Monday 4 March 2013

A Very Strange Sheep


Here it is! My curious sheep. A solid week of embroidery.

Last year Cape Wools asked for proposals to decorate felt sheep for the Campaign for Wool. The brief did seem to require using wool in some form or another, but I've experimented with printing on wool before, and not been happy with the results. I did have a very very big bag of vintage embroidery wools, though.

Last month a hollow felt sheep, made by Ronel Jordaan, was delivered to my house, and I spent about a week just looking at it. (And Emile barked at it. A lot.)


(I took the bag off it's head for the photos; I kept the feet and head wrapped while working. So please try to imagine it without the booties.)

I sorted through the wool to see what I had the most of, and luckily green won. Then I printed a few panels of my blocks, divided the sheep into a grid with ribbon and pins, and cut the prints out and placed them. After draping bits of woollen thread all over it, I realised it needed a bit more, so I outlined the prints with red embroidery, and sewed them on.

I wanted to imitate one of my printed patterns, so I mimicked the second printing with embroidery. There wasn't enough of a single shade of green, so I started with the lightest shade at the top and worked down to the darkest.


I do have to apologize for the terrible photos, and the state of my studio, but I finished it about 1/2 an hour before pickup!

12 comments:

Jane McLellan said...

Wow, that's a really exciting sheep. What's going to happen to it next?

JaneA said...

Beautiful! I really wish I could have had a chance to see him in real life at the Indaba. And, yes, do you get to keep him? He could be a 'friend' to Emile.

Melanie Wickham said...

Wow, I love your sheep! What a lot of work, looks so beautiful.

painted fish studio said...

fabulous solution! that's one beautiful sheep!

Danya Ristić said...

Sjoe, he (she?) looks amazing; and your stitching is so neat and precise. Well done!

Jesse said...

Thank you! The sheep go on tour around the country now - I know they'll be in Sandton at some point.

Anairam said...

Oh, oh, oh!! I love it! Sheeps and embroidery (actually, stitching of any kind) are two of my favourite things.

sweet and soutie said...

dit was pragtig! het jou werk dadelik herken toe ek dit sien!!

Corina said...

Looks great! I love it!

Unknown said...

Great job! Impressed about the original way of decorating the sheep. And lots of hours involved!

Lori said...

Wow, this is really amazing! I love how you've mimicked your print with the embroidery.

Alex Sunday said...

that is the most beautiful sheep i've ever seen. and i have a flock of my own, so that's saying something. :)