Tudor and Stuart Goldwork Masterclass – Beginning the Gold on the Spot Sampler
Interlaced Ladder Stitch In gold Thread on the Spot Sampler
I finished the silkwork on the Spot Sampler some time ago, but then ran into a problem, largely one of priorities. There have been so many other things I fancied trying, and so I’ve been working on the Amarna Map, the Christus Natus Est Panel, and a whole host of others. I’ve also been feeling just a bit jumpy about the real metal threads, and wanted to wait until I was feeling settled enough to read the instructions and make sense of them.
I have at last made a start, though. I even managed to thread my Japanese needle with thread from the Real Metal Thread Pack that arrived in the post a few weeks ago. Perhaps the practice thread I was using was quite simply fractionally too thick for the eye of the needle.
I started with Interlaced Ladder Stitch – which wasn’t necessarily the best or easiest starting point, but it is area number one on the chart! I’m a little disheartened that the gold thread has broken up quite as much as it has, here, but I’m leaving it there for now to act as a basis for comparison as I do other stitches. I’m going to try using even shorter lengths, and maybe even use a stiletto or similar tool to keep loops open while I pull the thread through.
I LOVE the way you are always challenging yourself with new stitchery themes, materials, stitches. Its wonderful!! Sometimes I get so locked into finishing something that I don’t do the experimentation that might take it to the next step.
Nice start! Are you using the gilt special tambour or the passing thread? I am finding the tambour doesn’t break as much and has a more delicate look to it.
Great to see this stitch! And thank goodness your website is up and working again!
Why don’t you ask the group re the real metal thread breaking? And any other tricks (other than an awl/laying tool) for keeping the loops at the same tension when the thread goes through?
Other than that – yay – you’ve launched! Good luck on the journey!
I find asking an expert quicker than trial and error, although for some reason I always try the latter first.
I’ve never tried goldwork; think I might just leave that one to you, since you do it so well!
I took a two year needlework course ages ago.
Never do much these days. But I liked the gold work.
I did it on terracotta velvet, to make it look sumptious.
Maybe I still have it in a drawer somewhere.
I bought my gold wire in London somewhere near Manchester square?
At the back of Selfridges somewhere. It looked like a fine old private house from the outside, but inside it was Alladin’s cave.
What is a Japanese needle?
It’s a complex stitch and I wonder if the twists and turns of it have contributed to the thread breaking up. Shorter lengths?
You even threaded the needle, eh?! Progress indeed! Yes, I can see what you mean and I would be disheartened too. So I guess it’s just a question of practice makes perfect. And as you know you can practice with the actual stitches and get them right, perhaps you really do have to waste quite a lot of the gold thread before you get the knack of laying it perfectly. Horrible though that sounds….. Good luck. I know you’ll get there.
xx