Threads Across the Web: Sake Boxes

Wednesday 22 January 2020

Sake Boxes - More Goldwork

My plan was to complete the goldwork on the ladle and then to do stitch some, or all, of the flowers and leaves in flat silk leaving the remaining goldwork to the end. I imagined that I would have had my fill of goldwork and would need a break from it.

In fact, the discipline of daily stitching rekindled my enthusiasm for goldwork and, rather than champing at the bit to do any but goldwork, I was moved straight on to complete some of the other goldwork on the lower part of the design.

I started with the ends of the noshi papers which were stitched in exactly the same way as the rest of the papers but using two strands of #1 gold, half hitched in the needle. The greatest challenge here is to keep the threads parallel and the tension even.

The handle of the ladle was done in a technique that I have done several times now, couching round and round. On the left, were the handle attaches to the ladle, I used black couching thread.

On the right-hand side, I used the traditional red/orange couching thread. Both sections of the handle are worked from the outside and the challenge is to have everything meet up precisely in the centre.

The section on the right-hand side is particularly challenging because the handle extends to the very edge of the design. I needed to fashion a ‘shelf’ to support the koma beyond the edge of the frame.