English Work: Embroidery Short Course – Part 3

Classes, courses and workshops are what have kept me stitching while my mojo has been in hiding and I have done several over the past year or so.

Towards the end of November 2014, I did the last of a three part short course in English embroidery at the Ashmolean Museum with Tanja Bentham. The subject of this lesson was the main reason I enrolled for this course – reverse couching. I have read about this technique and am quite fascinated by it. On paper, it does not seem difficult but I had a strong suspicion that it would be more difficult that it sounds.

In most couching techniques the couched thread lies on top of the fabric and the couching stitches go over the couched thread; they are visible on the surface. In reverse couching the couched thread still lies on top of the fabric and the couching stitches go over the couched thread but it is then used to pull the couched thread through the fabric. Only the couched thread is visible on the surface. So if you are reverse couching a gold thread the visible area is pure gold! The effect of pulling the couched thread through the fabric is also visible so the couching stitches can be arranged to form patterns on the surface.

© Carol-Anne Conway
Couching with the couching thread showing on the right side

I first did a practice area using imitation gold on the edge of my fabric.

© Carol-Anne Conway
Practicing with imitation gold

As I suspected, pulling the couching thread through the fabric is not as easy as it seems. Firstly, the couching stitch has to come out of and go down into exactly the same place in the fabric forming a small loop around the couched thread. Then, as with many techniques, the tension is important. When stitching with a sewing machine, the aim is to have balanced tension between the bobbin thread and the upper thread so each thread is looped around the other. When surface couching, the effect is as if the bobbin tension is too loose and the bobbin thread loops over the upper thread which lies flat on the surface of the fabric. In reverse couching, the effect is as if the upper tension is too loose and the upper thread loops around the bobbin thread which lies flat on the underside of the fabric.

© Carol-Anne Conway
The reverse side showing the gold thread pulled through and looped around the couching thread

I found it fairly easy to achieve regular couching on my straight practice area but I found it far more difficult to do so on the curved halo. Much more practice needed!

© Carol-Anne Conway
The front with no couching thread showing

I really enjoyed this mini course. Tanja is a lot of fun and her classes are fairly relaxed while being very informative and professional. Tanja’s own work is very impressive and, as usual, even better in real life than any photographs suggest. It has given me a taster of opus anglicanum and an appreciation of why, when done well, it was the most celebrated embroidery of its time.

© Carol-Anne Conway

Happy Stitching

English Work: Embroidery Short Course – Part 2

The second day of the three part course was in September. This lesson would teach us how to stitch faces. I was looking forward to this lesson!

We had a few technical problems linking Tanya’s computer to the projector. The Ashmolian’s technical folk were unable to resolve the problems so we huddled around Tanya’s computer to look at the lovely images of faces she has collected over time. Tanya said that basically all Opus Anglicanum faces are ugly but there are nice ugly faces and there are down-right ugly, ugly faces. I think I could see where she is coming from. I think the problem is 1. they are mostly very small faces and 2. intended to be viewed from a distance so subtle details are a waste of time and silk. One thing Tanya did point out was that, by far the majority of faces, are depicted at three quarter profile, rarely straight on or in full profile.

We also looked at how hair is worked and then spent some time selecting silk shades for skin, eyes and hair.

© Tanya Bentham/Carol-Anne Conway

The dress is worked in small (approximately 4mm), closely placed rows of split stitch using three strands of very fine silk (if you read the instructions properly!). The face and hands are worked in the same technique but using even smaller (approximately 2 mm) split stitch and two strands of fine silk. It is a very slow progress and I didn’t get very much done during the class. Nor have I done much in the intervening time but I want to get some more done before the next class in November when we will be learning something very exciting!

Happy Stitching.

English Work: Embroidery Short Course - Part 1

The Ashmolean Museum have been running a series of lectures and short courses in conjunction with The Eye of the Needle exhibition. I have attended them all with the exception of a black work workshop that was added as an afterthought. I have already written about the Empresse of Flowers workshop run by Lynn Hulse and Nicola Jervis. I also attended a short course on Opus Anglicanum run by Tanya Bentham. I have been following Tanya’s blog for several years and enjoy her quirky sense of humour as much as I admire her embroidery.

This was a 3 day course spread over several weeks with the first day being in August. In fact, I was not able to attend the first day of the course because I was doing something far more important than embroidery – throwing a party to mark my Daddy’s 80th Birthday. I’d been asking him for months how he would like to celebrate the occasion and, in the end, I was slightly worried that I had somewhat bullied him into having a party. In the weeks leading up to the party the weather had been cold and damp and my dad had not been enjoying the best of health (understatement, he hasn’t enjoyed the best of health for many years, just before the party he was feeling much worse than usual). But Sunday, 17 August dawned bright and sunny, and pleasantly warm – perfect for a garden party. Better still, Dad had awoken feeling bright and sunny and in the mood for a party. From my point of view the day could not have gone any better, weather was great, food was delicious (thank you Marks & Spencer’s party food) and the guests all enjoyed themselves but, most importantly of all, Dad had a lovely day and didn’t stop smiling.

Meanwhile, back at the Ashmolean the rest of the students were choosing their designs, stretching their fabric onto their frames, transferring their designs to their fabric and selecting their threads. I would imagine that took most of the morning so they then had a lovely afternoon of stitching to look forward to. Because I was not able to be there, Tanya chose my design, stretched my fabric onto my frame, transferred my design to my fabric and selected my threads, and she did a jolly fine job on every count. Tanya left these together with some very details instructions in the safe keeping of someone at the Ashmolean until I could collect them later in the week.

© Tanya Bentham/Carol-Anne Conway

Tanya had instructed me to work only on the dress as we would be learning how to do faces in the second class. With Sue’s unexpected illness and death, I didn’t much feeling like stitching but I did make an effort to complete some before the class in September so that Tanya could assess how I was doing. Tanya had warned us that Opus Anglicanum is a slow process but mine was going extremely slowly. That may be because I had not read one part of Tanya’s excellent instructions properly. The instructions said that the dress should be filled with very close, small split stitches using three (very fine) strands of silk. I missed the ‘three’ in the instructions and was filling the dress with very close, small split stitches using one (very fine) strand of silk. No wonder it was taking me so long!

© Tanya Bentham/Carol-Anne Conway

Happy Stitching