Hanayama - The Flower Mountain

Last month I wrote about learning Japanese Embroidery. The various techniques are taught in Phases.

For Phase I, I stitched Hanayama - The Flower Mountain. This design introduces some of the basic techniques of Japanese embroidery, including laying weft and horizontal foundations, lattice holding, Japanese knots, and couching.

© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway

Japanese Art is full of symbolism and meaning. As I learn the embroidery techniques, I am trying to learn as much as I can about the motifs that I am stitching.

Each of the five mountains contain one design element: cherry and plum blossoms; chrysanthemums; maple leaves; pine trees; and kikko (tortoise shell). These motifs symbolise the seasons; spring, summer, autumn, winter and the cosmos (eternity). I don't fully understand why the cosmos is often depticted together with the four seasons. I think that it is related to the never ending sequence of one season following another.

Happy Stitching

No. 10 Downing Street

In the spring of 2013, the Oxford Branch of the Embroiderers’ Guild will be holding an exhibition of members work. I did not manage to submit anything for the last exhibition, so I am hoping to do so this time but I am already heavily committed to other projects. In an effort to include work from as many members as possible, as well as the main exhibit there will be an additional exhibit. Every member has been asked to produce a piece of work 5 x 7 inches in dimension, in any technique of their choosing on the subject of doors. Members were asked, if possible, to submit this piece of work by the November meeting so that photographs could be shown at The Big Stitch on 1 December, 2012 at the Ashmolean Museum.

I have known about this project for a few months but, of course, did not get on with it straight away. I did not want anything to slow my progress on the Goldwork sampler! My original idea for this project was to do the Sanctuary Knocker of Durham Cathedral in gold work. When I eventually started my piece, only two weeks before the November deadline, I realised that I would not have sufficient time to do anything as elaborate as that (as an aside, see this beautiful rendition of the Knocker in Goldwork). My plan B was much less elaborate and, I thought, really simple. I decided on a representation of, perhaps, the most famous door in England, No. 10 Downing Street. A white number 10 on black silk – simples!

I found an image of the door and enlarged it so that the number 10 was an appropriate size but the image was so pixelated as to be useless. I used drawing software to recreate the digits with really sharp outlines and printed this onto thin copy paper. I wanted my embroidered digits to be as sharp as possible so rather than trace the design onto tissue paper, I used the copier paper as a template and carefully couched #4 silver thread around the outline. This looked like it was going to work well until I tore away the paper. Even though I scored the paper with the tip of my tekobari to help it tear more easily, the process pulled and distorted the stitches. Instead of perfectly formed digits the result was a mess!

© Carol-Anne Conway

I printed out a fresh copy of the design and place a small piece of tracing paper on top, then used a needle to prick holes, closely spaced around the outline. I used this pricking to transfer the design onto the silk with white pounce powder. This worked well except that I had not got the design on the straight grain of the fabric. The grain is near impossible to see through the tracing paper. The zero looked ok but the number one was clearly not upright but I was able to rectify this by hand. Again, I couched #4 silver around the outline hoping that this would give a crisp outline to my satin stitches.

© Carol-Anne Conway

I wanted the stitched numerals to look perfectly white with none of the black background showing through so I laid stitches of white silk inside the outline, working perpendicular to the direction my top stitches would follow. Finally, I satin stitched in white silk working over the couched outline.

Now, I thought that I had come up with a really simple design but I had overlooked the fact that two of the most difficult things to stitch are a straight line and a perfect circle. Any minor deviation from true sticks out like a sore thumb! I am reasonably happy with the number one but the zero – well, let’s just say it could be better.

© Carol-Anne Conway

It doesn’t look too bad if you don’t get too close.

© Carol-Anne Conway

Happy Stitching

Ortanising

orts [ɔːts]
pl n
(sometimes singular) Archaic or dialect scraps or leavings
[of Germanic origin; related to Dutch oorete, from oor- remaining + ete food]

On the first Japanese Embroidery course I attended, I collected all of my orts in a neat pile on the edge of my frame and threw them into the rubbish bag at the end of the day. Seeing me do this, a fellow student remarked that I should keep all of the silk orts and when I have enough use them to stuff my velvet pad.

