Stories with Stitch People
Jess gives us a picture perfect history of photographer Lee Miller, and offers us new ways to view our work
Hullo! I don’ t know about you, but sometimes I get stuck in a rut and need inspiration to put me back on track. This month’s extraordinary woman, Lee Miller– photographer, model, wartime photojournalist, surrealist, artistand gourmet-chef– provides just that.
She lived all around the world, from New York to Egypt to Paris, photographed the horror soft he Second World War and the Holocaust, was friends with Picas so and the elite of the art world, set up a photography studio taking celebrity portraits and was the face of Vogue magazine.
If you ever wanted inspiration to bed a ring and diverse, Lee Miller may be your lady!
Although she suffered from PTSD after World War Two, he rwar photography is some of the most profound taken. Women weren’t expected to be so bold and adventurous with their travels, their men, their attitudes, or their skills.
Sometimes my cross-stitch game feels a bit stuffy–If all into the trap of doing things as they’ re meant to be done when, really, Iwantto experiment! Why should we isolate crossstitching? Whatif, like Lee Miller, we were to rebel against the norm and follow our drive to create something a bit different?
Are you across stitch er and a painter? Why not try painting your aida with water colours or making a painting of crosses! Are you an illustrator? Try drawing on your material and then adding cross stitch es to make your sketches pop! Maybe just take up some floss and material and start crossing–see where inspiration takes you!
Try to find a refreshing new perspective. I myself like to make photographs into accurate cross stitch patterns– not always easy, butthe challenge is quite stimulating, and I always learn something about crossstitching.
We may not be ming ling with the rich and famous, but we can build our own extraordinary lives. Who knows? Maybe our cross stitch community will one day impact the world! Happy stitching! Jess