DeborahTirico.com

Profile
Designers Across America
Deborah Tirico
by Cheryl Sharp
Deborah Tirico
Technology changes our lives. Sometimes we benefit, but often we are
forced to adjust and find other ways of doing what we enjoyed. In 1990,
Deborah Tirico, a graphic designer and business owner, realized that the
graphic art she had always enjoyed creating by hand must instead be worked
using computer software if her business was to survive.
While she didn’t relish the change, she moved forward, learning to use the
new technology. However, Tirico found that she missed doing creative work
with her hands. Three years later, she found a way to satisfy that need when she
and her mother enrolled in an evening quilting class at the local high school.
They learned to make a nine-patch block and a log cabin quilt and how to strip
piece. She said, “My life changed forever with that one class! The precision,
color, and design work used in quilting was just the artistic handwork I longed
for.” She had found a new creative outlet for handwork she had utilized in her
professional life.
Tirico continued to learn quilting techniques and developed a special
interest in Baltimore album quilts, a form of intricate appliqué that was worked
primarily in Maryland between 1840 and 1860. Baltimore album quilts have
experienced a revival for more than thirty years, fueled in large part by Elly
Sienkiewicz. Tirico took classes in embroidery, piecework, and hand and
machine quilting for seven years at the prestigious Elly Sienkiewicz Academy
(TESSA) in Williamsburg, Virginia. In 2013, the final year Sienkiewicz held
TESSA, Tirico was invited to be Artist in Residence.
Tirico began working appliqué in wool felt after being introduced to the
technique at an EGA seminar. In 2004, she began teaching the techniques she
had developed. Within two years, she began to sell a series of her designs in
felted wool appliqué with embroidery embellishments.
Celtic Charm by Deborah Tirico
Photography in this article by Dan
Katz and Frank Luca Tirico
Harvest Penny Rug by Deborah Tirico
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Tirico specializes in articulating a sculptural
dimensional look in felted wool appliqué. She developed
a process of layering and stuffing appliqué pieces and
attaching them to a base fabric with a needle-slanting
technique. Unlike the popular primitive felted wool
embroidery, Tirico’s designs feature matching and
overdyed wool threads and embroidery embellishments
which enhance and define her subjects.
Tirico explained the difference between felted wool
and different types of felt. Felted wool is actually woven
wool yardage with a weft and a warp. It is felted by
shrinking it in hot water then drying it in high heat,
which causes it to constrict and become dense. “This
fabric is easy to needle because the holes between the
warp and weft remain,” Tirico commented.
Wool felt, on the other hand, is made from wool
roving which is pressed into sheets using hot water and
heat, causing it to become dense. “The result is more
difficult to needle since there are no holes to begin with,”
Tirico said. “Some wool felt is actually a blend of 70%
wool and 30% polyester, and it behaves well in a variety
of applications because it doesn’t fray. Craft felt is made
from 100% synthetic materials (some from recycled
plastic bottles), giving it a much different hand and
structure.”
Tirico uses felted wool for all of her ground fabrics
and the majority of her appliqué fabrics. She felts all of
her ground fabrics, starting with white, off white, and
black wool. “My artistic husband dyes and overdyes
some colors that I am unable to locate from other
manufacturers,” Tirico added.
Each project starts with a sketch which is then
scanned into her computer. She uses Adobe Illustrator to
make refinements. She prints several reduced copies of
the design and then colors them in a variety of color
schemes, using Prismacolor pencils that perfectly match
some of her felted wools. She places the various colored
versions of the design side by side to decide which one
she prefers.
Tirico traces the full-sized design on acetate sheets
with a thin Sharpie marker to make an appliqué
placement guide. She cuts the appliqués and bastes each
piece in place using the acetate pattern to make sure her
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Nutcracker by Deborah Tirico
Jacobean Impression by Deborah Tirico
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Profile
Designers Across America
Detail of Heastsease by Deborah Tirico
Heastsease by Deborah Tirico
Detail of Heastsease by Deborah Tirico
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placement is true to the design. She said, “After each appliqué is stitched in
place, I am anxious to remove my basting and admire it. This is the point where
my husband will say, ‘It doesn’t take much to please you.’ And I admit, it does
not. For me, admiring the success of each small accomplishment is the ultimate
pleasure in creation.”
For the past two years, Tirico has studied textiles she has selected from the
online resources of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Its
collection includes rugs, tapestries, quilts, coverlets, lace, and many forms of
embroidery. On a typical study visit, Tirico drives into New York for a 2:00 p.m.
appointment at the Antonio Ratti Textile Center on 5th Avenue, where the
textile collection is housed.