I noticed that other students had ort boxes on their frames so when I returned home I made myself an origami ort box. By the time I hav finished stitching Hanayama my box was overflowing with silken scraps. In preparation for my second Japanese embroidery course I emptied the silk it into a plastic bag. It this has become one of my silly rituals to empty the ort box into the plastic bag whenever I complete a phase. There has been some overlap with the two non-phase pieces that I stitch but generally the contents of my orts box pertain to my current phase.


Some members of Stitchin Fingers started an orts jar at the beginning of the year which led me think about my bag of orts. I decided that they deserved a nicer home than a plastic bag. I found a simple jar with a plain lid to keep them in.


I noticed that the orts in the bag had formed layers that represented each phase. They tell a story of my journey and I want to try to preserve that.


Hanayama and Suehiro have become so compressed that I could not easily separate them. Phase II builds on the techniques learnt at Phase I so used the same colour silks for the blossoms and leaves on both phases. I can see some gold threads among the silk. Now I have a separate orts box for the imitation metal threads and yet another for the real gold orts.


This little bundle of threads is from Flutterbies. I expected there to be a lot more than this, especially of the blue silks. I thought that it had taken several attempts until I was satisfied with the wings of "The Blue-Eyed Boy". A quick read of the relevant blog posts showed that I had stitched three practice wings on a test fabric, which I still have somewhere, which accounted for the lack of spoilt silk in the orts bag. (I love having a record of my stitching on this blog that I can refer back to.)


The next layer is Venerable Friends. I don’t see any gold in here so I must have started a separate box by then. I see lots of orange from the big central chrysanthemum. That doesn’t surprise me, I found that very challenging. There is far less waste than from the earlier stages. This is in part because I am doing less reverse stitching as I progress but it also reflects that I am more able to reverse stitch without damaging the silk and can reuse it rather than discard it.


Ah! Did I say I was getting less wasteful of my silk? You wouldn’t think it to look at the next two layers. The first is Himotaba. I remember that I did a lot of reverse stitching on Himotaba, sometimes doing and redoing a short length of a cord several times. Silk is incredible resilient but it can only take so much abuse. There comes a point when the only thing you can do is toss it in the orts box and start again with a fresh length of silk. In addition, the way some of the cords are stitched, you inevitably pierce the silk on the back of the fabric. With the more intricate cords, the easiest way to reverse stitch is to carefully cut through the stitches and pluck out the short lengths of silk.


I didn’t do as much reverse stitching on Loving Couple as the quantity of waste silk suggests. Most of this phase is stitched using variations of short-stitch holding which is near impossible to remove without spoiling the foundation. As with some of the cords, it is simplest to carefully cut through the stitching and pluck it out. I think some of this layer consists of orts from Riches which is stitched in similar colours to some of the Ducks palette and was stitched at the same time.

One phase is missing entirely from the collection. Karahana teaches gold work and most of it entails couching long lengths of gold round and round without a break in the thread. Only a short piece at the beginning and end is wasted. There were a few more orts from some of the other techniques used but all of the real gold went into a separate orts box.


After a little reminiscing, the orts when into their new home, layer by layer. I was surprised that they filled the entire jar. I quite like the idea of having all the orts for Phases I-X in the same jar. I don’t whether to squish these down or to look for a bigger jar.


Happy Stitching

Christmas Ornament/Card

I don't really like working to a deadline. I do embroidery for pleasure and having to complete something on schedule puts me under pressure. For this reason, and out of fear of disappointing the recipient, I have never taken part in a swap ... until now.

When members of the Embroiderers' Guild forum started planning a Christmas card and ornament swap back in July, I thought that was a time frame that even I could handle. Of course, because I had plenty of time, I didn't get started straight away except to mentally plan what I wanted to do. In fact I only began to stitch in October after I purchases the bright Christmassy red silk that I wanted to use at the Alli Palli Stitching and Knitting Show.

I've been dieing to show and tell this little project but part of the fun of a swap is that the recipient does not get to see the item until they actually receive it.
Well, the swap date has arrived (in Australia, at least) and I know for certain that Elizabeth has received her ornament, I can finally blog it.

The swap called for a Christmas card and an ornament. I cheated, or was creative depending on how you view it, and made a card/ornament.


