stitching | Mama Cormier

…two more small pieces and two larger ones

A while back I told you about wanting to honour my past with art that reflected my family’s influence on my Joy of Making. My great great aunt and her family on my mother’s side used to own a very successful business where they made and sold ladies leather gloves in the early 1900s, in Germany. Old photos of my great, great grandparents clearly depicted how important fashion was to them and of course looking one’s best at all times.

My mother taught me how to hand sew, make clothes, embroider and knit. Later in life I worked for a needlecraft company in my spare time and taught other women the art of needle crafting, like cross-stitch and needlepoint and I worked at the community school teaching people how to knit.

The following works are collage and mixed media with some hand stitching or implied hand stitching.

C6004081-405-C-4-F08-B22-E-6-BDF8980-DE45-1-201-a — *“Stitched With Love”, 8″x10″ matted and framed*

73-B745-EB-59-DA-431-D-AC4-B-333-C66-B9-B8-FD-1-201-a — *“A Stitch in Time…”, 11″x14″ matted and framed*

4-D7-FC0-B4-B601-45-C4-B144-9-ADBEA9-C0-B5-B-1-201-a — “*Tante Paula, 1910″,11″x14″ matted and framed*

0-E6-DD20-B-1710-4891-9-C30-C41-C55-EF31-E8-1-201-a — *“Brocade”, 8″x10″ matted and framed*

…the name of my new series of paintings for my solo show

The Joy of Making is the name of my solo show in May. I not only wanted to highlight my love of painting and making art but I also wanted to pay tribute to my family’s talents and the things that my Mom taught me when I was younger. From a very young age my Mom taught me how to make doll clothes with hand stitching and later how to use a sewing machine. She also taught me how to mend socks and sew on buttons.

As I got older I taught Family Studies and taught 11 to 13 year olds how to cook and sew. They learned how to embroider, quilt and sew clothes. I continued to learn and practise other needle crafts such as knitting, cross stitch, weaving, basketmaking and more. In my 50s I learned how to use watercolour and later I ventured into abstract painting using acrylics and collage.

Here are the first three pieces of my Needle and Thread series.