Inspired by the Japanese paper art of Notan

[00:00:04]Hello lovely people. I'm Katherine and welcome to this week's A Toz of Slow Stitch and we're on community choice.

[00:00:12]Um, as you can see, my journal that I'm using for this project is already alligator melting and we're just past the halfway mark. So, um, anyway, we'll see how I feel when we get to the end.

[00:00:24]It's very possible that I might decide to just live with it as it is. But the other thing I can do is take all the signatures out, take it apart, and make a wider binding. We'll see if I do that.

[00:00:35]I will share that process with you in case that ever happens to you and you want to do that. Um, but anyway, uh, [clears throat] that's by the buy. The word I have chosen is no tan, which is a Japanese word, which is about the harmony between light and dark, and it's used largely in paper art. Um, I did find one beautiful example of it used in textiles, which I will link to you, which is a UK artist called Dorothy Russell. Um, and you can and her art piece that you'll see in the if you follow my link, I'll put it in the description box below. Um, but if otherwise, if you struggle on finding that, if you just Google Dorothy Russell textile art, I think it's russell.co.uk.

[00:01:18]I'm not entirely sure. Um, do as in Dorothy. Um, I've now lost my thread. Yeah, if you um go and look at hers, you'll see that she's done really complex shapes. I'm going to do a very simple shape. Um, traditionally, the paper ones that I've seen, they come out of all four sides.

[00:01:39]You'll see what I mean in a minute. In essence, you cut a section out and then flip it out and mirror mirror it. And yeah, you can you get really really complex ones. I'm just going to do something very very simple, but you know, you feel free to go and look at some of the paper examples and um if you want to do something more complex or something different to how I'm doing it, then of course you go for it. But I liked I love the idea of the notan. Um thank you very much for that suggestion.

[00:02:07]Um but also quite a few of you mentioned negative space which this also speaks to. So So I thought it was a nice one to choose. So what I've got is I've got I'm going for black cloth. Now, for your no tan square, it doesn't have to be a square, by the way. Um, but for your not piece, you need something that you're happy with both sides of. And ideally, it will be the same on both sides. So, this is a scrap of old cotton shirt. I think it has got a bit of stretch in it, you know, a bit of something else in it, but it'll do. Um, and again, it doesn't have to be black. You can choose any color you like, but think about dark and light. You know, my background, they're traditionally white. I've used this bit of tea dyed linen. Actually, it's an offcut off my Equinox to solstice scroll. Um, and this my background I have invisible basted to this bit of um, cotton gauze type stuff that's thrifted and been tea dyed, but just because I like to stitch through two layers and I probably will do some fancy stitching on the white background or on the um, cream background in my case. Um, but you could absolutely just stitch your not piece onto one layer if you wanted to. That's just personal choice. But I've pre-prepared this and I've done the invisible base. Um, which is, if you don't know, a tiny little dot of a back stitch on the front picking up a couple of threads of the cloth only and then a longer stitch on the back. And that's a basting stitch that then stays in. And I learned it from Jude Hill. So, I've got that just the right size to go in my book. quite big but you know it fits. Um and then I've got this square of this black cotton um which I just mentioned and I've drawn on it. I've drawn around this this is an old glass um and so I've drawn a sort of semicircle. I haven't worried too much about it being exactly halfway, but if you wanted to worry then um you know not worry. If you wanted to take more care, that's maybe a better way of putting it.

[00:04:09]you do that. And what I'm going to do now, and I've I've d I drew it using my blue disappearing pen. Um, but only simply because that was the only thing that would show up. Um, I'm going to now cut that out on the line as carefully as I can with some nice sharp scissors. You want quite a thin cloth if you can, you know, if you can be choosy amongst what you've got.

[00:04:34]And um one that is quite stable, you know, it's got quite a high thread count like a a linen or something like that or something much thicker. You won't get a clean line. Just, you know, be aware. If you got little scraps of something and you want to try it first, you're not sure, just cut a little bit and just see how it cuts. Um otherwise, just be, you know, go with it if you like the idea of it being a fuzzy edge. I'm just doing my best to I've done a jaggedy bit there. I'm going to have to just slightly trim that off.

