Tag: Silk thread
Developing confidence in satin stitch
It may not seem as though much has been going on with the Lotus Fragment, apart from satin stitch, but I have in fact been learning a lot, and experimenting rather a lot too.
Choosing a background stitch
To begin with, I was intending to use a couching stitch for the blue background of the image. This is partly because I keep forgetting that the final Dreams of Amarna panels are not intended to be worn or leaned upon. The stitches would need to be quite long, which is contrary to my ingrained instinct to keep stitches short in order to make the finished article reasonably hard-wearing. But then, stitched on silk, using silk, it was never going to land in the washing machine!
After my short class with Midori Matsushima, I had a little more confidence in my satin stitch, and so I worked one side of the fragment in satin stitch and the other in Bokhara Couching, and then sat back and looked at them. Satin Stitch won, hands down. The flat silk spreads beautifully to help blend the stitches, and the reflectance of the silk filaments creates an almost radiant effect. So that small section of couching has been unpicked, and replaced in short order! In fact, the satin stitch fairly galloped away once I got settled and gained some facility with my mellor.
Lotus Flower Experiments
The lotus flowers themselves are giving me a little more trouble. As you can see in the second photograph, I have been trying various ways of stitching them. My challenge is that Mary Chubb describes the originals as “faintly lilac-tipped”, and so my experiments have two goals, not just one: I want to find the most effective way to use the silk to represent the lotus flowers, but at the same time it has to be a way that lets me tip the petals in the lilac without creating a clumsy effect.
The earlier petals use stitches that come to a point at the tips of the petals, crossing under a central stitch that seeks to smooth those tips. I am not happy with this – it looks clumsy and heavy, even though it makes adding in the lilac stitches fairly easy.
The later stitches use a more classical satin stitch, with the longest stitch on one long side of the petal, and shortening stitches creating the other side. This is better, and I think will be improved if I take all of the experiments out and then begin again, with the long stitch on the central axis of the petal and shorter ones to the side.
However, the challenge of creating the effect of the lilac tips remains. I want to blend the lilac and white stitches into one another, and for the life of me I can’t see how to achieve it, or even whether to stitch the lilac first or the white!
Progress on the Lotus Fragment
Lotus Tile Fragmen
I have chosen to work the Lotus Tile Fragment using Japanese Flat Silk, which I bought at last year’s Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate, from Midori Matsushima. This is rather an adventure, because I have never used flat silk before, except when I experimented with one of Stef Francis’s overdyed flat silks.
Suddenly, therefore, it rather matters to me whether I produce the effect I’m looking for, which was not the case with the Experimental Seahorse, entertaining and instructive though he was to do!
Last week , Susan of Plays with Needles quoted a Buddhist proverb in her blog – “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear“, and it turned out to be true for me too. Entirely by accident, I discovered that Midori would be teaching an introductory workshop in Japanese Embroidery techniques, not fifteen minutes’ drive away…
Japanese Embroidery Techniques
In two hours, there was only time for the merest scuttle through the techniques – making a twisted thread (we made a four-into-one), learning how to work a Japanese knot, how to stitch with the twisted thread and with the flat, untwisted silk, and finally how to use one of the fine metallic threads. As it happens, the techniques I have ended up using for the Lotus Tile Fragment are (understandably given my background) more Western than Japanese, but although I am intending to use flat silk throughout, it has already occurred to me that I might work an interesting alternate version using Japanese embroidery techniques. I just need Midori to come back and run another short workshop in s0me of the slightly less basic techniques…
Beginning work on the Lotus Fragment
Design Drawn
When I first wrote about the Lotus motif, in September (The Fragment of Tile That Started It All) it was because I wanted to buy materials for it at the Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate in November, which I duly did. And now that the Crock of Gold is finished, I can move on to the Lotus Tile Fragment! The colours I bought were soft and slightly greyish, rather than bright and clear, partly because that was all I could find, and partly because I was thinking more of the way Mary Chubb would have first seen the fragment, covered in dust.
However, just when I had got the design drawn out, I had a Dreadful Thought.
Split Stitch Edging
My intention for the final mounting of the two panels is to print a head of Akhenaten on a piece of gauze and stretch it in front of one of the completed panels, and a head of Nefertiti for the other. Just how fine and gauzy can it be and still create the effect I want of the Heretic Pharaoh and his Queen, brooding over the excavation of their city? How fine and gauzy a fabric can I find that will take a print? And how much brighter do the colours have to be to ensure that the jewel-like panels around the central panels shine like jewels, rather than being killed off by the gauze?
