The Magpie Effect - why do we make things harder for ourselves?

Gold thread is so alluring but it’s not for novice embroiderers. I didn’t know this until I was fully committed and forcing its glittery promise through the needle’s eye, only to be soon full of regret. It made me reflect on my work. I love to break new ground, yet often wonder why I make things so damn hard for myself.

Twisting the brief

Milkshake by Kelis was the inspiration for my second textile for the Profanity Embroidery Group (PEG) misheard lyrics exhibition.

I didn’t focus on misheard words but public confusion about the song’s meaning.

“My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard. And they're like, it's better than yours”

People often think the song is about boobs, oral sex or handjobs. To bring some clarity, Kelis said: “To me, a milkshake itself represents the essence of a woman. It’s that thing that men are drawn to about women and what separates one sex from the other.”

Fast ways to germinate ideas

My long-standing creative block meant exploring visual ideas in my sketch book felt too long and laboured. The blank pages loomed overwhelmingly.

I wondered if using photocopies could free me up a little? During my GCSE art exam (a loooong time ago) I created repeat patterns by printing images, laying out different combinations and collaging them.

I was going for a retro look and had a vision of American milk bars in the 50s and 60s. I also wanted cherries splashing in milk as a suggestive nod to the cheeky misconceptions about the song’s meaning.

Collaging injected some fun into the creative process and gave fast variations - rejecting ideas didn’t feel torturous. It was easy to move on when something wasn’t quite working.

When putting it together, I noticed that I had forgotten to add a swear word again. I decided to deal with it later even though it was a flagrant denial of the purpose of PEG!

Learning to transfer

Getting the design onto the fabric was a new problem to solve. This was my first time using a font rather than a freehand typeface. The design wouldn’t work without crisp and clear lettering.

I grabbed tracing paper and a 6B pencil and got to work. I soon discovered:

• 6B gets everywhere, leaving grubby marks. It is not a friend of white material

• You need good tracing paper. I used greaseproof paper as it was all I had. It was horrendous and kept splitting

• The resulting transfer needed the Hubble telescope to see the extremely faint lines

I used a harder pencil to go over the design on the fabric and tried to remove the 6B pencil smears.

Fool’s gold

I was excited to start stitching the font with luxurious golden threads. This quickly turned to despair when it took an age to thread the needle - golden thread does not like to be smooth and splays all over the place.

When the needle was finally threaded, I started sewing and realised why no one of sane mind touches the stuff.

Gold thread has huge friction and catches on itself and the fabric fibres. Soon I had an almighty jumble on the back as the thread knotted into tangles and refused to be unpicked or be pulled through the material smoothly.

“Brave. You should have used wax.”

A PEG member shared this nugget of wisdom. Beeswax is used for sewing metal threads. It makes them easier to pull through the eye and fabric without the threads rubbing against each other and getting stuck. Brilliant! Alas, too late for Milkshake but eternally remembered.

Getting over stitching swear words

The final piece

The swearing was an after thought just like my first piece but I resolved it before submitting for the exhibition this time! I added an asterisk next to “boys” and stitched “fucked up” at the bottom as a kind of apologetic addendum. It was a bit random as it’s not in the song nor a misunderstanding.

Oh well. This is going to be a long journey of uncovering and honing creative thought. It was foolish to think I would have huge progress in just two pieces of work.

Celebrating risks

A portrait is really ambitious especially in stitched form. I didn’t make it easy for myself. Her eyes were a little intense, the mouth a little big, and the hand a little sketchy but I think she had a charm about her.

The cherries, milk, hair, ice cream and dress felt successful. I learned how to do satin stitch on the milk and chain stitch on the hair. I had three stitches in the bag now.

The work looked presentable from the front even if the backside was a total mess. It also SOLD. This piece is now in the home of someone I do not know. It was such a confidence boost. Someone felt it passed the standard enough to put on a wall. Was I back in the creative game?

One for sorrow, two for joy

I often choose a job where the role hasn’t existed before or needs to radically change to align with a company’s direction. I love learning something shiny and new - The Magpie Effect.

Yet, I feel despair halfway through the learning and creating process and wonder why I do this to myself. I fantasise about jobs that have a solid blueprint of how to do it. You know, those jobs where you just turn up, fall in line and follow the existing processes.

Over the last 15 years I have worked in places without that blueprint - I create them. The challenge of creating brings doubt and sorrow, sure, but also satisfaction and joy when you succeed.

The trick is to find a couple of things to propel you forward. Just like when someone told me that beeswax is essential for gold thread. It’s these little nuggets that help you find a path through anything new, whether stitching or working. Just look for the people who know about the beeswax.

Join me on a journey as I introduce each piece I’ve created to find out what I have learned along the way and how I’ve applied that to my working life - profanities included! It was the start of the second act of my career. Next up will be how my stitched vagina ended up in Palestine.