Stitch

When I want to gift somebody, I usually get down to painting, something, a landscape / geometrical drawings, delicate art and stuff. I am pretty good at it too. I believe that this is more valuable than ‘off the shelf gifts. It feels nice when your art finds its place in the lives of people you like.

I don’t know what got over me this time round, I wanted to do some handwork. Went to the British Council, glanced through books, fuse ideas….and voila, settled down for ribbon embroidery. The art books are fashioned in such a way that they hypnotise you into believing ‘Oh! That’s terribly simple!’ I fell into that trap too.

The colourful pictures enchanted me into choosing a particular theme. Took help from my friend who is pretty good at this work. Went hunting for the raw materials very enthusiastically, choosing colours, textures, decorative details…conveniently forgetting that time is a constraint.

She very patiently showed me how to do different kinds of designs using various stitches. It looked so conveniently easy. I thought I could finish it quickly. When she left, I sat down very obediently to start where she left. To my horror I found I was only good at punching holes. At the end of it all, one corner of the cloth took quite a punch and looked quite dead. Needlework is not my cup of tea I think. I’m too rough for it, I need to haul all my patience and my lost art of handling a needle before I choose such an effortless project next time.

All is not lost though. Other 3 corners are ready to take on me. I shall win over them and modify the original design to hide the battered part. After all you must finish what you started. Good luck to me!