Christus Natus Est – Second Stage
Christus Natus Est on Calico
The first step is to simplify the design, so that it becomes an embroidery design rather than a painting. I’ve transferred the simplified design using fabric crayons, and used a fabric pen to outline the sections. The design is about three inches by eight, which seems very large now I look at it, but I felt that if I tried to work it too small I risked multiplying the difficulties already inherent in learning a new technique.
The additional lines are contours for the gold threads, which I am going to couch down following the technique described in All that Glitters, by Alison Cole.
Thanks to some help and advice from Golden Hinde I’ve got the right sort of gold thread – an entire spool of it! I just hope one spool is enough…
Pearsalls Silk and Gold Jap For Christus Natus Est
I’ve decided to use Pearsall’s Filoselle Silk. As I am not sure how much of the gold will be covered by silk, I’ve only purchased one skein of each colour.
Regular readers will have gathered by now that there is a lot of guesswork involved in my embroidery! I suspect that changes between dyelots won’t matter too much when I am after an impression of rich and changeable colour.
Looking forward to seeing how this develops. I’m guessing you’re going to be drawing on your vast knowledge of stitches, and also on the goldwork techniques you’ve been learning. But looking at it with my own limited knowledge of stitches it’s difficult to imagine what will go where! Interesting to see your mam’s design reduced to a few lines – which is possibly how it started out in the first place but the flow of the completed painting hides the simplicity.
Wow – it’s going to look great in Or Nue. You are using Or Nue for it, aren’t you?
That design is so gorgeous! It would also make a lovely painting.
can’t wait to see this on cloth. it’s a beautiful design and just so you know, there’s a lot of guess work goes on here too….but don’t tell anyone!!
How do you find working with the Pearsall’s silk thread? I have to buy my threads from overseas as we have such a limited range and have heard others mention this brand.
[…] how the non-spiral lines will flow. If you go back and look at the design as I showed it in this earlier post, you will see there is an extra black line flowing from St. Joseph’s head towards the top […]