I wanted the ornament to look like a Christmas bauble. On the top half, I embroidered a design that I had learnt while stitching Suehiro. The design, called Flax leaf, is stitched over a weft foundation. On the bottom half, I attempted a design that I have not stitched before, 3-d effect. The design is stitched in 3 or more shades of the same colour. Around the centre of the bauble, I stitched a gold ribbon.


On the reverse of the bauble, I stitched the date.

When I had finished stitching the design I was feeling pleased that I had finished in good time ... until I remembered that I had to 'finish' the ornament.

I cut four circles of card - two from mount board and two from a cereal box - and two more from wadding. I laced the front and back onto the mount board using the wadding to give some padding. I covered the cereal box circles in plain fabric using PVA to secure the seam allowance to the wrong side. I then joined the front to a plain circle using ladder stitch and repeated the process for the back. This was when I realised that using PVA to secure the fabric was a bad idea. The PVA dries very hard and is extremely difficult to stitch through. I had a very sore finger to prove the point for several days!

I secured each end of a single ribbon between each pair of circles to create a hanger and stitched lengths of the same gold ribbon around the sides of the front and back to hide the join. From the remaining silk, I made a small tassel to hand on the bottom of the ornament.

Finally, I made an insert from silk paper onto which I wrote my greeting to Elizabeth.


Did you notice that when I made up the ornament, I turned the front up-side-down so that the solid red Flax design was on the bottom. When it came to it, the ornament told me that it wanted to hang this way up!

Despite the long time frame, I did not meet the dead line for posting my ornament. Fortunately, the postal service was kind to me and safely delivered it to Australia in only five days instead of the 10-12 I had expected.

I hope Elizabeth likes her ornament. I certainly enjoyed stitching it for her.

Happy Stitching

What Knot?

Knots have long been my nemisis. From the first time I encountered a French knot, I have gotten into a tangle with them and bullions simply get me in a twist.

During TAST I attempted to get to grips with both the French knot and bullion knots. In the process, I became more comfortable with both but never felt that I mastered either.

Having made some twisted threads, I decided to play a little with round knots, starting with my old adversary, French knots. French knots are formed by wrapping the thread around the needle before reinserting the needle into the fabric close to where the thread emerges. The thread is usually wrapped twice around the needle but it can be wrapped once or more than twice to alter the size of the knot.


Although I no longer get into a tangle over French knots, I still find it difficult to make them consistent.

Colonial knots are formed by wrapping the thread around the needle in a figure of eight - hence there other name, the figure of eight knot! Again the needle is reinserted a short distance from where the thread emerges from the fabric.


I usually get more consistent results with colonial knots but still do not feel that I am the boss of them.

Japanese round knots are more like colonial knots than French knots.
While forming the knot, the loop is held open with your fingers. It took me a long time to grasp this technique but once I did, I found that I could form much more consistent knots.


These knots are slightly smaller than colonial knots and, as their name suggests have a rounded shape.

A variation of Japanese round knots is the long-legged knot. These are formed in the same way as round knots, except that the needle is reinserted further away from where it emerges from the fabric and the knot is manipulated to sit at one end of the stitch.


These are slightly more difficult to control than round knots but once I understood how to hold and adjust the loop with my fingers, even long-legged knots became a little easier for me.

Happy Stitching

Let's Blog Again

Despite J’s best efforts, my computer was beyond saving; apparently the problem was the motherboard. Fortunately the hard drive was not corrupt and my photographs have been copied onto CD’s but sadly an old but very nice and familiar laptop is no more. I currently have the use of a newer and faster second-hand laptop. We are not working in complete harmony yet, the size and layout of the keyboard is different so I hit the wrong note - frequently, but we will get used to one another in time.

Following my post 'One Thread Fits All', I had a very interesting email conversation with Michael who left the following comment

I've got a question. I don't have much experience with Japanese flat silk. I have handled a piece of JEC Flat Silk that Mary Corbet sent me, but that's it.

It appears that the sugas are very slightly twisted. I haven't actually sat down with a pin and a piece of tape and figured out how many twists per foot, but it looks like they've got just enough twist that it's easy to separate the sugas (i.e., you can pick half a thread, or a third of a thread, and it hangs together well.) Is this typical of the flat silks you're using? I can't really tell from looking at the photos; even with the macro, I can't tell if the sugas are distinct, or if I'm just imagining it.

