Gold Leaf Superimsosed

I said before that I really like this foundation with its flecks of gold twisted into the green silk but this cloud will have even more gold work. The next step is to superimpose the squares of gold leaf and pine needles onto the foundation. I thought this would be simple enough but, in fact, it is proved to be the most difficult technique I have encountered so far. Previous experiences should have warned me of the difficulties. I always find short satin stitches more difficult to control than long ones and when I used the gold thread to on the tip of the chrysanthemum, I found it difficult to obtain a smooth satin stitch. Added to that, this time I would be stitched through silk twisted with gold thread; the twisted silk is quite dense but you can’t stitch through the gold thread so the superimposed stitches have to go around them.

© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway

The little squares of foil should have nice straight edges and glint like real gold or silver. I could not get my edges as neat as I would have liked but I did manage to lay the stitches fairly well in most case so that the squares are nice and flat.

Although I am not overly happy with this work, I don’t think I will redo it as I don’t think that I would make a better job of it than I have. Nor do I think that it spoils the element, if it did I would definitely have to try to improve on it. I need to practice this technique before I use it again.

Happy Stitching

Rod End - 2

© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway

The side of the rod is worked in a pair of gold threads couched round and round the same as the end.

The end of the scroll will have gold couching but first I have stitched a weft foundation in flat silk.

Rod End

© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway

I've been doing plenty of sewing lately but not much embroidery and no work on Venerable Friends at all. I was having withdrawal symptoms and needed a fix. I could only spare a couple of hours as I have a very busy schedule this weekend, but it was better than nothing. I decided to work on the end of the rod as it is quite small and 'doable' in a short time. That way I would not be so tempted to do a bit more and a bit more.

The oval end is embroidered with a pair of gold threads couched round and round with red couching thread - the same technique I used on the end vein of Suehiro. I remembered that I had not got the pairs of threads touching and left gaps in places. This time I concentrated of making sure the threads were tight to each other and I am more satisfied with my work. It is only a small area but I think it looks good. The ends will be sunk to the back when all the embroidery is completed.

On the edge of the oval area I have couched a single strand of the karayori that I twisted in Bournemouth. It looks even better couched to the silk ground than it did twisted around the glass, the rope like twist really shows up well. The ends of the karayori will also be sunk and finished later.

Happy Stitching

Chrysanthemum - 2

© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway

I completed the stitching on the petal to the right of the centre petal. This one has less padding than the two either side of it so that it recedes slightly. When two or more elements of a motif are adjacent to each other, like these petals, the foreground elements are always stitched first. So that they remain separate, a technique called “one point open space” is employed. This simply means that a narrow space (the point of a needle) is left between the elements.

Whilst stitching this petal, I had to observe four principles.

1) Gradually rotate the angle of each stitch to maintain a consistent angle to the centre of the petal
2) Space the stitches so that they just touch and don’t bunch up
3) Keep a neat edge to the shape of the petal
4) Keep an even gap between the adjacent petals

I found it difficult to place each stitch correctly and maintain an even twist on the thread. I don’t think I have stitched this petal as nicely as the others; in particular the first stitch at the tip of the petal looks strange. I think that I may redo this petal!

Happy Stitching

Scroll - 2

Sometimes, after work, my eyes are too tired to stitch in the evening. That has been the case since returning from Bournemouth but yesterday, with the house to myself; I switched off the TV and worked on my Japanese Embroidery. I couched the in-fill stitches on the side of the scroll.

Couching features quite a lot in Japanese embroidery in various forms. "A line of Held thread" is exactly what it sounds like; a line of thread held in position with couching stitches. This technique is used to add details to motifs, like stamen on flowers or veins on leaves.

Metallic threads are used extensively. As in gold work, they are couched on to the surface of fabric. Traditionally gold is couched with red thread and silver with white or grey thread, however other colours are sometimes used to alter the appearance of the silver or gold.

Other decorative threads, such as the katayori and karayori that I learnt to make in Bournemouth, are also couched on the surface, usually with a fine twist of the same colour silk.

Many of the holding techniques use couching stitches such as the diagonal holding used on the gold leaf cloud. Fine twisted silk threads are laid across the foundation and couched at intervals in a similar fashion to Bayeux stitch. For the woven effect on the side of the scroll, the final stage is to couch the in-fill stitches between the perpendicular gold threads. Normally I would couch along the length of each thread, one at a time. For this technique the couching is worked across the rows of thread using a variation of backstitch. The stitch on the surface is just long enough to secure the thread; the stitch on the reverse is long enough to travel from one thread to the next. Each row is completed before moving into the next.

© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway

I'm very pleased with this element. I took a lot of care to make the stitches regular and stitch the gold perpendicular to the foundation. My only slight criticism is that the lines of couching stitches are not very straight. I found it difficult to separate the silk threads in the right place AND keep in a straight line whilst working the backstitching.

Happy Stitching

Chrysanthemum

The central motif on the main book is a fabulous chrysanthemum. Some of the petals are padded, with those in the foreground more heavily padded than the ones behind. Padding is either 1 or 2 layers of cotton, a single layer of cotton under a layer of self-padding (in this case twisted silk) or a single layer of self-padding. The entire motif is one shade of silk plus gold. The left-hand petals are stitched with twisted silk only. To the right of the centre petals, first the tip of a petal is gold, then gradually more of the petal is stitched in gold until, on the far right, the entire petal is gold. This is a real beauty; I only hope that I stitch it well enough to do it justice.

I took several photographs to show how the padding is built up, but they are so out of focus that they are useless. This is the only usable photograph that I have of the first petals.

© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway

I am really pleased with what I have done so far. I took a lot of care with the stitching. The centre petal is the most heavily padded; it really stands out from the background fabric. When the petals immediately to the left and right are padded and stitched it may not stand out so much, but seen in isolation it looks lush!

Happy Stitching.

Scroll

The side of the scroll is covered with woven effect. This is created in several stages. The first step is to stitch a weft foundation with a difference. You lay two stitches and then miss one before laying two more. The whole motif is covered in this way before the next step can commence. Incidentally, this colour was not in the original selection. It is a beautiful, deep purpley blue.

© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway

The second step is to lay stitches perpendicular to the foundation. I have used two strands of #1 gold. These stitches are tied down at intervals in the gaps left in the foundation layer.

© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway

The third layer of stitching is to lay weft foundation stitches between the original foundation stitches.

© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway

These stitches will be held down with a 1-2 twist in the foundation colour thus creating the woven effect.

Happy Stitching

Higaki Foundation

© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway

The foundation for the Higaki is a horizontal foundation stitched in flat silk. I really like this shade of brown. All the colours are really growing on me.

© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway

Each page is stitch separately and the foundation is horizontal to the page being stitched not the fabric. When all the foundation is in place, temporary holding is used to stop it from shifting.

© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway

The higaki design is traced onto tissue paper with is tacked over the foundation. Later the design will be stitched through the tissue paper.

Happy Stitching

Gold Leaf Holding Stitch - 2

The hotel did not have internet connection but to tell the truth, after a days stitching I was too tired to blog. I have had such a lovely week stitching, learning and chatting with friends. I will try to blog what I have learnt over the next few days. My photographs have not come out too well. There was not much natural light in the class room and my camera struggled to focus some of the time.

© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway

I completed the holding stitches on the gold foil foundation. Can you see them? It is really difficult to couch threads after you have done your best to hide them!

One thing that I was particularly looking forward to learning this week was twisting decorative, non-stitchable threads.

The red thread is a 5-1 karayori. For Karayori the same number of threads are used in both under-twists, in a 5-1 twist this is 2.5 plus 2.5. Both sets of threads are twisted as tightly as possible before being over-twisted together. As you over-twist you can see bobbles forming like a string of beads.

The blue thread is a 5-1 katayori. Katayori is an unbalanced twist, in this case 4.5 plus 0.5. 4.5 threads are first twisted very tightly and then over-twisted with the 0.5 thread. As you over-twist a knobbly thread emerges.

The green and gold thread is also a 5-1 katayori but in this case 4 strands of silk and 1 strand of #1 gold is twisted with 0.5 silk. The same knobbly effect is achieved but with the added sparkle of gold specks.

Happy Stitching

Gold Leaf Holding Stitch

As some of the foundation stitches are quite long, they need some form of holding stitch. On this element they will be held with diagonal holding stitch. First I twist a 1-2 thread. A length of green silk used for the foundation is divided into four. Two sections are undertwisted before they are overtwisted together. The final thread is even finer than one of the original quarters as a result of twisting.



Long diagonal stitches are stitched across the entire foundation area at an angle that best ‘hides’ the holding thread in the twist of the foundation threads. The holding stitches are themselves held with short stitches in the same fine twist. This technique is similar to Bayeux Stitch except in this case the intention is for the holding stitches to hardly show. In Bayeux Stitch the holding threads are a decorative feature.

© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway

Now, I am rather excited. My Japanese Embroidery course begins tomorrow. Later today I will travel down to Bournemouth for 5 days of uninterrupted stitching heaven. Anyone who has ever been on a residential course or a stitching retreat will appreciate how wonderful it is to totally indulge yourself in doing exactly what you want without the inconvenience of work, shopping, cooking, cleaning …. The only thing that stops you stitching is the annoying problem of having to eat or sleep occasionally! This will be the third time I've been, so I am looking forward meeting up with friends and talking to others who share my passion for embroidery rather that look at me rather quizzically when I talk enthusiastically about it. The only down side is five days apart from J. His week, of course, is entirely different. He gets to do my share of the housework which includes the thing he least likes doing – cooking. I hope to blog my progress while I’m away, if I can put my needle down for long enough and I can get an internet connection at the hotel. If not, I’ll be back in a week, until then,

Happy Stitching

Gold Leaf Foundation

© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway

I was up a little earlier today, so instead of fritter my time away on frivolous housework, I put in a little stitching time. I was really keen to see how the boroyori thread would look stitched, so I made a start on the second weft foundation. I am really please with the effect. The gold twisted into the thread shows up randomly along each thread so the foundation appears to be flecked with gold.

© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway

This green is the colour that least grabbed me when I first saw the threads. I am very fond of green in many varieties. There are a few shades that I am not overly keen on, probably because I don’t know how to deal with them. I’ve said before, I am not very confident about selecting and coordinating colour. I have a colour wheel and try to follow colour wheel principles but I still feel uncertain. Anyway, back to this green. It is a very blue green, in fact in some light it looks blue to me. It is located close to the blue foundation that I stitched on Sunday, which makes that area very dark. Both of these foundations will have other stitches superimposed on top, which will alter the balance, so I am still trying to reserve judgement. That said, it is a lovely shade and looks really good twisted with the gold.

Happy Stitching

Twisted Silk

I've mentioned twisted silks a few times now, but I don't think that I have mentioned that all the silk thread comes to me as reels of flat silk, as seen in the previous post.

When the instructions call for twisted silk, it has to be twisted before it can be stitched. All the twisted foundations I have done so far call for a 4-1 twist, that is 4 strands of flat silk twisted into one stitchable thread. Two lots of 2 strands of silk are under-twisted before they are over-twisted together. When the quantity of thread in each under-twist is balanced (eg 2+2), the thread is called karayori. The blue foundation in the previous post is a 4-1 karayori.

The next foundation I will stitch is also a twisted silk foundation but this time in a twist called boroyori. This is similar to a 4-1 twist, but for this thread half a strand of silk is replaced with a strand of #1 gold (2 silk + 3.5 silk and #1 gold). This is the first time I have done this twist, it took me a couple of attempts to get the tension correct. I am too tired to stitch the foundation tonight, but I am looking forward to seeing how this will look as a stitched foundation.

Happy Stitching

Phase III - Venerable Friends with Chrysanthemum

My Phase III project arrived in the post last Saturday. Although I had finished all the stitching on Suehiro, I had a little finishing to do on her before I could remove her from the frame and begin preping Venerable Friends. The lovely design is already printed onto the silk. The Japanese Embroidery Center describe Venerable Friends as the way that we observe the knowledge and experience of our predecessors and associates through their books. Also, our favorite books, those that we read and reread, those that shape our personalities and outlook on life, come to be dear old friends.

© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway

Also in the package are the reels of flat silk for the embroidery. I’m not sure yet what I think of the colours. I don’t dislike them but they are not colours that I would have chosen myself, mainly because they seem rather dark. The 3 shades of pink for the plum blossoms are beautiful, as is the red for the chrysathemum. The other colours may grow on my but for now, I reserve judgement.

First job is to attach cotton ends to the silk so that it can be mounted in the frame. Then the silk is stretched drum tight on the frame. The cotton ends are trapped between split rods which are rotated to tighten the silk along the warp. The selvedge edges are then laced to the frame to stretch the weft. Once on the frame some elements of the design are outlined using a fine couching cotton and finally I am ready to start the real stitching (hooray).

© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway

Before I go to Bournemouth next Sunday, I want to get the foundations laid, then I can devote class time to learning new techniques. I did the first of 3 foundations today. This weft foundation in twisted silk will later have a design superimposed over it.

© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway

Happy Stitching