Ornaments

I watched the Netflix documentary about the horrors of social media (The Social Dilemma) and am taking my millionth break from instagram. I’ll be posting photos of my drawings and embroidery on the homepage of my website for now (and on these emails).

I have been thinking a lot about ornamentation, in music, literature, and visual art.

Here is the latest piece I made, every little man is knitted with tiny needles :

I was inspired by this Irish crochet piece, and still have a long way to go (Whoever made this is brilliant and one of my idols!) :

I am reading:

A la recherche du temps perdu, Proust (as an audiobook, usually while I walk or while I embroider; Guillaume Gallienne is a wonderful reader and has a great French podcast about literature.)

Also, random entries from L’Encyclopédie , Diderot & D’Alembert from 1750s, including this one about ‘fantasy’ that I’ve roughly translated:

Fantasy suspends passion by the will of a moment, & caprice interrupts character. In fantasy, we neglect the objects of our passions & principles, & in caprice we change them. Sensitive people have fantasies, crooked spirits are fertile in caprices.

(Click the image above for access to the entire encyclopedia in French.)

A few more ornaments…

…in music:

…an illuminated manuscript:

…an excerpt from a treatise from the 1750s by Giuseppe Tartini about ornaments in music.

Free rhythmic alteration,

Cécile