[00:05:12]So now you want to keep everything the same way up. If you're doing a more complex shape, um, and or if you're flipping things out all around the four sides, you know, I could flip some I could cut something out here and flip it. I could cut something here and flip it. Then you really want to keep track of what comes from where. Maybe pin them down as you go along. So then the principle is that goes there. That was what I just cut out of there.

[00:05:38][clears throat] And then that flips out like that. Pure and simple. And then you just line it back up with the edge.

[00:05:46]Isn't that wonderful? It's just a I mean I don't know how I haven't come across this before. Thank you so much the person who um suggested it.

[00:05:56]Your name is It wasn't a name. It was yet something like that. So that's why I'm not saying your name because there wasn't a name that I could pronounce on your YouTube handle. I'm just going to do another little trim there because it's black on cream. It really does show.

[00:06:18]Um yeah, because I can see myself using this anywhere, you know, just on any slow stitch work, this principle of just cutting a piece out and flipping it. So, I'm just going to pin all that in place and line it up somewhat somewhat with some little applique pins.

[00:06:37]So, yeah, you could just, you know, have like a square not much bigger than the circle and do that and pin it on and, you know, stitch it onto any slow on a journal cover or whatever. It's just you could do other shapes and circles. What is quite nice that I saw done quite often when I was doing a bit of background, you know, looking up, researching was a heart and then you just do half the heart and then you flip it which then makes a full heart and then the other thing you can do is cut more complex shapes. So I could cut so having cut that circle I could cut another piece out of that circle and then flip it back in. Um, obviously if you're going to get more complex, maybe with cloth you need to maybe start a bit with slightly bigger square pieces will start to disintegrate at one point. Obviously with paper you can cut much smaller. If it was something that really interested you, I would say, you know, have a little play with paper first and see um what kind of shapes you like before you go to do it with cloth.

[00:07:42]Have a little play with some scrap paper.

[00:07:45]So, I'm just going to pin all that as best I can.

[00:07:51]And then I'm going to stitch it on there. Okay. So, I've pinned all around my my square. I've I've just put one pin in that to hold it still for now. I'm going to fiddle about and adjust its position once I've stitched um the rest of it on. So, I've just got some normal black sewing cotton and I'm going to invisible baste all the way around the edge of there and just get those pins out.

[00:08:15]So, um I'll go ahead and do that and then I shall be back to you for the next bit.

[00:08:21]In fact, um actually, yes, I'm going to invisible based all the way around there. And then I'm going to just adjust the position of this circle and just make sure I'm happy with it. I really want those two points to meet there and there. And then I'm going to invisible base that down. So when I've got the whole thing invisible basted, then I'll be back to you. Okay. Okay. So I've got all that basted on best I could. Um and then I want to do some fancy stitching.

[00:08:46]And what I thought of doing was I just wanted to reference the fact that the this cut edge of the circle here came from this cut edge here. So, I thought what I would do is I would do the same stitching on those two edges just to show that there was a relationship between them and there still is a relationship between them. And um I'm going to use red because it it's a you know I just really love red against darker colors, but also it's kind of you see it a lot in Japanese art where or calligraphy type pieces and also in Enso which we looked at a couple of years ago in the slow stitch journal. um the meditative Japanese art of drawing a freehand circle, but you do it as a meditation practice. And this very much to me has got the feel of that. So that's why I'm choosing red. I guess you could also make a metaphor about the fact that you've cut, you know, that you've made a wound kind of thing. Um and you know, red obviously can symbolize that. So I'm just going to go um around both of those edges with little start at the right side because I'm right-handed.

[00:09:54]with little overcast stitches. I have invisible basted so it all stays put now and I can stitch without worrying. So [clears throat] I'm just going to do little stitches off the just off the edge and then forward and then just onto the edge. I'm about an eighth of an inch I guess.

[00:10:11]And I often do overcast stitching in this way rather than under an angle for the same similar reasons to why I couch this way rather than you know stitching under an angle. I just find that um I prefer the rhythm of stitching. It doesn't twist my wrist. It is important if you have hand issues, you know, if you have issues with your hands and your stitching and you find you're getting pain in your hands, look at different ways of achieving the same stitch. I mean, that wasn't why I started couching like that. That was a mistake in inverted commas. I saw couching um on a piece of work way back, I don't know when, and um went home and and reproduced it. So, I didn't look up how to, you know, the the how to. I just I'd seen the end result kind of thing. But there's no reason on earth why you can't. If um you want to uh sorry, if if you need to and you want to do certain kinds of stitches, look for different ways of doing them. look for different ways of holding the cloth. Um, you know, there's things you can do that will make it more comfortable for you alongside all the other general advice of um, stopping, you know, taking breaks and moving your hands around and all that kind of thing.

