I added a new floss combo for you: Portrait (Skin Tones). I am always asked what colors I use for my embroidered portraits. So, here are what I consider the necessaries from fair-skinned to dark-skinned, grays for shadows and pink for mouths and cheeks...I have you covered.

♦ Might go nicely with my Cute L'il Heads. Just sayin' ♦

ETA: For those of you calling it "Fleshy Floss" you are silly.

My needlepoint-designing friend, Jenny Henry emailed me to let me know about a giveaway for one of her cassette tapes. Check out Jenny Henry's Flickr Gallery of painted needlepoint canvases. Enter the giveaway here!

Rosita Johanson Adios Frida, 2005
Igolochkoy needle punch

I just learned, via a very nice customer email, about "igolochkoy" or Russian punch-needle embroidery. I mean, I already knew about punch-needle embroidery, but I didn't know its traditional roots were in Russia. (I need to get back to work on my needlework glossary.) My stitching curiosity piqued, I immediately searched the internets to learn more. I found traditional examples easily enough, but then found this very un-traditional example and hadta post it here. Embroidery is as embroidery does, people. And, you can use my patterns for punch needle!Y Yuh hunh!

Link (to more info on Rosita Johanson's work above)

Sublime Stitching Needlework Glossary (in progress!)

(Is this heaven?)

Amy Bindel of Early Bird tipped me off to Deluxe OK's embroidered portrait stitch-along! From their site:

The group will create a collection of portraits of famous Oklahomans for an Oklahoma City exhibition in Summer and Fall 2010. Spend the winter and spring months patiently creating your work of art for this low-pressure, accessible show. If you're not an Oklahoma resident, it's OK! Just choose an Oklahoman to embroider and be prepared to mail the piece to us by July 1. Three public exhibitions are currently scheduled, including the Oklahoma State Fair in September.

More info

If you read my blog regularly, the above image might be familiar to you. It's my very un-fussy system for "organizing" my floss, that I've posted before, or struggled to describe in my workshops. Craftzine asked me to let them see how I organize my craft supplies, and this is as about "organized" as it gets. Read the full interview with me on Craft.

This also goes nicely with the fact that I'm participating in an art show at Domy Books, Austin tonight: photos of artists' work spaces and brief talks about our day jobs and getting by as independent artists. For me, that would be this here website of mine you have so kindly decided to visit. I will be giving a brief talk after 8pm and photos of my various, hectic workspaces will be included in the show.

After a brief hiatus, my Sublime Stitching Licensing Program is back! I thought I would do a blog entry about it. If you want to sell what you make with my patterns, thus making some extra cash for your crafts, this might be a great way to do it! I try to make it as easy on you (and me) as possible. I've already done the hard part: you know, made updated embroidery patterns people seem to love and want on stuff, earned lots of traffic coming to my website where they can find my dear licensees, oh, and a few other things to make this business somewhat recognizable and unique.

I mean, I can't possibly embroider my designs up for everyone who asks (as much as I would love to) so having an army of licensees at my back let's me say: why don't you ask one of these wonderful and capable stitchers to do it, or see what they already have stitched up for sale on their site? And seeing as how I have over 50 sheets of designs that you can combine in a gerzillion different ways, there should be no problem for you to make something unique and desirable. Get creative, people!

I sense you have questions. I have answers. Let me guess. You want to know...

Uh, why is there now a fee to apply?
Because I have to read all your applications all by my lonesome (which is harder if you have bad handwriting, but stitchers tend to have impeccable handwriting), approve them, sign the contracts, file them and mail a copy back to you. When applying was free, I was getting an overwhelming amount of applications and I couldn't keep on top of them. Because anyone could apply for free, it seemed like everyone applied. Having a modest fee should help stem the tide a little bit, and make for a more serious and robust group of licensees.

So, it's possible that I pay the application fee and am still denied?
Technically yes, but to be honest it's highly unlikely. I rarely, rarely turn anyone down.

How much does it cost if I'm approved?
Possibly nothing to very, very little. 5% of your sales is collected, but I generally don't collect royalties unless a large amount of items are being made / sold. It's decided on a case-by-case basis what that means and I expect you to be honest with me about that. Okay?

So, if I'm a freelance designer or employed by a manufacturer, I can apply for your licensing agreement myself and use your designs for projects I submit to my boss / company to make, right?
Wrong. The company manufacturing the product will have to apply for the license themselves and I will have to work out terms with them. My licensing program is first and foremost designed to be indie-maker friendly, and allow me the opportunity to work with larger manufacturers in an ethical fashion if they want to produce goods bearing my designs.

Do I have to be hand-embroidering your designs to obtain a license?
Nope! You can be using them as a basis for painting, digitizing, woodburning, screen-printing, beading...anything. Depending on the method of manufacture will determine the royalty. In other words, if you are making hundreds of product by machine with my designs on them, the royalty will be higher. If you are doing them entirely by hand by yourself, in small batches, the royalty will be little to nothing.

So, why do this at all?
Because if I don't, I lose the ability to enforce my copyright. If you don't, you are making it harder for me to enforce my copyright. If I say "yes, you can sell what you make with my designs and don't need written permission from me" then *anyone*, including major manufacturers (who just looove my designs but don't looove to pay me or ask permission first) could take my designs, use them on a product and sell them without any formal approval and without me being able to stop them. And, I'm not just being paranoid. Three lines of clothing have been manufactured without my permission in recent years, bearing my designs. Unaltered. Bought by the company directly from me. I'm not kidding. (I successfully stopped them in each case and didn't make a big deal out of it, so you probably don't know this happened to me at all). So instead of saying no one can do it, I try to make it as easy as possible for most everyone to do it -while still having a system in place for legitimate licensing. Make sense?

If you have more questions, you might find this Crafting a Business column I wrote about this very subject for Venuszine.com helpful and informative.

I get it already! Just show me where to apply, okay? Sheesh.
All right. Thanks for reading this. If you are registered and logged in, you can apply directly here. If not, why don'tcha register? 

Oooh! I lovelovelove this. This stitched cardigan has something to do with those clever gals over at Red Velvet Art and their plans for something called Style School that sounds like something ♫pret-ty ♪ greEaAAT♪!