Spine Embellishment
Once the foliage and the snake were done, I could start on the goldwork.
First, the spine. Each gap between the polychrome panels was filled with three rows of metal threads. The middle one was silver wrapped around a gilt strip, and the two outer ones in each case were of a very fine check purl. This last was very fragile, and if I had realised in advance just how fragile, and how inclined to catch on cuffs, sleeves, and threads, I think I might have worked the spine last.
Gilt Crinkle Strip
The goldwork around the cartouches began with four rows of Gilt Crinkle Strip, two couched around the outside of the frame, and two around the inside.
The instructions said to place a couching stitch in every valley of the crinkle, which was certainly necessary – it doesn’t willingly follow curves when it is couched flat – but I might not have thought to do without instruction. It makes for a wonderful effect, if rather visually confusing when you’re working it, because the hills and valleys of the crinkle strip bounce light every which way, in a rather delightfully dazzling fashion…
You might think, by the way, that this is fairly straightforward and done in no time at all. You’d be wrong! That Gilt Crinkle Strip looks lovely, but my word, it has a mind of its own, and being very springy and having lots of little corners to catch, it makes a spirited attempt to tie itself in knots. A third – and even fourth – hand might have helped!
Starting Akhenaten
Naturally, once I’d done the Head of Nefertiti, I wanted to do something of Akhenaten. The question was, what?
But I needn’t have worried. Almost before I have posed myself the question, an idea had sprung, fully formed, into my mind, rather as Nefertiti had done. It’s going to be a sort of unholy, but with any luck, truly gorgeous, combination of trapunto and goldwork.
I’m basing the design on the four colossi of Akhenaten, all of which are damaged in different ways, allowing me to put together something that should resemble an undamaged one. Then I started to forage among my silk fabrics to find something suitable, finally choosing a sort of pinkish orangey-brown which reminds me a bit of pink granite. The colossi aren’t made of pink granite, but the Egyptians did use it, and besides, this is a work of artistic interpretation!
Outline Stitched
Since the idea is such a mash-up of techniques, I’m not at all sure whether it will work, or what order to do what in (if you follow me!). I’ve started by stretching the calico backing fabric in the frame, overlaying it with two layers of a fairly lofty synthetic wadding and a denser layer of cotton, and then stretching the silk over the top.
Then I stitched the outline, using close back stitches. It doesn’t look very good at this point, because there is extra wadding where I don’t want it.
But the next stage is a bit scary, so I had to clutch my courage in both hands…
Second Tree Done
It took me quite some time – several weeks, in fact, before I got myself over my frustration with “Eve”, gathered up my patience and my courage, and had a go at the second lot of foliage.
The curls of gimp are a bit tighter, and more closely packed than in the first one, and the bunches of foliage are spaced out a bit to allow the branches to show through. There was a great deal of muttering, and I spread out the frustration by doing one clump at a time, then getting up and doing something else instead.
Snake In Silk Purl
Naturally no garden of Eden can be complete without a Snake. In this case, using green silk pearl purl, carefully couched down in two sections to create the head (with flickering red silk forked tongue) and then the tail, to give the impression that the snake has wound itself around the tree.
I rather enjoyed the Snake (both of them!), because I only seemed to need the two hands I already have, rather than the three extra that seemed to be needed for the foliage! The silk thread used to couch the pearl purl also made a leaf for the apple.
And now I’m ready for the next stage…
Both Snakes Added
Sewing On The Princess
I decided that I would actually sew down the princesses. Everything else has been needlefelted into place, but the texture that creates, especially on a light felt, is a bit too regimented for the impression I want to convey.
I’ve very carefully, and as near as I can make it, invisibly, attached the felt around the edges, stitching into the thickness of the felt that makes the two girls and using a wool thread that is close in colour to the felt.
Ready For Her Close-Up
So far, so good.
I then used a hand needlefelting tool and went just around the edges, and into the sections that are further back. I’m trying to create a slightly sculptural effect, so that the princesses have a slight roundness to them. Remember how, at the beginning, I said I wanted to recall the scene as the original fresco artist may have seen it, as well as recalling the fresco itself?
Two Amarna Princesses
I’m rather pleased with my two little princesses.
I need to work a little magic in straightening up the panel and working out how to display it, as I think the three felt panels that I’ve done so far would all die if put behind glass, and may not even be happy in frames. A question for another day.
Dig House Texture
I’ve not finished the Dig House panel yet, but I’m working on it!
I’ve tried to add detail and shading to the walls of the house by running threads underneath the top layer of felt, and then running the embellisher over the top to help that added layer to show through a little more.
Dig House Progress
I’m also adding a lot of detached chain stitch leaves to the trees. This is overbalancing the detail on the whole piece, pulling the eye out to the side, so although I still need to do more of this, I need to sharpen up the details on the central section a bit more as well.
It’s easy to make this sort of mistake when you’re making something up as you go along – they don’t always arrive in your head fully formed! – but fortunately, a bit of my favourite thoughtful staring helped me to work out what I need to do.
Now it is just a matter of actually doing it right….
Picture of Pectoral
Those of you who follow me on Instagram or Twitter will have noticed that the embroidery you mostly see has been supplemented by the occasional piece of crochet over the past few months. I’ve found my crochet projects easier to travel with than embroidery, and it’s a different sort of puzzle to solve.
