Category: Goldwork
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.
More on Christus Natus Est
Progress on Christus Natus Est
Recently I was sent a link to a page discussing Russian embroidered icons. It seems that for all we think of icons as purely painted pieces, embroidered icons aren’t new – it is simply that their relative fragility and the length of time it takes to create one have made them very much rarer.
As I can testify. There have been many hours already that have gone into this piece, and I’m not sure that the progress made is really all that clear. Still, the spiral is nearly touching the side (I’m going to cover all the black lines, because I’m not entirely sure how this will be mounted or framed), and in fact it won’t be long before I have to consider 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 left corner, and another in the bottom right. These lines are to change the direction of the lines of the gold in order to bring more life into the design, but now I have done some of the work I wonder whether the lines are in the right place.
There is also the section of the Virgin’s cape running up over her head where I have for now followed the line as drawn, but wonder whether I should perhaps in this one instance follow the line of the gold to maintain the clarity of the abstract shape. If I do that, it will provide some justification for using a line along the back of St Joseph’s head and cloak as one of the new lines for the gold.
In other words, more thinking needed!
Tudor And Stuart Goldwork Masterclass – Month Fourteen
Plaited Braid Stitch In Pearl Cotton
The Plaited Braid Stitch was one of the reasons I wanted to do this course. There are instructions in at least half of my books on embroidery, and I’ve watched Tracy Franklin demonstrate the stitch. I even spent a whole day practising it at one of her courses. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t, and frustratingly, I never felt I knew what I was getting wrong.
Consequently, when I sat down to tackle this month’s Stitch, I was expecting frustration and fury to reign. I started with Pearl Cotton, thinking that I would be less fretful about errors if I was not conscious of using an expensive thread. I watched the animation first, and although you can see that the first inch of my practising got very tangled up, I’m sure that it helped.
Plaited Braid Stitch In Gold
As I’ve repeatedly mentioned in my posts about this course, I’ve become acutely aware that the question of scale is critical to the success of some of these stitches. My first effort in pearl cotton was at too large a scale, and the thread floats were too floppy. In the case of the second trial, I reduced the size of the stitch, and suddenly found it coming together, which gave me some confidence that I was beginning to understand the structure of the stitch. The tension was still a little slack, but all in all, it was beginning to make sense.
So then I found a piece of scrap linen, and started playing with gold thread. Again the two rows are at slightly different scales, but now I really feel that I am going to master this stitch.
I also think I’ve cracked the problem of why the vast number of books I have on the subject don’t help. With the honourable exception of The Right Handed Embroiderer’s Companion, by Yvette Stanton of White Threads, they all use the same inadequate set of diagrams, presumably copied from an earlier publication. Furthermore, judging by the (slightly differing) diagrams in Tricia’s notes and Yvette’s book, they diagram the left-handed technique. Since all their other diagrams are for right-handers, these books provoke considerable confusion! Still, I now know where to go when I need to be reminded how to do the stitch, and I feel confident that with a bit of practise I will be able to pick it up any time I need to.
And I will need to. I have a few ideas buzzing around in my head, and Plaited Braid Stitch will take its’ place in them!
Spiralling Onward
Continuing The Spiral
Since I’ve received so many comments – and additional e-mails! – asking me to post more about Christus Natus Est, I’ve decided to post about it more frequently than I originally intended.
Progress has slowed somewhat as the spiral gets larger, with ever-longer sections of the close silken stitching. Since I’m using two shades of blue at present, the blue of the Madonna’s robe involves three different threads, which means that every time I feel I’ve settled into a rhythm, I have to stop and change to another thread.
I’ve already had to reposition the fabric on the frame, since the constant close stitching had stretched it slightly. It’s much easier to work this style when the fabric is absolutely taut, so I expect that this will become a regular activity!
You’ve probably noticed that the Christ Child’s halo has a somewhat sawn-off look, and that I’ve not continued the Madonna’s halo over her robe. In both cases, this is because I have taken note of what one of the books I’ve been reading has told me – it is not difficult to add stitches to an or nué piece, but it is near-impossible to take them out. I’m not certain that I want the halos to spread over the robes, so until I’ve decided that, they won’t. I’m happy to go back over the piece tidying up when I’ve finished, so that is how it will be done.
