EMBROIDERY ON BURLAP – October 26th, 2022. Artist educator: Michelle Melo (Blog Entry) In this session of the Arts and Crafts Workshop, Finally we moved forward with the next unit: “Embroidery on Burlap” using plastic needles and yarn (Wool). Our teaching Artist brought a sample. In this sample the participants took a closer look at 4 basic embroidery stitches: Outline or Stem Stitch, Chain Stitch, Satin Stitch, and Blanket Stitch. Also, a handout (with other more advanced stitches: Leaf Stitch, Fishbone Stitch, and Fill Stitch), was given out as a reference to practice at home. As we started the process, every participant had a piece of burlap fabric, yarn, and a needle, to start stitching the hem using the Blanket Stitch. Some people wanted to do a variation of it which is called the Closed Blanket Stitch that forms a “V” shape throughout the edge of the fabric. The Blanket Stitch is commonly used to avoid fraying. Then we proceed to trace the image to be embroidered. For this step we used stencils. And finally, we started to outline the image using the Outline or Stem Stitch. Every participant got successfully to this step so we could advance to fill out the big areas using either the Chain Stitch or the Satin Stitch. It was suggested by the Artist Facilitator to fill out the big areas using the Chain Stitch and the small areas using the Satin Stitch. While people were embroidering, we talked about the importance of this hand stitched panels called “Arpilleras”, which empowered and gave voice to women in Chile during the Pinochet Dictatorship. Almost everybody finished their panels filling out the small and big areas. For the next class, we are going to add details using more advanced stitches. That class will be the last one of the series Arts and Crafts Workshop.