I sewed up a nameplate for my friend Daniella. This is so long in the making, I cannot even tell you! I met her in Peru, when I visited my brother and had high hopes to send her something fairly soon after the trip, but life kept getting in the way. She does some graphic design art over on Behance so I tried to make something a little representative of her style. I chose tropical leaves, bright and bold colors, and a monkey because we visited Monkey Island together 😀

Unfortunately, I didn’t take many photos of the production, and I began it long ago enough that I don’t recall the details well. I do know I found a monkey image online that I roughly based mine on, using thread painting techniques (the kind I’ve made up, as I still have not looked formally into it!). I used Daniella’s leaves from this image as inspiration for the embroidered ones. And I really wanted to try adding a snake (I even found the perfect one to suit her), but I felt the composition wouldn’t tolerate it. See what I get for lacking process in my work? And don’t look closely at the linen weave; instead, let’s just ignore the fact that my tension wasn’t perfect.

To complete it, I first laced it across some foam board (a new interest of mine!). I attached the green ricrac to a piece of felt with colonial knots (French knots are dead to me). I added a little thread hanger in the felt before attaching it with whip stitches to the front piece.

I normally don’t post gifts before they have been received, but with COVID-19 locking areas down, and shipping to Peru always questionable, I really have no way of knowing if she will ever get it. Maybe she will have it in a month, or maybe two years from now – by then, I might completely forget to post about it!