Jacobean Panel
This design is from a transfer I picked up in a hurry a few years ago so as to have something to stitch while on holiday. It went swimmingly for a while and then ran into a brick wall and I have only just finished it.
The threads are wool and cotton, with a little bit of rayon. I intended the panel as a companion for my Jacobean Firescreen, so the colours of teal, brown and gold more or less chose themselves. There aren’t as many overdyed threads as I sometimes use, but that allows me to experiment all the more with the stitches.
Jacobean Panel Close Up 1
Since I picked it up again, I’ve used it to play with some of the stitches which are new to me that I found in my copy of Yvette Stanton‘s Right Handed Embroiderer’s Companion. The whole thing became much more fun at that point!
So here, for example, the centre of the flower is worked in Spiral Trellis Stitch. I used a single strand, round thread overdyed in rust brown and purple, and although it was hair-raising to stitch, because I felt I was twisting myself in a spiral at the same time, I think it is rather successful. It’s not perfect, but I’ll do better another time, and I do think it looks rather good!
Jacobean Panel Close Up 2
The dark brown rather lacy stem is worked in Mountmellick thorn stitch – another new one. Here I used one strand of a three-stranded cotton yarn. I think it would look better in a slightly heavier yarn, but it was fun to do and I will use this stitch again. The calyx of the strange fruit shows two of my favourite stitches – Cable Chain and Portuguese Knotted Stem.
I’m not entirely content with either of the flowers, but as I’m not sure why I shall leave well alone. Both of them have been unpicked at least twice, and I don’t want to wear out the fabric… Still, now it’s finished, I enjoyed working this!
Adding The Fringe
I’m in the very last stages of a very long running commission here. It’s one of the reasons my reading of blogs has been sporadic of late – I’ve been working very hard on this!
Anyway, the last stage is to add fringing all around the edge – some six metres of fringing, which is why it isn’t happening all in one go – although we will need the dining room table again soon (I don’t have a studio – I only wish I did!). And I am using the pins I won in a giveaway on Karen’s blog recently – thank you, Karen, they are working very well for this!
I’ve learnt a lot from this project about managing, planning and specifying a commission. In particular, unless you can be guaranteed no disturbances, life has a tendancy to throw in the odd curve ball and suddenly progress slows to a crawl. It took over a year to find a suitable fabric that my client and I both liked, and over six months to find the fringing. Fortunately I haven’t had a hard deadline – my client wants it finished suitably and not rushed. That makes life much easier!
I also discovered that I have a tendancy not to work on what I want to work on, unless I can put forward an over-riding reason why I should. “I’m being paid” works, but so does “I want to write it up for my blog” (now I have a blog, that is!) or “I’m learning something here”. What hasn’t worked – until recently – is “I’m enjoying it”.
Still, it’s within eyeshot of being finished, now. Another day on the fringing, and then I shall take some photos from the right side before presenting it to my client. I’ll post those after she has seen it!
Stripes in canvaswork
This panel of canvaswork was originally intended to make a case for my husband’s beloved Psion palmtop computer. Alas, by the time I finished it, the Psion was no longer working.
The starting point was a wonderful Watercolours thread, graduated in shades of blue (not blue for a boy, blue for a redhead!), to which I added toning shades in soft embroidery cotton. It seems that this thread is not made any more, which I think is a pity. It used to provide a good alternative to tapestry wool, especially for those who don’t like working with wool in the summer, and – provided the right base fabric is chosen – a reasonable heavy but matte thread for surface embroidery. Almost all the threads now available are mercerised, and thus have a slight shine – but sometimes we don’t want any sheen on our stitches at all!
Stripes - Detail
I rotated through several different stitches, as well as the different colours, and made sure that the second layer in the fine Wildflower thread overlaid a different base colour each time. There were five threads (Watercolours plus four soft cotton) and six stitches, which ensured that they cycled round. The stitches I chose were Milanese, Diagonal Mosaic, Eye (not pulled), Mosaic, Rice (using the Wildflowers thread for the second layer of stitches) and Double Cross Stitch.
The full size piece shows how the position of the colour changes is different in each stitch, as well as showing the veiled effect of different colours each overlaid by the variegated thread in the different panels of Rice Stitch. For that reason it is a very interesting needlepoint panel, but I still have a completely finished and neatly-worked canvaswork sampler looking for an occupation!
Spot Sampler Fabric
I miscounted some of the stitching on the central motif of the Spot Sampler we are doing in the Tudor and Stuart Goldwork Masterclass – cue much muttering and swearing – so when I had convinced myself that I really did need to unpick it and re-stitch it, I was rather anxious. Some fabrics never recover from the first stitching, and I felt that there was a very good chance that the pulled Queen stitches would be pretty much impossible to recover. Furthermore, Queen stitch is the most difficult to unpick that I have ever had to wrestle with. Especially at this scale. I ended up using a laying tool and a seam ripper, with my heart in my mouth in case I cut something I shouldn’t.