I’ve done a few shawls or scarves, and a pair of socks, and while I try to work out whether crocheted lacy socks are really “me”, I thought I would try something else that isn’t flat. Issue fifty five of Simply Crochet contained a backpack project designed by Ilaria Caliri. The colours didn’t really appeal to me, but the idea of the structure, and the tapestry crochet band across the middle, definitely did.
Yarn And Pattern
I started playing around with ideas for colours and designs, and it took me really quite some time to settle on something simple and repetitive enough that it might actually work. The dreadful picture of a picture at the beginning of this post is one of the pictures I took when the EES let me spend a day in their library, and I think that the fact it was so poor really helped me to cut out frills.
The backpack will be navy blue, and the tapestry crochet band is a series of petal shapes in turquoise and lapis, with a background of gold, and bordered with carnelian (approximately!). I had a lovely half hour in SMD Knitting while we found the right shades of acrylic aran-weight yarn, and now all I have to do (all!) is decide whether my petals will be broad end up or broad end down and then get to work…
Layout With Cushions
The felted cushion fragments worked rather well, surviving the cutting out procedure so that I could start to play with the layout. Prints of the images I’d used to hand, I fiddled happily for quite a while.
This isn’t quite what I ended up with, but you can see how vividly the colours play off against one another. Very promising!
Drapes Attached
The first stage was to attach the drapery assembly to the background. This is where the experimental nature of my needlefelting may come back to bite me, because there is a risk that I have taken it too far, and that I will finish with a completely destroyed background.
However, the goldeny-mustardy-yellow wall shows through a bit, which is what I want, as that helps to make the connection with the frescoes at Amarna as they are found by archaeologists – fragile and fragmentary, only a hint of their former glory. I may have to hand-needlefelt some of those little squares, as they’re not as well attached as I would like. I don’t want them falling off at some time in the future!
I Decided To Do The Sky
I really should pay more attention to myself. I have said before that trying to work around edges is work for fools, and that often it is worth doing more stitching than is going to show. In the end I decided to listen to myself and do the whole sky.
If I’d done that before putting the trees in, however, the stitching would have been less fiddly and the experience, less frustrating!
Making The Foliage
The next stage is to add the foliage, more silk gimp couched with Soie Ovale, but this time couched in little curls.
I had been looking forward to this, as it looked rather entertaining in the photos, but thus far I haven’t enjoyed it at all. I’ve got myself tied in some terrible knots, and I’ve ended up cutting the gimp more often than I like.
I need to rethink how I tackle this, look again at the photos and instructions, and try to work out why I’ve ended up with something that looks congested and floppy, both at the same time. I also need to work out, if possible, how to hop from section to section, rather than cutting the gimp.
You may recall that I started on a tablecloth using a Briggs Transfer, as my “travelling project“. I’ve not travelled much, so progress has been somewhat spotty, but when the weather turned very warm while I was playing with my embellisher, I set the wool aside to pick up the tablecloth.
Harebells Perhaps
I suppose these might be harebells or bluebells or something similar?
I’ve worked them in Vandyke Stitch, which creates a strong central rib on each petal. It can be a tricky stitch to get just right, because tension makes a huge difference, and I may have worked them a little too tightly.
I’ve also changed each of the four appearances of this figure – there are two colours, and the disposition of those two colours isn’t quite the same in any two. It made it more interesting to stitch!
Buds, Maybe?
The next set of sprigs was this design element, and for this I went very old school and traditional – buttonhole wheels!
Furthermore, I used the same idea as with the harebells (if that’s what they are). This time, three colours. The one nearest the stem always dark, the furthest from the stem always light, the other two different on each of the sides of the tablecloth.
These two sprigs went swiftly. One heatwave, and they were done.
Blue Flower
This blueish-purple flower won’t be so quick. The inner petals are in closed herringbone stitch. I’m getting better at that, but it is a time consuming stitch and I sometimes tie myself in knots still.
The outer petals are in Basque Stitch, another one that I sometimes tangle. It’s pretty, and creates an intriguing effect. I’ve worked both petals from the base to the time, which produced a few odd contortions. But when it works, I think it’s lovely!
It’s also one of my 17 UFos for 2017 – see Meredithe’s post for more!
Spotted Cushions
A little while ago, the Ashmolean Museum tweeted another reproduction of that fresco of the two little princesses, this one in black and white, and it brought to the fore something that had been less clear in the colour reproductions I had seen – the girls are actually sitting on cushions. Originally, I had interpreted the lowest border design as fabric covering a divan of some sort, but now I found myself developing some possible cushion fabrics..
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Satin Stitch Spots
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Sorbello Stitch Spots
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Cross Stitch Spots
Once again, as with the drapery, I stitched patterns with additional needlefelting in mind. I decided in the end that the satin stitch spots weren’t working very well. Sorbello stitch is the stitch I used for the villages on the Map of Amarna. It’s another stitch I rather like, as it produces a neat, square stitch, with an interesting texture – more obvious with some fabrics and threads than others, of course. The cross stitch spots are in a colour closer to that of the felt, and should produce a more subtle effect.
What I have done is to stitch the patterns on a section of felt, and then pass it under my embellisher. I hope that this will create enough fibre entanglement that when I cut out the cushion shapes, the stitches will not unstitch themselves.
I wonder whether it will work…!
