More Progress, Amarna Family Group
As I kept on with the little girls, of course, I kept on with Nefertiti, and eventually tackled the famous profile, which worked better than I feared, although I will admit that the lighting here doesn’t let the skin colour show as much against the gold as it does in real life. Next was the gold uraeus on the headdress, which, as I commented when I worked Akhenaten’s uraeus, does feel rather “peak Ancient Egypt” in the use of gold to hold down gold! Still, the royal blue against the golds is enough to make the heart sing.
You can see here that the blue in Nefertiti’s skirt has been replaced – all but one stitch, which I will have to deal with in the “details” phase of this one – the list for which is getting increasingly full of anxieties!
Nefertiti’s feet were among the anxieties, but as you can see from this photo, just leaving them right to the end was increasingly untenable, in spite of the stool leg and the foot cushion to anchor the gold threads.
However, the difficulty of working them starting away from the rest of the body was also considerable, and I do think I made the right decision in waiting until I could start from the legs!
I’m still not sure whether I will fill in some of the sections of the stool Nefertiti is sitting on. At the moment, it looks strong, but it doesn’t separate itself from the background as much as perhaps it should, especially as the figures are looking so striking. I don’t want Nefertiti to look as though she’s sitting on air!
Episode 28 of Slow TV Stitchery is now live, and it considers the post mortem reputations of kings, the perils of scarifying a lawn, and the expertise of the laundries of Amarna.
The headdress worked out beautifully (and, yes, it is a glorious blue against the gold). The feet look fine too. Her stool may not be as sturdy-looking as the grey one, but it shows up much more clearly and has great elegance – which it would be a shame to lose in an effort to beef it up. It’s the grey one that seems softer and a bit pale.
It’s coming along nicely!
Beautiful work, this looks so difficult. I think the stool in black looks fine,
I know I keep saying it but “amazing”!
Such remarkable detail. I love the blue in the headdress, and I think the stool looks sturdy and the dark legs separate it from the background well.
I have never done any work like this, so I just sit here in awe and wonder of all the effort you are putting into this. The result is worth all the hard work.
Fantastic!
How exciting to be getting to where you are with this. I agree with other comments, the stool looks grand as it is, and I think will adjust when you bring out the detail on Akhenaten’s stool. Your comments on his linen folds in STVStch make sense, but weren’t you thinking of adding some fold’y detail to Nefertiti? Again, that might adjust the balance.
It is looking wonderful, and I love being able to see it from differing angles in the videos