Art Nouveau Canvasses

Art Nouveau Display

My second set of canvasses were inspired by some lovely embroidery designs I got from Embroidery Library. Absolutely gorgeous designs but far too big to be embroidered on any articles of clothing – though they’d probably look really good on something like a shopping bag.

Anyhow, I stitched them out onto some heavy white felt-like material, took a long time as my machine is just a home sewing machine, nothing industrial with lots of heads etc.. So everytime I change colour I have to re-thread the machine and that does take time. Still, I think they were worth the effort involved. I was going to hang them in a guest bedroom but decided they wouldn’t be seen enough there so I hung them in the upper hallway.

Lady Lida

The canvasses were first painted with white gesso and then I swept thick bands of other colours of acrylic paints across them.

I glued some plasterers joint tape in places (like Magic Mesh but much, much cheaper, especially when you’ve got builders/plasterers/electricians all over the house!) and then painted over the whole lot with some glitter paint meant for walls. I also squiggled some glitter glue on each panel.

Lady Aria

Lady Ana

Decorative Maya Road celtic shapes glued in the corners were firstly embossed with a few layers of powder and then I twisted some electricians wire (as described in ‘Bathroom Canvasses‘) and added beads here and there.

A hot-glue gun works really well for attaching this heavy guage wire and left some lovely cobwebs all over the place – as it always does! Horrible, stringy stuff but very effective.

Small glass mosaic tiles were glued here and there and then I thought about the embroideries themselves.

Lady Kati

I had been given some green velvet paper a while ago (thanks Gloria) and it added just a nice bit of contrast and texture to the ‘girls’, they were glued onto the canvasses and also held more firmly by some dragonfly and jewelled brads. The names, I guess, were given to the girls by the designers at Embroidery Library so I printed them out onto glossy photo paper in different font styles and then picked the uncial ones which looked most in keeping. I stared to colour them a little which made the ink smudge but I quite liked that – isn’t that what we always say when we make a ‘mistake’! I gilded the edges a little and glued them in place.

Four-square (almost)

To mount them on the wall I carefully made card templates so that I could hang them in a perfect square – they’re not too bad.

NB: After a little over 2 years, Embroidery Library have published photos of this project in their Stitchers Showcase. I presume they are sent hundreds of photos of projects made with their fabulous designs which explains the long delay. Still, I am thrilled that they’ve chosen to feature them at last.