Twixt Art and Nature

April 6, 2009 at 11:18 pm | Posted in Fiber Arts | Leave a comment

On Sunday Nest, Ygraine and I took a roadtrip to see the exhibit Twixt Art and Nature: English Embroidery from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1580-1700 at the Bard Graduate Center in NYC.

My take-away from the experience: Wow, they used tiny stitches. The incredible detail was amazing. There were some embroidery pieces that I had to look at more than once to convince myself it had not been painted. The petit-point works were mind-boggling small.

There was also some amazing reticella pieces. We were debating as we left whether modern companies even produce linen thread that fine!

The exhibit was both a little intimidating (keep in mind that most of the work being done was by professional embroiders at the time) and inspiring. I’ll never be a professional-quality embroiderer, but it can be inspiring to have a bar of excellence set before you.