I'm thinking that this would be part of their strategy for managing the silk "flat" - otherwise, it's a hairy beast to get it into and out of the dye kettle without massive tangles.

Well I haven’t actually sat down with a pin either, but I very carefully unreeled a fresh length of silk and took a good look at it. Firstly, I have always understood that the silk we use is totally flat (that is to say that the sugas are not twisted together at all) and having examined it, I think that is the case. The problem is, it is very easy to introduce twist, and indeed the method by which we secure the tread to the awl introduces 2 or 3 twists to begin with! I then went about separating the thread into single sugas (there are 12 sugars to each thread). I purposely selected a thread that separated easily, in my experience pale thread are more obliging than darker ones.


As you can see, each sugar is very fine. The thread on the far left is DMC cotton (as it comes with 6 strands loosely twisted together), beside that is a strand of silk as it comes from the reel, then the 12 individual sugars and, on the far right, a single strand of DMC cotton. If you click on the picture for an enlargement you can clearly see that the DMC is a two-ply thread with a fairly tight twist. Each sugar is made up of many silk strands, which (I think) are lightly twisted together. I have heard that in China they use a single suga for silk painting. Now that must take some patience!

Before I go, I need to pass on some news. Most of you will already know but incase you have missed it, SharonB has moved her blog to a new blog 'Pin Tangle'. Wether you are a regular or occasional visitor to Sharon'sw blog, you will want to make a note of her new site.

Happy Stitching

Let's Twist Again

In addition to the basic twists discussed in 'One Thread Fits All' there are a number of twist variations. Only one of these is a stitchable thread - boroyori. This is a 4->i twist but instead of the even 2+2 threads I reviewed before this is a 3.5 + 0.5 twist that results in a bumpy, irregular thread.


It is a challenging thread to stitch with. You needle a large-eyed needle to recreate a sufficiently large hole in the fabric for the thread to pass through. Also the thread needs to be re-twisted during stitching to maintain the twist and bumps. The stitch I have used here is staggered diagonal so the thread appears twice a thick as it really is. I have not used this thread on any of the designs I have been taught so far so do not know which stitches best suit it, I thick the double threads somewhat detracts from the look of the thread.

The following stitches are all none stitchable threads that are couched in place. The first three are katayori and variations there of. These twist variations can be of any thickness but I have used 6 strands of flat silk as the basis for each one so that they can be compared like for like.


The basic katayori is all silk, 5.5 + 0.5. The bulk of the treads are given an tight undertwist and then over twisted with the half strand. The resulting thread is wonderfully bumpy and textured.


In the first variation, kinkarami no katayori, one of the 5.5 strands of silk is replaced by a strand of #1 gold. The resulting thread is still bumpy but has the added appeal of irregular flecks of gold running through it.


Shinkin no katayori also incoporates #1 gold but in this instance it replaces the 0.5 strand of silk that is added in at the overtwist stage. This thread has a gold core. I was not sure how I should couch this thread. Normally I couch between the bumps using a 1->2 twist in the same colour silk as the katayori but this would cover the gold thread. Instead I couched on the bumps but the fine twisted thread shows against the much loser twist of the katayori.

The other basic twist variation is karayori.


For Karayori, the two strands have an equal quantity of thread, in this case 3 strands of silk each. Each strand is tightly undertwisted before they are overtwisted together resulting in an even bobble like a string of pearls. My 'pearls' have relaxed too much here and it looks more like rope.


This is a smooth version of karayori. The tread is only lightly undertwisted but tightly overtwisted. The resulting thread has a smooth almost glassy texture.


Here are all the couched threads together for comparison.


Here I have left a tail of thread uncouched to show it in its original state, although the twists have relaxed slightly.

You can click on all of the pictures to see an enlargement that show warts and all!

Happy Stitching

One Thread Fits All

I’m often asked what threads we use for Japanese Embroidery. The short answer is (excluding the metallic threads) we only use one thread – Japanese Flat Silk.

