Entries by Michael

Pyrexplosion

I’ve always heard that while tempered borosilicate glass is hard to break, once you manage it, it can be really spectacular. Something about the way it’s made causes it to explode. I’d never seen it until today. This was a four-cup glass measure: More behind

Gold of Assam

I found a sericulture collective in Cooch Behar that raises the elusive and *amazingly* beautiful Muga silk, Antheraea assamensis. They sent me a packet of samples. I’m SO buying some of this stuff as soon as possible.

Sammons Center for the Arts – Sammons Jazz

A brief personal interlude – this is where I work! It’s an arts center called The Sammons Center for the Arts; it’s in Dallas, on Oak Lawn at Harry Hines. It’s a renovated historic structure, and we provide office and rehearsal space for local performing arts groups. We have a monthly jazz music series called […]

New stitch markers

I’m part of a community called stitchswap – we make and trade stitch markers. These are cloisonne beads; it’s great, because they’re substantial without being too heavy.

Saga Nishiki workshop

This past week, I’ve been taking a Saga nishiki (also: saganishiki) workshop with Mihoko Karaki. It’s a Japanese weaving technique that uses a gilded or lacquered rice-paper warp, and a silk weft. The design possibilities are AMAZING. The technique is uniquely Japanese, and is used traditionally to make handbags, jewelry, obis, and special shoes. This […]

Needle sketching

I’ve been reading up on a style of embroidery called silk shading, thread painting, or needle painting. It’s a fairly realistic rendering style, using fine threads of silk or cotton. This is more of a needle sketch, than a needle painting… I wanted to see if I could render this stargazer petal in silk. The […]