I shall finish this version, since I’ve started it, and I might, perhaps, need to begin learning about screenprinting, and experimenting with fabrics much sooner than I thought. If all the pieces I’ve worked so far need to be re-done in brighter colours, my current estimate will need to be revised outwards…
Update on the Crock of Gold – a definite milestone reached
Finished Shadows
It’s been a month since I posted about the Crock of Gold Hoard, and that is due partly to the intervening holidays, partly to the continuing Saga of the Tennis Elbow, and partly because I am really not good at all when it comes to large expanses of long and short stitch – or indeed any other stitch!
The shadow in the interior of the pot is done very simply in long straight stitches, because I know I will be adding chipwork there, so I want to avoid giving myself too much to stitch through. If I can find a “tarnished silver” or bronze purl to use, that will help to make the whole thing “read” properly, with the odd untarnished chip to sparkle and catch the light.
Texture Of Background
This picture shows the effect of the seed stitches. Although they’ve created a nice grainy background, the scattered seed stitches have slightly “flattened” the colour variation in the background fabric. That’s rather a pity, because the gentle changes in shade were rather attractive.
Detail Of Finished Texture
There is always a silver lining, however, and this gave me the opportunity to add a little more detail. The basic seed stitches were done in the same colour as the sticks, using two strands of stranded cotton. For the additional textures, I added “drifts” of tiny seed stitches in a darker shade, using a single strand of stranded cotton, and and then another scatter of them in a slightly more golden shade.
Completed Seed Stitches
I’ve been wondering whether the looming chipwork might have been making me slightly nervous, because I have been saying that I can’t do the chipwork until the rest of the embroidery is done, and somehow, I’ve found myself adding other layers of embroidery that must be done.
If that’s the case, I think I have now run out of excuses. I need to make sure that no guide lines are showing, re-stretch the fabric, which is sagging slightly, and then screw my courage to the sticking-point.
More Slow Progress On The Crock Of Gold
Progress On The Sticks
I have been making progress on the sticks and the ground around the Crock and Lid. The speckling seed stitches are getting done in stages, rather as I tackled the (much bigger) job of the tête de boeuf stitch on the Map of Amarna.
The sticks are now all done, but in spite of the pattern of the shadows, they look a bit too flat. Somehow the pattern of dark and light is too undifferentiated.
With Highlights Added
So I have added some highlights here to two of the sticks. I’ve used the same stitch – split stitch – and simply stitched over the top of the first layer. It’s tricky, because in addition to the two layers of fabric, there are two or three layers of thread to get through. Nor am I entirely sure that it is giving exactly the effect I wanted.
Still, there is still much speckling still to do, not to mention the shadows of the pot and the lid. That will give me time to think a bit longer, and plan a bit more.
For those in the UK who missed the previous broadcasts of “The Man Who Discovered Egypt”, it will be re-broadcast over Christmas – BBC4, on Thursday December 27, at 7pm.
The Crock of Gold Hoard – The Ground And The Shadows
There’s been a frustrating hiatus in my stitching life of late – I’ve had tennis elbow, and have had to write up old embroidery projects for you instead of making progress on any of my current ones. I’ve been going stark, staring mad with frustration, because even holding a book has been painful.
Beginning The Shadows – Take Two
However, I’m beginning to get back to it at last. Cautiously, so there will still be older projects interspersed with the current ones!
I’ve been doing a few stitches here and there while I’ve been trying to rest the elbow, as much as anything else to gauge my recovery (or lack of it, as it sometimes seemed!). So now you can see that I’ve nearly outlined all the shadows. There’s just the shadow inside the pot to deal with and it occurs to me that I might need to find some tarnished purl to create the effect of the shadow on the metal inside!
Close Up Of Sticks
I’ve also made a start on the sandy effect seed stitches, in a small section between the pot and the sticks. That’s going to challenge my boredom threshold, even though I don’t intend to have the seed stitches all over the background!
This close up shows that I’ve also managed to fill in the first of the sticks, using split stitch filling. I need to add some highlights later, because as it stands it’s a little flat.
Still, it’s great to be back!
Crock of Gold Hoard – Those Wretched Shadows!
All Unpicked
When you last saw the Crock of Gold Hoard (here), it included some highly unsatisfactory shadows, and my mother and myself had pounding headaches and crossed eyes from deciphering the original photograph.
It took several hours of frustrating, painstaking unpicking, aided by tweezers, but I managed, and then started on the ground while I pondered the shadows. There are some sticks or something on the ground, and I want the ground to look sandy and speckled so I’m going to use seed stitches to create the sandy, gravelly look.
Simplified Shadows
There followed still more headscratching, sketching and puzzling (including experiments with photo-editing and watermarking on my tablet computer – that’s why there are two different copyright notices in this post!),
This example isn’t quite right – the shadow of the pot isn’t long enough, but it does demonstrate quite clearly that I’ve decided to simplify the shadows very considerably.