The real answer is a bit more complicated. The silk comes on 60 meters tubes of flat silk. One strand of silk is made up of 12 suga (filaments). For optimum shine the silk is used flat, strands can be split for finer threads or combined if a thicker thread is required. The thread can also be twisted.


The above photo shows a tube of flat silk, a variety of threads, twisted and flat and (laying across the silk) a strand of DMC floss.


The first three threads from the left are all flat silk – half a strand, 1 strand and 2 strands. The next five threads are a regular twist – 1->2, 1->1, 2->1, 3->1 and 4->1 (the first number is the number of strands used to make a single twisted thread, e.g 4->1 is four strands twisted together to make one twisted thread). The final two threads are a 3->1 soft twist and (on the far right) a 1->1 S-twist.


The stitched samples above show the relative thickness of a different number of strands of flat silk and the coverage when used to stitch a foundation.

From left to right: 0.5 strands, 1 strand, 1.5 strands, 2 strands and 2.5 strands.


This sample shows the relative thickness of the twisted threads and the coverage when used to stitch a foundation.

From left to right: 1->1 twist, 2->1 twist, 3->1 twist, 4->1 twist and 3->1 soft twist.

Note that the 3->1 soft twist looks as full as the 4->1 regular twist and gives fuller coverage even though it uses fewer strands of silk. The tighter the twist the finer the finished thread.

I have not used the 1->2 twist in these samples. This very fine thread is usually used to couch other threads or for diagonal holding stitch. Nor have I used the thread on the far right, 1->1 S-twist, this thread is used for Japanese round knots or long-legged knots.

Happy Stitching

Gilt Sylke Twist

(Trumpet salute)

About two weeks ago, The Embroiderer’s Story finally announced that Gilt Sylke Twist is available for purchase. Currently there is only a limited supply available in just 5 of the colours used on the jacket - Redde, Carnacion, Bisse, Graie Blewe, and Grene. Some of these colours are limited edition and will be replaced by a permanent colour series when more is manufactured. The price is $25 for 35-meters, $5 of which goes to Plimoth Plantation as a donation to the jacket project.

There are some things in life that a girl simply has to have, even if she doesn’t have an immediate plan for it. For me, this thread falls into that category. As soon as I read the announcement, I placed an order for one cone of each colour and a couple of days ago I received my first cone in the post.

I am now the proud owner of one cone of Gilt Sylke Twist - Redde.


Words do not describe how pretty this thread is and pictures do not do it justice. It positively glimmers. Coincidently, the Redde is almost the same shade as the fabric on which I am working my Karahana.


There seems to be a strawberry fever spreading throughout the blogs at the moment which gives me an idea for my Redde GST!

Happy Stitching

Persian Flower Challenge - 2

At first I thought that I would embroider the petals in bright jewel colours but when I was selecting threads as usual I went for the safe option. I am always hesitant with colours and rarely take risks with them.


These are the blue silks that I used for The Blue Eyed Boy and I chose them because I like their similarity to the denim. I have other things planned that I hope will lift the design but I still think that I should have taken a bolder approach.


Happy Stitching

Persian Flower Challenge

My Nan had a birthday book, much like a diary but not specific to any year. For each day there was personality description. I always thought the description on the day I was born fitted me perfectly. Among other things, it said that I would make elaborate plans that I would not carry through. So true! It is not that I am unreliable, if I make a commitment to someone else, I will honour it. It is more because I make far too many plans, and too elaborate plans to fit them all in. Something’s gotta give.

I keep old clothes and fabric remnants that I am going to do something with. I collect patterns and instructions for projects I am going to make and I see challenge after challenge that I want to join in with. There simply is not time for all of it.

Some time ago I kept an old denim skirt that cried out to be made into something else. Many months ago I saw a pattern for a handbag that I simply had to make and several weeks ago the Hand Embroidery Group began a new design challenge that featured a Persian Flower design that I really wanted to join in with. Suddenly I had an aha moment. I could embroidery the Persian Flower onto the flap of the handbag that I could make from the denim skirt.

The design is traced onto tissue paper and transferred to the denim by back stitching along the key lines with fine pale thread. As the first layer of stitching will cover each petal there is no point transferring the details at this stage.

