Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Some Brazilian embroidery resources

When my P-I-C and I took that embroidery class recently, the instructor generously shared some great websites for Brazilian embroidery stitches and threads. I've used both (stitches and threads) in my sampler, and I have to say, I'm a big fan of the Brazilian!

(I'm letting that one just sit there, folks. There are only so many Brazilian jokes a person can make before one's ladylike reputation is forever sullied. Ha HA! Ladylike reputation. I realize I may've crossed that line so long ago that this act of restraint is like putting lipstick on a shitpile. But I can try, right?)

(Wow! This just got so unnecessarily gross! I was just trying to share some embroidery resources and then I'm all lipstick and shitpiles. Please forgive me. My back still hurts a bit. Well, in all honesty, it hurts just enough to blame it for my impaired judgement, but not so much that I can't tell I'm out of line. Shitpile! My apologies.)

And... we're back.

So, I haven't done extensive research on this. But, one resource that is very appealing is Brazilian Dimensional Embroidery. It's got all kinds of glorious things on it from designs, to stitch guides, and tips for supplies and getting started.

Click on the image below or here for some free designs. Edited to add: This image below is from their site. I am quite confident that my skills are not yet up to this level. Oh, and I blame my back for my lack of clarity on this initially. Shitpile!



Pretty, right? I really like those branches with the little french knots on them.

Click here or on these bullions for a basic stitch guide:



Our instructor said that the best Brazilian thread can be difficult to locate, but she gave JDR a glowing review. For the link to their thread offerings, click here or on the wig of threads below:



This thread comparison chart is useful because the weights of the threads have names that do not describe their weight (names like Lola and Nova, for example). So this chart seems like it would help match your Brazilian threads to your Brazilian needs.

For what it's worth, I think there's something really great about this thread. (Real embroiderers, please forgive this lay person's description.) It's kind of shiny, but not too shiny, and it's a little slick, but not too slick. I've found it very fun to use as a result.

All that being said, my back and I continue to hold out hope that someday soon you too will be overtaken by every craft under the sun. And then you'll join me in ordering wigs and wigs of threads to make bullion after ever-loving bullion.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ahhh Dr. B. I feel as though I am being sucked into your Brazilian powers. I. . .must. . . resist. . . another. . . craft!

Dr. B. said...

Yes, YES, JY Green! You're getting sleepy...very, very sleepy.

Anonymous said...

It's true - you are the devil of craft-luring. Do you do it on purpose or were you just born devilish? And I think it's only healthy to say shitpile occassionally. As in "My dogged knocked me off balance and I stepped in his shitpile then got very mad and sad at the same time". Oh wait - that actually happened today. I'm going to go feel sorry for myself some more. And maybe knit. Your blog is awesome!

Anonymous said...

Wow, what beautiful embroidery!

Kristy said...

Beautiful beautiful beautiful! This is some seriously fancy crafting you are doing!