Starting the Christus Natus Est Or Nué Panel
Christus Natus Est - Materials
I know I should try to limit the number of projects I work on at once, but my fingers have been itching to start the Christus Natus Est Panel, and I finally decided to have a go.
I bought the silk thread (Pearsall’s Filoselle) and the gold passing thread, at the Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate last year. The Filoselle is a beautiful stranded thread, and I’m using a single strand to couch down the colours of the thread, and a different, very fine thread to couch down the bare gold sections.
I was somewhat afraid that choosing to work my or nué panel in the circular and curving fashion would create considerable headaches, especially in starting the spiral at the centre of the circle, but actually it was fairly straightforward. I’ve put the gold thread into a little gauze bag, which keeps it from unwinding- mostly- and means I don’t have to worry about it snagging or catching as I work
Close-up of Starting The Or Nué panel
As my spiral becomes larger, and the number of colours I am using in each circuit increases, the work will become slower, and more confusing, but so far, I am enjoying it very much. It would be much easier if I had a proper slate frame and trestles to stand it on, as I can see that the pins holding the calico to the frame will need to be moved occasionally as the fabric stretches. However, the silk thread covers the gold reasonably easily, and since I was aware from reading about the technique that the silk would distort the rows slightly, I’ve not been unduly disturbed by the way the spiral isn’t quite circular anymore. It won’t be that obvious when the piece is finished, after all!
In fact I’ve been enjoying myself so much that I just have to be a little careful not to get so wound up in it that I stitch for too long and end up with fuzzy eyes!
Tudor and Stuart Goldwork Masterclass – Month Twelve Goldwork Stitches
The two stitches this month are stitches I think I have seen used as needle-lace stitches, but whereas I’m most used to seeing variants of Blanket Stitch used in needle-lace, these are worked using Up-and-Down Blanket Stitch.
Up And Down Blanket Stitch - Alternating
As it happens, the Up-and-Down variant is one of my favourite stitches, so I sat down rather gleefully to have a go. This is the first of the variations, Alternating Up-and-Down Blanket Stitch, which produce a rather open, netlike appearance on my practice cloth, not much resembling the example in the instructions.
Up And Down Blanket Stitch With Return
The second stitch was Up And Down Blanket Stitch With Return. In this case the seconfd row of stitches goes into the tie of the Up And Down Blanket Stitch, creating a ribbed effect something like the welts on a sweater. It also rather conceals that same distinctive tie stitch, rather camouflaging the stitch that forms its basis. I’m very impressed that Tricia managed to “reverse-engineer” these stitches, as some of them are rather less than clear to work out!
Both Stitches In Pearl Cotton
Naturally, my practise cloth version in the gold thread suffers from the problems of scale I’ve already discussed, but as well as that I find when I look at the photographs that in a couple of cases I have done a pair of buttonhole stitches instead of an Up-and-Down Blanket Stitch. I defy anyone to work that out at the normal scale of these stitches, but I’m actually quite surprised that I didn’t notice at the time, since the short loop at the base of up-and-down buttonhole stitch does tend to twist when worked as a needle-lace stitch instead of a fabric stitch!
These versions worked in pearl cotton show much more clearly the heavily textured fabric that these stitches form when worked at the correct scale.
Tudor Pincushion Progress
Tudor Pincushion Silkwork Finished!
Finally, I have finished the silkwork on the Tudor Pincushion, which is part of the Tudor and Stuart Goldwork Masterclass course I am following.
I think I need to find something that is less fine stitching than this, to give me a rest from all these tiny stitches!
Still, you can see that the final pattern is simple enough in concept, and there is just enough subtle variation in the colours to make the design interesting. The final effect is almost one of a woven fabric, as though the goldwork were embellishing a genuine tapestry. Remember that a real tapestry is woven (the Gobelins ateliers in France are the best known, historically, although a lot of tapestries I’ve seen have been from the Netherlands). A real tapestry is not worked in tent stitch on canvas, whatever the kit manufacturer says, and the Bayeux Tapestry is in fact an embroidery!
