy tutorials that I have put together. Currently the only 'How To' is How To: Stretch Over Mountboard, something that I get asked about all of the time. I hope that this will be useful for anyone unsure of how to stretch their pieces properly, and please do let me know if there is anything else that you would like me to write a tutorial on.

Once they are mounted, I have the totally un-glamorous job of photographing them ready to be edited and turned into my printed products. Sometimes I can't do it all in the same day depending on the weather- ideally they need to be photographed on a light but overcast day, no direct sunshine but as much natural light as possible. It's harder than you might think!
The photos also have to be taken as squared up as possible, with the piece perpendicular to the camera lens so I use a garden chair to prop them up whilst I am squat in ungainly positions leaning forwards and backwards, zooming in and out, changing camera settings and chair angles. From the hundreds of photos of the same piece taken I will choose one to edit, smoothing away wrinkles, magically removing blemishes and trimming frayed edges. I don't get rid of everything as the little imperfections are what make my prints look so realistic.

Once my photos have been taken I can continue to frame the pieces. Each mount is measured specifically to the correct size for the Stitchscape and then hand cut by me. The Stitchscape is taped to the back, the mount labelled and signed, then more photos of the framed piece with the glass removed so that there is no glare. It takes quite a long time but if I am doing several pieces at once I can build up a bit of a rhythm.

Once my framed photos are finished I can then clean the glass and frame the piece properly with the glass in, checking that there are no loose fibres or fluffs trapped on the piece before putting the back in. So much behind the scenes stuff going on!