Barbara B. Suess, Kiku Designs
My good friend Nancy Caplan said that in her family, talent with the needle always skipped a generation. Thank heaven that’s not the case in my family, because I love to stitch.
Mama is always stitching. It’s her passion and it became my passion, too. As a girl, I could often find her at her sewing machine, tucked into a recessed area of the wall in her and Daddy’s bedroom. One of my earliest and happiest memories is running through the door to that room and finding her at her machine, under a bloom of pink netting so large that I could hardly see the machine. She was making my ballet tutu!
From school dresses and Sunday dresses to embroidered pictures for walls
and pillows, and recently quilts for every bed, her busy hands create lovely
stitches to enrich the lives of family and friends. She’s an artist
with a needle.
In college, crochet and knitting were my hobbies squeezed in between studies
in landscape design. Later, when my first daughter was born, Mama taught
me English smocking and shared patterns for fancy dresses dripping French
lace. I made so many dresses, my little girl could never have worn them
all. So every few months, I’d hold a sale in my home to clear out
and start again!
Hand embroidery and quilting remain my favorite activities for expressing my creativity. When I discovered Japanese temari embroidery in 2000, I knew I’d found THE needlecraft for me. Living in Yokohama, Japan, for 4 years in the late 1980s had a profound and lasting effect on me, and these embroidered balls with their symmetry and deep Asian symbolism touch my heart.
Each ball is a different combination of design elements - a puzzle to figure out and put together with thread. Wrapping the ball with thread and stitching the repetitive patterns are calming, soothing activities for me. I like to begin with an idea that I want to express - the joy of a spring flower, the power of swirling water, a cool night in the Appalachian Mountains or a Celtic knot pattern of interlocking geometrical shapes. Then I dive into boxes of threads to choose colors and textures. Stitch it out, give it a name, snap a photo and find a home for the temari.
Many excellent temari crafters don't do any other kind of needlework. If you've not had any experience with embroidery but are attracted to temari designs, don't hold back. Start with the easy patterns in Japanese Temari, A Colorful Spin on an Ancient Craft.
Caution: Stitching temari can be highly addictive!
Don't say I didn't warn you :)
Barb
5/14/2007
Bio
Barbara B. Suess, author of Japanese Temari, A Colorful Spin on an Ancient Craft, has a degree in Landscape Design from Colorado State University. She is a member of the Japan Temari Association (passed judging for Level 3, Master/Instructor, in 2009), Embroiderers' Guild of America, National Academy of Needlearts, and National Embroidery Teachers' Association. The EGA hired Barbara to teach intermediate and advanced temari classes on a national level at their 50th anniversary Golden Gala celebration in September, 2008. Since that successful national class, she has taught for several other EGA groups. Barbara is now teaching online with the Shining Needle Society. Their last temari class had 157 students!
Publications include two books: Japanese Temari, A Colorful Spin on an Ancient Craft and another book coauthored with Kathleen Hewitt, Japanese Kimekomi, Fast, Fun, and Fabulous Fabric Handballs. Both books were published by Breckling Press. Magazine publications include Creative Needle and Inspirations (issue 62).
For the past 23 years, Barbara feels she's been extremely fortunate to follow her passions as a full time mom and a fiber artist exploring Japanese temari and embroidery, quilting, English smocking, and heirloom sewing. A four year stay in Yokohama instilled in her a love of Japan and its people.
Barbara began a business, Kiku Designs (www.japanesetemari.com), in 2004 when she started writing temari patterns and creating temari inspired jewelry. Look for her creations in her shop on Etsy.com. She lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, with her husband, 2 daughters and their golden retriever.
"Conversation with Barb Suess"