[00:11:30]But also all up your arms, how you're sitting. um you know whether it's more comfortable for you to sit stitching on a surface or on your lap or um you know on a lap tray of some kind whatever um and I yeah I really feel for you if you're a stitcher or a crafter and you have trouble with your hands. I mean, it's having trouble with your hands isn't nice for anyone, but I think particularly for people who for whom creativity is so important, it can be so frustrating on top of, you know, pain and discomfort and all those other things.

[00:12:04]But yeah, a simple thing maybe is to just experiment with different ways of stitching, of performing the same stitch. Maybe you're not comfortable doing running stitch, but maybe you're more comfortable doing it as a step stitch.

[00:12:18]It doesn't make it wrong. It's what's the most comfortable for you.

[00:12:23]And always, always pay attention to the cloth. Choose nice soft cloths.

[00:12:29]Everybody don't struggle with, you know, no matter how beautiful a batique cloth might be, for example, batics generally are not nice to hand stitch. They're they're really, you know, high thread count cloths or paste prints or, you know, anything like that. Just do the empty needle test and make sure it's as soft as possible and good quality sharp needles. You know, I like my tulips, but yeah, just treat yourself to one tube. If they're not too short for you, that might be another thing. You might be more comfortable with a longer needle. They are quite short, but just yeah, pay attention to your equipment. Pay attention to how you're sitting. Um, make sure you're in a good light because if you're in a poor light, that can make you hold the thing up closer to you, which can give you pain in your hands and wrists and arms and shoulders and, you know, your whole body. So, anyway, that was totally irrelevant to what we're doing, but it all came into my head, so it came out of my mouth as usual. So, I'm just coming around to the edge here.

[00:13:35]And then I'm just going to I could probably squeeze one more stitch in there um jump across on the back, [clears throat] which will mean that I'm doing the stitch upside down in principle, but that doesn't matter.

[00:13:53]And I'm just going to do exactly the same thing around that inner edge where the circle came from kind of thing. Okay. So, I've done that. I'm really pleased with the way that's looking. And now I just want to kind of express and I was just thinking as I was stitching there to that little project we did um a while ago where we created two squares, one light and one dark. I think we did cloth collage, didn't we?

[00:14:21]And then we cut a circle out of each and transposed them. So, we put the dark circle into the light square and the light circle into the dark square, which in fact was a form of not. it was just done with two squares rather than one and I didn't know about no time to call it that at the time. Um, but yeah, it's it's wonderful. I'm so grateful to the person that suggested it. Um, now I want to do something else now to kind of suggest that there is this idea of light and dark, that there is darkness in the lightness and lightness in the dark. And I think how I'd like to do that is with some seed stitch. And I think I'm going to do some black seed stitches inside that cream area and some white. I was going to do white seed stitches on the black, but because my background is tea dyed and it's off-white and this is quite white white. Um, this I've got one in here, but it's a bit fluffy, and I'm worried about the bits of fluff. I don't know why. I'm just in the mood of worrying about things like that today.

[00:15:22]Um, so I've gone into here. I got a Oh, by the way, um Sue, who comes to my in person monthly slow stitch, gave me some threads yesterday. And um I think I used that one. It's got a grayish tinge, but I think it's Yeah, I think I used that one. And they were in this. Well, she she held this up and said, "Does anybody want this?" She doesn't want it. And um I wanted it. It's a little leather drawstring pouch. Isn't it beautiful?

[00:15:49]It's so soft. Um, but also it just fits my pin cushion because I take this with me when I'm teaching or when I'm doing my, you know, going to the slow stitch monthly and it's a bit dodgy. I just carry an open basket with all the needles poking out, but it just fits in there and I can draw the string up and then it keeps it all nice and safe. It should have two draw strings, but it's lost one at one point. So, I am going to thread another one through. Um, I'll either find something similar or I'll just do a different one and it'll be a visible mend. But yeah, just wanted to show you that in case you saw it sitting there and thought, "Oh, we haven't seen that before, Katherine." It's got a firm bottom.

