Merry Merry Merry

Christmas is my favorite holiday. Its all warmth, sparkly lights, cinnamon and cheerful songs. So many memories, so much family, so much fun. I decided to create an embroidery devoted to my favorite holiday.

Using my new process of creating a layout on Illustrator and then carving a lino plate, I embroidered over the print. I challenged myself to create a geometric tree. If you follow me then you know how much I love geometric shapes. I created a symmetrical tree even though I knew during the carving and printing processes the tree would be slightly asymmetrical. But that’s the beauty of making things by hand. Humans should be symmetrical but we aren’t. Everyone has imperfections like one eye smaller than the other or one leg longer than the other. Symmetry is perfection but asymmetry is interesting. I think the tree was successful. 

The font that I used is called American Purpose. How fitting for such an idealized American holiday. I love this font for its 1950s inspired look. It harkens back to the hand painted signs of yesteryear. Always obsessed with brushstrokes, I decided to mimic the directional nature of a wide brush with my stitches. 

The hand carved linoleum plate.

The first printing on metallic copper cardstock.

I used “Merry, Merry, Merry” because I liked the look of the word in repeat in American Purpose font. There was no need to put “Christmas” or “Holiday.” The tree and the word “Merry” give enough indication of the holiday. 

The colors are obviously based on traditional Christmas colors. I wanted to work with various greens. I chose more bluish, turquoise greens for a more modern look. I loved the richness that the olive green gives the bluish greens. The yellowness of the olive green balance the blue in the rest of the green threads. 

I used unbleached muslin as the ground because that what I had on hand. I’m always resourceful like that. :)