Circular Ceilings V: Washington DC

February 13, 2014February 13, 2014Leave a comment

Saving the best for last in this five-part series! I present the rotunda of the Capitol in Washington DC!

Photo by o palsson

So the painting in the center was just not going to happen, but given how busy the rest of the ceiling is, I thought the center would provide some nice white space to balance things out.

This embroidery took me the longest to complete, by far. I thought I would never finish punching and sewing those little hexagons.

I also changed up the hues of blue for a gradient feel, to add some interest.

Circular Ceilings IV: Fort Wayne

February 11, 20142 Comments

The fourth ceiling to be featured in this series of five is the stained glass ceiling of the rotunda of the Allen County Courthouse in Fort Wayne, IN.

I really love the criss-crossing in the center circle panels, but unfortunately I couldn’t figure out how to make it work with the scale I was working in (8″ x 10″ cardstock). The holes would have been so close together that I wouldn’t have been able to make separate stitches.

Another fun fact –this location was the spark that spawned the idea for the series. I was racking my brain (and Google) for something unique to identify Fort Wayne that could be represented in embroidery.

When I found images of the courthouse ceiling, I thought about the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco…

and then I thought of the rotunda at the Capitol …which leads me to the grand finale, number five of five!

Circular Ceilings III: Chicago

February 4, 2014February 4, 2014Leave a comment

Embroidery number three in this series of five features the stained glass of the Grand Army of the Republic dome at the Chicago Cultural Center.

Photo by fusionpanda

This design had to be rather substantially simplified since the original is so incredibly ornate.

The gold, green and blue thread are a bit of a hat tip to the original stained glass.

Circular Ceilings II: Sacramento

January 30, 2014Leave a comment

The next embroidery in the series of five is my best representation of the ceiling of the capitol rotunda in Sacramento.

Photo by Willivolt

As you can see, I took a few more liberties with this representation in order to make it work in the medium.

I also stuck with a warmer color palate to reflect the sunny warm climate in the Central Valley.

Circular Ceilings I: San Francisco

January 28, 2014January 29, 2014Leave a comment

Quite awhile back a friend requested a series of embroidery representing five locations around the US. I hadn’t done much custom work, so it took me quite awhile to come up with a concept and execute it. For each of the locations requested I found architectural landmarks, specifically buildings with large round ornate ceilings.

Rather than trying to cram all the different images in one post, I will be breaking them into separate posts. The first is the Palace of Fine Arts, representing San Francisco. Most people probably overlook it, but under the dome of the main building is a pattern on the ceiling:

photo by Amy Snyder

With some modifications I did my best to represent it in embroidery. This is the result:

Overall I tried to use bright and cheerful colors from a limited palate for the entire series of five. This way there would be more cohesiveness across the works. In addition, matching the colors to the actual ceilings would have been either ridiculously difficult or rather boring (eg the reddish brown of the Palace of Fine Arts).

Four more to come, stay tuned!

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Tag: circular ceilings