After checking her purse and coat in a locker, washing her hands, and
signing a release form, she accompanies her guide into the research lab where
the textiles she has requested are displayed on large tables in the center of the
room. “I am able to walk around the large pieces and can climb a ladder to gain
a bird’s-eye view which is valuable for studying large works,” she said. “I use a
magnifying glass to view fine details. I measure each piece that interests me and
various areas to get a size ratio for my photographs. I have been studying quilts
and coverlets thus far, but I plan to expand my studies to tapestries and
samplers in the coming year.” As a benefit in turn, Tirico shares with The Met
what she has learned from studying the pieces.
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Tirico observed, “When I study a particular piece, I
become as interested in the maker as I am in the textile,
and this sends me on another journey of investigation.”
One of these pieces is the unfinished Tulip Panel by
Candace Wheeler (1827–1923), needle artist, designer,
and entrepreneur who endeavored to change the role of
women in America. Wheeler taught women how to
appliqué and create designs that would be commercially
viable, offering them an opportunity for economic
independence. Tirico remarked, “Peering at the panel
through a magnifying glass, I felt almost as if I knew her
and her focus on perfection in stitching, and I identified
with her. When I discovered that she was an
entrepreneur and had founded a school of needlework
for women, I was both impressed and enamored.”
Tirico also admired Wheeler’s workmanship. She
said, “I was particularly impressed with Wheeler’s pulled
couching technique, which created a scalloped edge
around the tulip petals.” However, Tirico decided to
Swirling Tulips by Deborah Tirico
interpret the design using her own techniques. Tirico
took a section of the panel and gave it a dimensional
felted wool design, couching metallic braid and using
crewel wool. Swirling Tulips is the result.
Tirico is working on her second interpretation of a historic work. She is
adapting a block from a Baltimore album quilt in the collection of America
Hurrah Archives. The quilt is attributed to Mary Heidentoder Simon and was
made circa 1850 for Eleanor Gorsuch, whose family owned much of what
became Baltimore. Tirico focused on an openwork basket filled with flowers,
and translated it into a penny rug worked in wool appliqué. Sometimes, Tirico
feels that she and Simon have led parallel lives. She is confident that she will
continue to be influenced by Simon’s work.
Detail of flower from Swirling Tulips
by Deborah Tirico
Detail of flower from Swirling Tulips by Deborah Tirico
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Profile
Designers Across America
Detail of Huo Long by Deborah Tirico
Huo Long by Deborah Tirico
She related, “As a history buff I am drawn to the creative efforts of those
that have gone before us. Early in the seventeenth century inventive
homemakers reused the wool from worn clothing by felting it and creating
penny rugs. At the time, a penny was a rather large coin and they used it as a
template for small circles that would be sewn together into rugs.” Depending on
the maker, these rugs were used to either decorate tables, beds, and mantles or
for more utilitarian functions in a mud room where boots were cleaned or in
front of a fireplace to protect the “good carpet” from flying embers. The pennies
were stitched together using the blanket stitch which Tirico still uses today on
all her designs.
Since her college years in San Francisco, Tirico has been fascinated with
Chinese graphic design. Dragons are present in Chinese décor, especially in
restaurants and stores in Chinatown. “I had always wanted to design a dragon,”
Tirico said, “and in 2012 I began to spend time surfing dragon images online.
My friends always send me a Chinese New Year’s card, and it so happened that
2012 was the Year of the Dragon! The day that card arrived, it dawned on me
that it would be interesting to have on my circular kitchen table a penny rug
with a dragon image to celebrate Chinese New Year rather than the customary
valentine hearts.”
After finding a lot of reference material, she sketched the dragon, scanned it
into the computer, and began illustrating it. She used the Chinese celebratory
colors red and gold and added a bright green to bring the dragon to life. She used
net stitch to illustrate the dragon scales. “In keeping with the Chinese New Year
theme, I named him Huo Long which means ‘fire dragon’ in Chinese,” she said.
Tirico adds more detail and unusual materials to her designs in wool. She
said, “When I was working on Huo Long, I found that the smoke in the design
would not work if I used wool fabric. It overwhelmed the piece and took away
from the central figure, the dragon. While searching for a solution and going
through the bolts at JoAnn Fabrics, I decided to use tulle as a solution to
something that would create a transparent, smoky look. I think it’s all in the
final artistic look and feel.”
Detail of net stitch on dragon leg, Huo Long by Deborah Tirico
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Development of Sincerely, Mary Simon
Tirico uses acetate from a local fabric retailer to create a
placement guide for the shapes. She provides students with
full-sized patterns to trace their guides.
