Beautiful Clutches by Debra Jones

Orange Blossom Clutch by Debra Jones

Small Clutch by Debra Jones

I recently joined the Hand Embroidery Network. It is administered by Sarah Whittle, a wonderfully talented textile artists who also has a fantastic blog and website. Whew...that sentence was long! Let me start over. I wanted to share these amazing clutches with you. They were created by Debra Jones. .

These seem to be needle felted, or perhaps nuno felted. At first glance, I thought that perhaps she used a water soluable stabilizer, but I don't see any stitches that would join one fabric to the next. Maybe she stitched with wool and then felted her work. I love all the layers and irregular edges. Regardless, this fabric is a treat for the senses. She notes on her member page that she is self taught and likes to embroider free style and also uses beads. She enjoys adding french knots for texture. I am hoping she will contact me so I can tell you more about her and perhaps share more of her work with us. I really love her colorways. My favorite is the Orange Blossom clutch shown above. Looking at such an innovative technique, executed with such skill and joy makes me feel like a fabric detective. It makes me smile to see so much loveliness in one place.

The Hand Embroidery Network seems to be packed with very talented stitchers, lots of tutorials and free patterns, places for social networking and much more. I have lots to explore as I was just accepted a few days ago. I enjoy learning every day and am so inspired by how one person can take one stitch and create something wholly unique to another person using the exact same stitch. It fascinates me to watch and observe the created process and get to know what lies beyond the fabric.

Art is all about the maker when you think about it. We all have our own way to hold the fabric, stitch a stitch, position each element. These unique actions are our signature. We can't help leaving our mark. That is the beauty of handmade. No machine can leave those intricate nuances of beauty. This is so important for us to remember when we drop a stitch, make a quirkly choice, take a daring risk.... we leave a piece of us in all we do. Perfection is for factories. Go ahead and drive courageously into the unknown. You just never know how beautiful that little chunk of you will be.

Debra- your mark is exceptionally amazing. Thank you for sharing your vision with us!