[00:16:28]Um, and it's just lovely soft leather and it's got a lining. Has it got pockets in the lining? Oh, yeah. Look, it's got little pockets all the way around.

[00:16:39]Haven't spied that before. So, I could put little threads in there or something.

[00:16:45]That's super. Oh, and it's got a I wonder what it held originally because it's got a strap there as if that was to attach something round or slide something under. Anybody knows if this is a specific pouch for specific purpose, please let me know. Anyway, there we go.

[00:17:04]So, yeah. So, back to this. So, I'm going to do I'm going to start with some black seed stitch, I think. So, I've just got some black embroidery floss here. Is it embroidery floss? It might be vintage mending cotton cuz I do know I've got quite a lot of that in black.

[00:17:18]See in a minute when I see how many strands it is.

[00:17:24]Yeah, it's the vintage mending cotton.

[00:17:25]So, it's only got four strands and they are quite fine. So, I might just take one away and stitch with three cuz Yeah, cuz three strands of this is a slightly thicker but it's a more approp I can't speak. It's a closer thickness to two strands of regular embroidery cotton.

[00:17:46]Right. So, just make a knot and seed stitch. So, I'm just going to do seed stitch. Um, if you don't know it, seed stitch is just little random stitches going in all different directions. So, I start down here somewhere.

[00:18:03]And I find it very absorbing. And it's a completely different rhythm to running stitch because I do it as a stab stitch.

[00:18:10]You can go in and out in one movement, but I just find it I just like doing it this way. I find it easier to place them and I just find it more pleasant to stitch. Um, and yeah, it's like I think I talked about it a little while ago that I the running stitch is like um the meditative flow of in and out and in and out of drawing a line without taking your pen off the page in that art exercise I mentioned a while ago.

[00:18:42]Whereas making seed stitches is much more about like making marks.

[00:18:49]So, I'm just going to go ahead and fill this whole area with seed stitch. That is going to take me some little time.

[00:18:56]Um, and when I've done that, I'll be back. Okie dokie. That's all done. So, I did, as I said, black seed stitching in the light area and white seed stitching or my beigy color in the dark area. And I'm very happy with how it's come out.

[00:19:16]Yeah, I really like it. I really like it as a concept and it's definitely one I want to explore more. Um, so I shall park it in my brain and hope I can retrieve it at some point. Um, so I just need to put it in my book.

[00:19:30]Um, which is like I said getting super full mending not and again thank you so much to the person that suggested it. I think it was just one person, but like I said, quite a few of you suggested negative space.

[00:19:48]Um, which I was very torn torn about doing that or this. So, this kind of um encompassed both. Quite a few of you suggested nature as well and obviously I did love that suggestion. Um, but I have an idea for a subsequent week that obviously doesn't begin with N. It begins with a different letter, but it will be very nature inspired. So that's why I didn't go with nature this week. No spoilers.

[00:20:17]Mostly I come up with these a week in advance. Well, certainly your suggestions obviously I have to, but I mean my own ones I come up with um the minute I've made the Monday video I start thinking about the following week.

[00:20:30]Excuse me if my head comes in. Um but this one I've had in mind for some time.

[00:20:38]Anyway, so I'm going to put the date, which is the 13th. Let's get it right this time, Katherine. The 13th of the 6th month of 2026.

[00:20:50]And I'm going to write down here at the bottom, I've just got room not, which is N O T A N, exactly as it sounds.

[00:20:59]Then underneath here I'm going to write harmony of darkness and light.

[00:21:13]And I'm also going to write negative space.

[00:21:21]There we go. So I hope you enjoy stitching on yours. Um, thank you so much for all of you for your suggestions, whether I choose them or not. It's so lovely to go into the comments and see so many of you engaging with this idea. And, you know, we're past halfway and you're still all there suggesting and joining in, which is fabulous. So, next Monday will be my take on the letter O. So, I'll see you for that. And meanwhile, thank you so much for watching. Lots and lots of love and kisses.

[00:21:52]And I look forward to you joining me next time for more cloth tails. Bye-bye.