Crock of Gold Hoard – A Surprise in the Photo
I’ve been working on the Crock of Gold Hoard for months, now, with the photo or even an enlargement of it, close at hand at all times. My mother and I even spent several hours staring fixedly at the photo while we tried to sort out the shadows.
Just Spotted
During all that time, something has been nagging me. Mary Chubb mentions that in one of the photos they took at the time of the discovery, the Hittite Amulet was placed in front of the Crock, rather as it had been on top of the Hoard for all those centuries before. And in all that time, with all that staring, I never found it.
And now I have – circled in orange here. In fact, now I’ve found it, I can’t not see it, but since it took me so long to spot it, I thought a bit of help might be in order for my readers!
Intermediate Progress
And here’s the update on progress. I’m working slowly, a bit at a time, on the chipwork inside the Crock. The tarnished silver purl is creating just exactly the effect I thought it would, because the tarnishing hasn’t been even, allowing just the occasional glint to show through.
What I’m still not sure of is just how far I need to go to get the effect of the Hoard still within the Crock, which is a matter of some concern to me, because I don’t have an unlimited supply of tarnished purl.
Oh, and there is the other question – do I even attempt to represent the Hittite Amulet at this scale? I’m going to work it in or nue, as a separate piece, and as the embroidery is only about the size of a postcard, the Amulet would only be about a centimetre high, and if it goes wrong and needs unpicking it will probably leave a blemish.
Tricky.
With the shadows and now the addition of the chip work this is beginning to look almost 3d.
Have you considered working the amulet as a slip and appliquing the finished piece onto your Crock of Gold embroidery?
It’s looking lovely. I must say that I hadn’t noticed the amulet before.
For some reason I didn’t realize that this stitchery was that small. It makes it even more amazing to me. I love, love it. The chip work is perfect.
I was going to suggest working the amulet as a slip and appliquing it onto the finished piece, but your first commentor has thought of the same thing , I think that is a good idea. If it doesn’t look right you don’t have to use it. I think you have got the chipping just right any more would over power the piece. It is looking wonderful. You have been looking at it too long and too hard.
I’m thinking ‘slip’ too – perhaps on silk gauze, since it will so fine? Tho you’ll probably be using metal threads, so maybe linen.
Everyone else has suggested slips, which was my immediate throught for the amulet. I think it’d be a shame not to include it. Something that occurred to me looking at the photo is that there appears to be quite a lot of sand/dirt/debris in the main basket with the hoard, so perhaps you could ‘dilute’ the chips among the dirt?
I hadn’t realised that it is so small, which makes the amount of detail even more amazing!!
It’s coming along wonderfully. I don’t know about the amulet… as you said, it takes a bit of spotting, so there’s the question of whether it’s worth the extra work to recreate it. But you would have the advantage of making it stand out in colour, at least. I’ll be interested to see what you decide 🙂
your attention to detail is staggering….I would say ‘slip’ too and I agree with you that creating something which may require unpicking would perhaps not be a good idea…
Hi Rachel!
I’m out in the blogosphere and away from my stitching for a bit… and, wow, this piece is just amazing! I hadn’t seen it for a long time and I just love the textures. As for the amulet, I agree on a slip IF you decide you want to include it in the overall design. Right now I think the piece is outstanding as it is. I only wish I could see it “live and in person!”
Liebe Grusse,
Kathy
[…] may recall that last time I posted I had only just spotted the Amulet, set in front of the Crock for the photograph, and I was […]