Sunday, 13 January 2019

Sake Boxes - String

Many Japanese designs include cords and/or strings. Himotaba, the design I stitched at Phase V, has five different cord techniques and some of the other pieces I have stitched have cords on them but none of them have included strings! A popular Phase I design, Bouquet from the Heart of Japan, has two heavily padded, candy striped strings. I have always thought they are a considerable challenge for a Phase I student. Konbuin-no-Fukusa has a monotone, padded string tied around the sake box; I found that challenge enough!

© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway

Each section of string is padded with twisted padding cotton which is couched with closely spaced stitches. The padding is then covered with short diagonal stitches (arg!) in flat silk. On this short, gently curved section of string, I did not find it too difficult to maintain the angle of the stitches.

© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway

On this longer section, which turns nearly 360°, I found it far more difficult. At my first attempt, I turned too much and lost the angle completely.

© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway

My second attempt was much better; at least the angle of the stitches is better, the edges could be a little more controlled!

© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway

Happy Stitching!

4 comments:

Rachel said...

People tend to disagree about what's difficult, but keeping the slant even around a turn like that is something I think we can all agree on!

Jessica Grimm said...

Wow, that's a really difficult one! I cheated on a similar design element in my advanced goldwork piece for the RSN. We covered the yellow soft string padding with purple silk satin stitch and then added evenly spaced cut work on top. It was just impossible to space the cutwork in such a way that the yellow soft string wasn't showing too much :).

D1-D2 said...

I'm still working on the cords on my bouquet and I can attest to how hard it it >.< Especially that bit that's on top of the wrapping paper.

Cath said...

The advice I've found most useful for cords is to aim to keep the stitches the same length. It worked well for me with Bouquet from the Heart of Japan but I suspect it's harder when the cord is narrower.