Dragonfly – first trial..

I find dragonflies and damselflies absolutely enchanting. I’m not entirely sure that I’ve got the right sense of delicacy and enchantment here – the threads are a little clunky, maybe, and the metallic thread wants a conditioner or something else to protect it as I work. I wanted to use a longish thread so that I didn’t have lots of tyings-off, but that just meant more opportunity for tangles.

I outlined the body and then worked straight stitches across in a dark metallic thread. The intention was to work needlelace type stitches in the coloured thread, catching into the dark straight stitches. The idea was that that would modify the colour slightly.

It has worked after a fashion, and the feather stitch veins on the wings also work after a fashion. But not quite.

I need to think of ways to finish off the veins in the wings so the stitches don’t unravel – glue? fraycheck? enclosure?

And I think I maybe need to do it again, smaller, and using a single strand.