Cara Sue Richard
My name is Cara Sue Richard, though in the artworld I am known as Cara Sue
Needlepoint Art began a short time ago with influences from Ann Caswell,Ruth Schmuff, Catherine Jordon, Barbara Mayo Grass and June Moes.
I paint with thread, not using any specific stitches. I layer long and
short stitches to create texture much as a painter would layer colors from their palatte. When choosing which canvas I want to stitch, I am looking for pieces where I can add dimension by adding or taking away canvas. By adding canvas you can make areas of the design come forward toward the viewer. By cutting away canvas I am playing with the negative space creating even more depth in a two dimensional piece.
Graduated from Maryland College of Art and Design- Fine Arts Degree> Born- Brooklyn NY, Grew up in Silver Spring, Md - Reside-Baltimore, Md
Tree of Life -
Dedicated to my family for their love and support
Tulip "To Sir With Love" -
In honor of my dad Mark Richard
Tulip "To Sir With Love"
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"To Sir With Love" is what I named this Art Piece. It is a tulip that I enhanced it with using different threads and cordings. And if you look closely enough I also cut the canvas, only in the frame like area. I picked threads in different textures and enhanced the color lightness and darkness to what the canvas painter had painted it. I used the surface to make it part of the texture of the parrot tulip. What I love is the petal center that is padded with layers and layers of fibers then the final touch is the frosty rays and similar threads. Silk threads entice the black part of the canvas and unite it with the couching edge that seperate the black canvas center to the surrounding collage of dense color combinations.
When I cut the canvas it was intentional to add another dimension to the area. It draws the background into the piece and makes it one.
Flower Pot "Thinking Outside the Box"
Michael Savage - designer of painted canvas licensed by Patti Mann 8x10 18 mesh
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I don't follow traditional philosophies of what needlepoint should look like. I follow my heart. There are few recognizable stitches- I lean more toward surface embroidery on canvas, crossing almost into stumpwork. I cut holes in the canvas while finishing the edges much as you would hardanger.
In this piece I not only cut holes but added dimensional details. Threads mostly used are sea grass and caron watercolors.
Tree of Life
9 1/2x 9 1/2 18 mesh
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Jane Sasserman quilt design interpreted into a painted canvas licensed by maggie & co.
Striking colors, unusal perspective and familiar subject matter create the quilt like embroidery. Cut canvas throughout with layer upon layer of cross hatching effects used over couching. Some rattain satin cording showing sporatically, while the different hues connect with one another.
I dyed the threads of the tulips the mauve and burgendy with tiny bits of gold. Bi Joux my new found thread of texture stretched along the tree trunk was an awesome touch. Hidden treasures of small metal washers then button holed stitched over top of them. Riversilks ribbon and frosty rays intermixed throughout in wrapping around or layed out in long stitch patterns similar to bargellow for the background.
Topic Techniques
Sometimes it is easier to cut one thread of the canvas in the area that you want to cut the hole. Then put the scissor into the hole and make it wider that way.
Begin to cut the canvas only when the canvas is tightly secured to the stretcher bars. May I suggest you use gingher G-4C curved embroidery scissors. I found that you can get into the canvas easier because its curved. The scissor cut is gentle on the canvas.
I haven't experimented with stabilizer on my cuttings. The cutting only frays when it’s touched numerous times in a non gentle way.
Petals on the flower pot piece were first stitched separately then stitched on top of the silk wired petal. To attach the wired petal to the main canvas was rather easy. You make a hole in the canvas ( not too big ), baste the wire to the canvas. Please make sure the stitches you use on the backside doesn't get seen on the front area surface.
I had cut a rather large hole in one of my pieces ( two inches wide and about 12 inches long ). It is not a good idea to do this because it lost most of the strength and or stability. Now if you cut it less in length and it had somewhere to hold onto I would consider it. I am having to add canvas back into the art piece and it has taken on another dimension. I also have added different canvas sizes to make the piece different again.
Attaching the pieces of canvas back in- I couch the ends or use a hardanger stitch. Please leave margins on the sides so that finishers can do what they do without hurting your Masterpiece.
Because I use so many different threads and sometimes the stitches are
cut too short for whatever reasons, when my art piece is complete I use
rice glue on the back side of the canvas. Do not use the glue while you
are still stitching because it dries and hardens so nothing can penetrate it without ruining your piece.
In order to keep the tulip threads in place ( not knowing about the
rice glue ) we had to keep the tulip on stretcher bars and staple the
canvas to the bars. Yes this made framing the piece heavy- then it was
framed.