I wanted the centre of the flower to look raised so have padded it with three layers of padding cotton and one layer of white silk. As the silk will be covered with the final stitching, this may seem extravagant, but the silk will smooth out the cotton padding and will look better than the cotton if there is any show through (which there will be).


This is not a raised as I would have liked but I’m not going to redo it. I thought that it needed jazzing up a bit and also thought that the long stitches would benefit from some couching so that they would not get caught so easily.


Again, this is not as regular as I would have liked but it was not easy stitching through I layer of calico, 1 layer of denim, 3 layers of cotton padding, 1 layer of silk and a layer of imitation silver metallic thread.

Happy Stitching

Shibori no Hana, Rose

The rose was more difficult to make than the flower in the first class but not as difficult as the pansey. I have used the same colour ribbon that I used for the first flower but this time I used the other side as the 'right' side. The method of producing the ribbon means that on one side the peaks are colour A and the valleys are colour B, but on the other side the colour way is reversed, so although both sides are same colours, the tonal effect is different. Also the tone changes depending on how much you steam out the ribbon; the more relaxed the pleats, the more colour B shows.


I have a short length of this colour ribbon remaining with which I will try to fashion a bud.

I have really enjoyed making these ribbon flowers but don't yet know what I will do with them!

Happy Stitching

Shibori no Hana, Pansy

I found the second flower in the class, a pansy, more of a challenge. Something about the construction confounded me but if a thing is worth doing, ...



... it's worth persevering with.

Re-reading the instructions today, I can see that I missed some information that would have helped with one step. I'm really enjoying working with these shibori ribbons. Isn't that colour combination stunning?

Happy Stitching

Shibori no Hana

One day I would like to do SharonB’s on-line class "Develop a Personal Library of Stitches". I don’t feel I can commit to such an intensive class yet and I have never done an on-line class before, so I thought it would be a good idea to do a short class as a taster. Looking at the classes on offer at Joggles, "Shibori no Hana" caught my eye and I signed up. The class began the day after I returned from Cambridge but my supplies did not arrive until Monday this week. The shibori silk ribbons are delicious. The actual ribbon is about 5 inches wide but the arashi shibori reduces the width to about half an inch. By gently steaming and gently teasing out the ribbon you can relax the pleats and the ribbon gets wider. The ribbons are dyed, discharged and over dyed to give a two-tone effect and being silk, the colours are glowing. You can see how the ribbon is made here.

In lesson one I learned how to make a leaf and a simple flower. I found the instructions simple to follow and was able to create a flower that resembled the one pictured on the instructions.


Take a look at these beautiful flowers created by Shibori Girl.

Happy Stitching

Butterfly Challenge, Close up

Butterfly Challenge

The hand embroidery group that I’ve joined began a design challenge in April. The idea was that we all embroider the same design but interpret it in our own way. We could use any technique, style, materials and colour scheme; the only rule was that it should be predominantly hand embroidered. The design chosen by the group was a butterfly with flowers.


The body is satin stitched silk over two layers of cotton padding. For the antennae I made a Karayori twist from the very dark blue silk used for the body, together with a black metallic thread. I couched them in place with a single strand of the metallic thread.

The wings are embroidered with a Japanese stitch called Lattice Holding. First a foundation is worked in flat silk. The lattice is formed with a fine twist in the same shade and couched where the threads cross with a pale pink metallic thread. I made a Katayori twisted thread with the same silk and pale pink metallic to couch along the edge of the lattice area. I then outlined the whole of the wing with twisted silver using stem stitch and outline stitch.

The flowers are stitched in a selection of Mulberry silks and a little Thread Gatherers silk ribbon. I’ve used stem stitch and double detached chain stitch for the sprigs of leaves. Some of the flowers are chain stitch with colonial knots for the center. The silk ribbon flowers have a glass bead center. The remaining flowers were a personal challenge. I have never had much success with bullion knots but I wanted to work the remaining flowers in this stitch. I took a look at SharonB’s Stitch Dictionary before I attempted them to get a clear impression of how they should be worked. I am very pleased with my effort. I couple are a little loose but the others are perfectly respectable bullions. These little flowers have French knot centers.

Finally, I added a few gold seed beads.

I have really enjoyed this challenge. It has been great fun to see how others have decided to work the design.

All the designs completed so far can be seen here.

Happy Stitching

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