Shadows drawn in chalk
Since I’m removing the archaelogist and his hands, as well as the confusing shadow of the post which is out of the picture, I’ve decided I might as well simplify as many of the other shapes as I can. As I’ve said before, I’m not a needlepainter, and I’m not aiming for complete realism. Still, getting the shadows right will do much to make the design seem realistic enough.
I’m sure the detail of the shadows will change, but I’ve now drawn in an outline of those simplified shadows in chalk. I’ve even remembered that the pot has shoulders and a raised rim.
Crock of Gold Hoard – Problems with Shadows
Trialling Shadows
I mentioned in my last post that I was somewhat troubled by the question of the shadows that I need to have in this picture to “anchor” the Crock and its lid in space. Since the silk I used for the Crock has a sheen, my original idea was to try to find a matte thread to help keep the shadows in the background.
Another Trial
I had three dark, “shadowy” colours in a linen thread, and tried those first. I wasn’t happy either with the colours (too dull and drab for shadows cast by an Egyptian sun) or the texture (rough and scratchy), so I tried a soft lilac-y blue stranded cotton, couched down with a darker blue. That was better, but not really dark enough.
Wrong Shadows In Stitch
So this on the left was my next attempt. I like the shading effect and depth of colour that I’ve managed to achieve, but I can already tell that the shape of the shadow is absolutely wrong.
So I packed it up, and took my problems to my mother, who is an artist, and has a much more practised analytical eye than I have.
At which point, we realised that the shadows were rather more difficult even than I’d thought.
Difficult Shadows
A lot more difficult! The amber arrows indicate (approximately) what appear to be two conflicting light sources. Since the ground appears to be uneven, this must be a photo taken on site during the excavation. The vertical green arrow in the top left corner is pointing at a shadow which is clearly of something on top of a pole somewhere out of the picture. The other green arrow points to shadows show that the ground underneath the lid isn’t as even as a careless glance would at first suggest.
I’ve got a lot of unpicking to do!
Crock of Gold Hoard – Working the Rim of the Crock itself
Foundation Stitches on the Rim of the Crock
After much cogitation, I decided to work stem stitch band around the rim of the Crock of Gold. It seemed to me that that this might create the right combination of a rounded shape and a smooth line around the rim. Although satin stitch worked beautifully for the much narrower rim of the lid, I was sure that it would lead the eye wrongly in this case. In fact if you look at the foundation stitches for the stem stitch band, I think that confirms my suspicion.
Rim of the Crock in Close Up – Stem Stitch Band
The choice of stitch also meant that by changing colours as I worked the stem stitch over the foundation, I could keep the sense of movement that I feel recalls a hand-made pot. Had I worked the rim in satin stitches, changing colours would have created a rather blocky effect – fine when I come to re-create some of the geometric patterns the Egyptians used, not so good for a plain and undecorated earthenware pot!
I had a momentary wobble as I began to work the rows as the stitches seemed not to be packing together, and I kept catching my needle on the felt, but gradually as I added more rows of stitching I realised that it was working.
Both Rims Done
Now I have the rims done, I need to do the shadows, and I’ve not quite worked out how, as yet.
Still, thus far, the Crock of Gold is working pretty well. I think the raised effect of the rims will help to keep the chipwork visually contained, and that will be important, as there’s the potential for chipwork to draw the eye too much.
Crock of Gold Hoard – Working the Rim of the Lid
Trellis Stitch Finished
While continuing to work the eccentric spiral trellis stitch for the lid, I’ve been thinking about the rims.
Before I move on, though, this picture shows how I’ve tried to introduce darker colours inside the lid to create an impression that it is hollow.
I think it’s worked, too!
Padding Lid Rim
It’s clear that I’m not going to be able to use the same techniques for both rims, since one is so much wider than the other. I used felt for the rim of the crock itself, and four lengths of silk thread twisted together to put some padding on the lid rim. As much as anything else, this is to create a visual sense of depth when I put in the chipwork. Even without the padding covered, this works pretty well.
Lid Rim Done
However, with the padding covered with satin stitch, it looks altogether better. Working the satin stitch was something of a trial, because I have a layer of calico, a layer of turban cotton, and then the edge of the trellis stitch to deal with. I’ve varied the colours around the rim to create some sense of depth and highlight.
I’ve realised while I’ve been working on this that the next serious challenge on this piece is going to be working out how to put the shadows in. As it stands, it is interesting, but not visually satisfying, because the crock and the lid seem to be floating in mid-air. They need to be brought back to earth, preferably without a crash!