Tackling Stones And Tussocks
You may recall that when I was stitching William Marshall, I chose to use more strands of silk in the needle, and to stitch relatively calm curves and unevennesses in the ground. I wanted to suggest that William’s kinsman kept the land around the walls of his stronghold close clipped (by grazing, one presumes) so as to ensure that he could not be take too much by surprise, whether by welcome or unwelcome visitors.
Aethelflaed, of course, is visiting, in effect, a building site. She has no road, and her horse is picking its way around heaps of building stone and over grass that’s tussocky and and uneven. I gave some thought to the question of how to represent that, staying true to the aesthetic, using only silk and split stitch, but creating some of my own variations. After all, this is modern, inspired by the past, not a reconstruction of an existing piece. I have a little freedom of movement here!
So I’m using three different greens, and I’ve not increased the thickness of the silk in my needle. I’m not stitching the curves quite as regularly, and I’ve devised a way to stitch little tussocks at uneven intervals across the ground. They are just little groups of split stitch lines crossing the flows of colour, but I think they are working rather well so far.
It has only just occurred to me, however, that I may have a slight tweak to make in my process for doing them, as I come forward: they need to get bigger, cross more of the lines of colour. Do I now just put the colour in, so that small tussocks don’t compete visually with large tussocks, or do I just carry on regardless?
Now, a reminder that I shall be giving a talk for the Embroiderers Guild on June 3!
I believe I’ve turned this image into a link to the Eventbrite page, and for anyone not in the right timezone, or otherwise occupied on the day of the talk, the Guild makes recordings available for some time afterwards.
I shall remind you every week until it happens!
