More on Akhenaten’s headdress

Sinking Ends

Sinking Ends

When you last saw Akhenaten I was starting to sink the ends for the headdress. There were so many ends to sink, and so much tugging to do so, that I was beginning to worry that I would lose the texture of the basketweave. So I threaded some old, blunt needles through the floats to keep them raised, and reduce the rearrangements and tweakings I needed to do as I went along.

Progress On The Headdress

Progress On The Headdress

And once all the ends were duly sunk – which took several sittings! – the crimson section of the headdress did turn out rather well.

The next section will be golden, and will bear the cobra and the vulture heads, but I’m not quite sure how to tackle it, so I’m going to leave the ideas to marinate a bit before doing it. I think it may be separate from the rest, and run up over the crimson, which is why the basketweave couching runs further down the head than it ordinarily would.

 

16 Comments

  1. elaine says:

    It’s looking amazing! I love Basketweave, it has to be may favourite Goldwork technique.

  2. You are a smart cookie! The result is great, too!

  3. jenclair says:

    The basketweave looks terrific! Well worth the time spent sinking threads. 🙂

  4. Lady Fi says:

    Very nice!

  5. Dima says:

    That’s an excellent idea. I will have to remember it.

  6. Ha, that’s a pretty nifty idea Rachel! With my St. laurence piece I had no plunging of threads as the medieval embroiderer just did not work that way. They just placed some extra stitches over the thread and cut it off.

  7. It has turned out really well – worth all that effort to bury your ends.

  8. Carolyn Foley says:

    Very good result.

  9. Susan says:

    The ways you make things are never ending and so fascinating to me. I would never have thought to do it that way. I think your idea for the rest of it is intriguing and look forward to seeing the changes when you come back to this.

  10. Catherine says:

    All that plunging has worked well! It looks very neat and tidy, and the colours are just beautiful.

  11. Sheryl says:

    You are well rewarded after all that sinking threads work. The result is a perfectly beautiful basketweave.

  12. Lin says:

    You have done a great job of sinking those threads. xx

  13. Anita says:

    The basket weave looks amazing. The needles must have kept the weave in place, a smart idea.

  14. Sue Jones says:

    Yes, you’ve made a fine job of the basket weave. I imagine that sinking so many ends takes a good amount of willpower. Mind you, I rather like the photo with all the needles stuck in it – a sort of Stitcher’s Crown.

  15. I can see why that would have taken several sittings to complete! That basket weave is amazing.

    I’m so late getting around to visiting everyone but I wanted to pop by to thank you for linking up to March’s Stitchery Link Party.

  16. karen says:

    oh this is beautiful…the image of the needle resists literally had me salivating. Process…process illustration/demonstration…perfect.