First Stage of Goldwork
I’ve also begun to work on the goldwork stitches. The small gold spots are worked in Eight Legged Spider’s Web Stitch which I first encountered in Month Four, and which is a great trial at the size it needs to be on the pincushion. I’ve not quite persuaded myself that I need to restitch them, as they didn’t markedly improve over the four I’ve done, but I am certainly considering the possibility.
The channels between the back stitches are filled with Reverse Chain Stitch, which I first encountered at the very beginning of the goldwork section of the course. This is an easy stitch to do, and very satisfying to see it build.
The course materials have included two Japanese hand made needles, which I was hoping to experiment with at this point, but I can’t even thread them! The eyes are much too fine for the thread, which is awkward, since I may be wasting quite a bit of gold thread unnecessarily because my ordinary needles strip the gold from its core.
There has to be a better way…
The Glittering Snail Finished!
Glittering Snail Ornament
The Glittering Snail Ornament from Stitching A Snail For Storage is Finished!
He was a lot of fun to stitch. I was introduced to silk gimp and silk purl (as I’ve already said, I don’t know what I will use them for, but I’m sure I’ll find something!). I don’t think I’ve ever stitched anything quite so small, either.
Tricia provided the blue silk thread to make the cord, and a silk fabric to back the ornament, although I think I need more practice at making cord, since mine ended up a bit floppy! However, it has now ended up with the whole thing, from hanging loop to tassel, made from a single length of cord, and I am hanging it up in my living room to keep it from getting crushed.
My local art shop sells cutouts of mount-card, presumably for people to do papercrafts with, but I find they make perfect mounts for this sort of ornament. I used one card for the front and one for the back, lightly glued fine wadding to the card and then stretched the fabric over the top (using glue or thread to secure it, depending upon which seems most appropriate). Front and back are then held together and overstitched, and the stitching can be covered with cord.
I used almost exactly the same technique – on a larger scale – when I was mounting “Starbright” a couple of years ago.
Tudor and Stuart Masterclass – Month Ten
Interlaced On Ladder Stitch
The two stitches in Month Ten of the course are both based on Ladder Stitch foundations. You can see here that something went a little squiffy with the foundation for the Interlaced stitch. I ran out of thread in the needle and in bringing the new thread in, I didn’t keep the the tension quite right. It wasn’t clear until I took the photo with the macro lens, and cropped it to size. As it is only a practise, I shan’t lose any sleep over it – I’ll just make a mental note that Tension Matters.
The interlacing is just like the sort of interlacing I am familiar with from drawn thread work – I’ve not done it before, but it is a style I’m familiar with seeing and a construction I can understand. It would be quicker to practise the interlacing on a foundation of straight stitches, but I suspect (if only I had got the stitching right) the Ladder Stitch would create a more stable basis.
Wheatsheaf On Ladder Stitch
The second stitch worked on the Ladder Stitch foundation is another I recognise from drawn thread work. This is a wheatsheaf-style stitch. Other variants might include a knot instead of a mere wrap, or include two rows of interlacing in the same style. One of the advantages of this course is that it is pulling together many of the techniques I have seen before, but never had the opportunity to do.
It has also given me permission to “play”. I’m enjoying that!
The Glittering Snail – part two
The Snail In Silk
So, bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, and full of enthusiasm, I sat down with my Glittering Snail Kit and got started. And, in fact, the silk gimp and silk-wrapped purl are not the only threads new to me, so it was great fun.
The pink and orange threads are both silk floss rather than spun silk. Occasionally I snagged the floss on the screw on the hoop, or a fingernail, or even on another bit of thread (how? don’t ask!), but I really enjoyed it, all the same.
The snail’s body is worked using the silk gimp and stretched silk-wrapped purl, couched with the pink floss. They were easy to work with – they felt gorgeous! – and I have a tiny bit left to play with a little while I think about how I might use them in my own embroidery. At the moment, nothing is really springing to mind, but I’m pretty sure that somewhere along the line some silk-wrapped purl will appear..