ImagesMagUK_January_2022

able to adjust designs for any texture, thickness, and stretch. Redefine relationships Create small designs or elements that explore the relationship between adjacent stitch types and settings. Think of the three most common stitch types you use and explore how they interact with each other and how the parameters of each stitch type can affect the outcome in the design. The three most common types are generally fill/tatami, satin stitch and running stitch – examine the intersection of bringing those stitch types together. How does a fill next to/touching another fill behave? If you outline a fill with a satin stitch, how does the satin distort or split the fill? In either case, what happens if you change the stitch angle of one of the elements? Practise simple combinations like a satin stitch element with straight stitch outlines, a fill with a satin border, overlapped satin stitches that fill an area, etc. When you can master the pull and push distortion, and you understand the interactions between the basic pairs (fill + fill, fill + satin, fill + running, satin + satin, and running + running) you’ll have tremendous control over your designs. Self-directed projects Create something for yourself, but with an eye towards skill-building and goals. A great version of this is to create a piece that is useful for demonstrating a decoration type, material, or design scheme to customers, featuring art or themes that you enjoy. As you are the ‘client’ for this work, the pressure on this learning experience is lessened by the fact that you are the ultimate arbiter of your work, and you can take creative risks that customer work may not allow. Looking to add patches to your offerings? Make an awesome patch for shop-merch within the styles your customers are likely to order. Want to try a new thread, material, or technique? Look up instructions, buy sample material, and try it out on a self-directed project that matches the type of stitching you want to achieve. Analysis, reproduction, and remix Take a piece of embroidery or a digitised design that you love and tear it apart to learn how it works. This may even include physically breaking down a retail embroidered piece. Look at how long stitches are, at what angle they are laid, what materials are used, and how they are employed. If you have a design file, look at the settings that the creator used by measuring stitch angle, length, and density of stitch blocks as well as overlaps and underlay type. Analyse and take notes, then reproduce the design as closely as you can to see if you have the settings right. Once you’ve replicated the elements you are interested in, pick something about the design or the style and alter it. Take what you’ve learned in the settings and use them to create an entirely new design in the style of the original. Put in the reps No matter what it is you are trying to achieve, recognise that all of these tools serve to help you stay focussed, and keep pursuing directed, consistent practice. For embroidery skills, my alternative SMART acronym says it all: when testing a design or new sample, stay SMART: Stitch your design while watching it run; Measure the difference between file and result; Analyse what went right and wrong; Revise your digitising, method, or material selection as needed; then Test again. When it comes to goal-setting, even if you miss your mark when measuring results at a check-in, or find you have to redirect your efforts, remember that it’s in repetition and practice that we gain ground. Failure is never final or fatal unless you stop trying, and it is almost always educational. Commit to the big goals, break them down into actionable steps, and put in the reps. Your work and your shop will be stronger for it. Seeing the rise of ‘visible mending’ in the craft community, I did a self-directed project and repaired one of my shirts, also writing a post to teach my method. Self-directed projects let you examine processes, while writing and teaching can help you formulate and firm up concepts This piece, created for an upholstery job on faux leather, has a world of speciality settings to share, having been adjusted to get full coverage without overly disrupting the rubbery material of the faux hide. Even without seeing the file [left], curved fills, random stitch lengths, stitch types, angles, and layers are easily seen KB BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT www.images-magazine.com 88 images JANUARY 2022 Erich Campbell is an award-winning digitiser, embroidery columnist and educator, with more than 20 years’ experience both in production and the management of ecommerce properties. He is the programme manager for the commercial division of BriTon Leap. www.erichcampbell.com