To create the basket, Tirico used strips of red wool cut on the
bias, which makes them easy to curve. The basket is thoroughly
basted prior to stitching the remaining appliqués.
The appliqués begin to show dimension as a result of
needle-slanting techniques.
This illuminated letter was embroidered first, then cut to size
and appliquéd to the gold ground. The whole was cut again
before being placed into the center of the book and appliquéd.
Sincerely, Mary Simon in progress
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Profile
Designers Across America
Detail of Lady Bird’s Legacy
by Deborah Tirico
Lady Bird’s Legacy by Deborah Tirico
Bee, detail of Lady Bird’s Legacy
by Deborah Tirico
Detail of bluebonnets from Lady
Bird’s Legacy by Deborah Tirico
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Lady Bird’s Legacy, a design featuring Texas wildflowers, evolved from a
student’s idea. Candy Jepsen, a proud Texan, suggested the theme while in one
of Tirico’s classes. Soon Tirico received reference material on Texas wildflowers
from several students who embraced the theme. She designed a table penny
rug of dimensional flowers, leaving the center void where a vase of flowers could
be placed.
Once the basic design was conceived, Tirico began planning the appliqués
by choosing wool fabrics, wool threads, and embellishments. She noted, “This
is always the most challenging process, and the place where I make the most
changes. I consider both the student experience and the ease in appliqué. I
decide what can be accomplished using appliqué and what should be
embroidered. I move the flowers, auditioning them in different places to make
the colors and design work.” She settled on eleven flowers around an oval rug
with forty-three pennies. She added a bee, ladybug, spider and web, dragonfly,
and butterfly.
In class photographs, all of Tirico’s students are smiling. She creates an
atmosphere in which students can become more expressive in their own work.
She reported,
When I develop a class, I focus on the piece and its overall appeal, the
student’s experience, and the kit. For my students, I think about what
they will learn, how that knowledge can be applied to other forms of
needlework, and whether they will have fun, because that is what I want
when I am a student. I want my kits to be delicious and lush, to excite
students for the journey ahead. When they discover how fast they can see
results, they are happy. Students seem to enjoy the larger size, look and
feel of the material, and seeing the dimension unfold.
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For Tirico, one of the most rewarding aspects of teaching is viewing an EGA
region exhibition and seeing that students have completed the class projects she
has taught. “Seeing their work and how they made my patterns their own has
been both impressive and satisfying to me,” she said. “This is the reason I teach;
to have these exciting experiences and to grow as a needle artist and a teacher.”
Tirico finds pleasure in all that she does. She lives by her father’s example.
He never worked a day in his life; everything about his job was fun. She, too,
enjoys the task at hand, whether it be cleaning the kitchen, writing directions,
or designing; whatever it is, she puts her energy into it. She is an independent
spirit, always focusing on where she is going, ignoring any around her who are
negative. She works on the most daunting problem until it is solved. She is
willing to tackle any project, even if initially she has no idea how to develop it.
Nor does starting anew bother her. Tirico’s life can testify to her mother’s adage,
“You are blessed to have something you love to do.”
To learn more about Deborah Tirico visit her website and blog at
deborahtirico.com. Detail of Lady Bird’s Legacy
by Deborah Tirico
Cheryl Sharp is a contributing editor for Needle Arts. If you will be attending
Seminar in Phoenix, she would love to meet you.
DESIGNERS ACROSS AMERICA PROJECT
Buttercup Pin Cushion by Deborah Tirico
The oversized Buttercup Pin Cushion features a yellow
buttercup in a roundel of green leaves. The petals are
embellished with French knots, rays of straight stitches, and
detached chain or lazy daisies. The instructions include
directions for making and using freezer paper patterns,
working with placement template guides, utilizing a variety of
basting techniques, and executing needle-slanting techniques.
A kit is available from Deborah Tirico for $45. It includes
all the felted wool and threads to complete the project, craft
stuffing, freezer paper, template plastic, and crewel needles.
Contact her at [email protected].
To receive a copy of the instructions, send a check for $7
payable to EGA, to Designers Across America EGA, 1355
Bardstown Road, Suite 157, Louisville, KY 40204. Please
provide the address where the instructions should be sent.
This pattern is available until November 30, 2014. Orders
received thereafter will be returned. Previous designs from the
Designers Across America and the Designers Around the
World series are no longer available. A yearly subscription to
the project series (four projects per year) is available by
sending name, address, and payment of $25 (10% savings) to
the EGA address above.
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