And yet look at it. It’s hard to tell where the stitching was, and even unpicking with the laying tool hasn’t done much harm. I’m very impressed, and greatly relieved.
Same Thread, Different Stitch
I also noticed something in stitching the beginning of the bargello section I started while I was thinking about restitching the central motif. The lowest row of the bargello section and the Queen stitches just beside it are worked with the same colour. The differing light reflectance on a straight and uninterrupted stitch, in comparison with an angled stitch which is interrupted by a tyeing stitch has actually made about two or three tones difference in the colour as it appears. I knew about this effect, but it is the first time I’ve seen it demonstrated quite so clearly.
This sampler is teaching me a good many things in addition to the stitches!
A Lovely Lady
The Lady in the Garden, again came from a transfer, and was stitched as a companion to the Peacock, and a homage to Grandmama’s Lady. Unlike Grandmama, I made no effort to provide the lady with lovely graduated ruffles – if I am honest, because I really didn’t think I would finish them if I tried! Instead her dress is sprigged with flowers (in Sorbello stitch, which was rather fun!) and only ruffled around the hem.
Because I conceived of the Lady and the Peacock as a pair, I emphasised the flower colours around the lady, and worked some elements of her dress in one of the blues I used for the peacock.
Lady - Close Up
The inside edge of the bonnet is ornamented with Rosette Chain stitch, while the outside is edged with closed feather stitch. This would also have been an ideal opportunity to use bonnet stitch, but I didn’t think of it in time! I also used Rosette Chain Stitch for the ruffles on the the lady’s collar. I like to use a variety of stitches – the trick is not to use so many that the eye becomes bewildered. Using a basic stitch and its variations is one way to maintain some sense of uniformity, as is keeping a small colour palette.
The bodice is in Bokhara Couching, and the sleeves outlined in coral stitch. I’m surprised at how well this works – it should look thorny, and heavy, but somehow manages to evoke an airy gauze sleeve. How does that work?
Skirt - Close Up
The bows above the flounce of the skirts are in satin stitch, and the impression of the flounce is given by lines of chain stitch. Almost all the visual weight of the dress is at the bottom, and the airy sprigging on the skirt allows the flowers to take some of the limelight.
Again the stitching is simple – fishbone stitch for the leaves, detached chain stitch and French knots for the flowers, and as almost all the threads were variegated, I got a lot of subtle – and not so subtle! – colour variation “for free” as it were.
I had already worked the Jacobean Fire Screen when I started work on the Peacock and the Lady, and was beginning to feel that I should do some more designing for myself. I will probably still use other designers’ work, because sometimes I want to concentrate on a particular thread or technique (as in the Tudor and Stuart Goldwork Masterclass) rather than the design. Besides, who knows what else I will find in the archives to write about!
The title of this post – for those who are scrabbling around in their memory – is the first line of “Silent Worship“, written by George Frederick Handel as an aria in his opera Tolomeo, but far more popular than anything else in it. Beware if you Google it – the last time I did so the first two links were for ringtones!
As I’ve mentioned, while I continue to persevere with the silkwork (there is a limit to how long I can stitch such fine work, even with the magnifier), I’m practising the goldwork stitches on a separate cloth. I don’t want the silk catching on metal threads while I’m working it, so the best way to avoid the problem is to do no metal thread work until the silk is finished. However, I couldn’t bring myself to ignore all the interesting stitches we are promised – hence the practice cloth.
Reverse Chain With Buttonhole Edging
I can see potential to use the Reverse Chain with Buttonhole Edging in the Amarna panels, since it creates a very complex impression when seen at real size, while not being all that difficult to stitch. It looks a lot like a braid or a filagree, so might be used to represent the necklaces that the Pharaoh gave to favoured courtiers at the Window of Appearances.
Guilloche Stitch
Guilloche stitch was an entirely different matter. It didn’t seem to matter what I tried, I couldn’t keep the crossing places of the final stage neatly under the long straight stitches, and the loops wouldn’t stay neat. In fact I even had a go in cotton threads, as you can see below.
Stitches Tried In Mercerised Cotton and Pearl Cotton
The yellow is a mercerised cotton, while the orange is a fairly heavy pearl cotton. The Guilloche stitch seemed to work better in the heavy pearl cotton, which makes me wonder whether it is simply a matter of scale. The bulk of the pearl cotton makes the stitch so much more compact, whereas the gold thread on the practice cloth is much too fine for the spacing of the stitches. Note that the Reverse Chain with Buttonhole Edging looks much more braid-like with the finer, mercerised thread, where the pearl cotton almost looks like a different stitch. All of these stitches should also be easier when I’m working on the real piece which is resting on a floor frame. I’ll be able to use both hands to control the thread if necessary!
Silk Ribbon - First Stage
There is a sparkly ruffle between the cuff and the hand on the Floral Glove Needlecase, and of course we have to make it ourselves. You can’t go to your local needlework shop and say “Half a yard of Elizabethan glove trimming, please” with any prospect of success!
So the trim is composed of a length of double-sided silk ribbon, with Gold Twist and spangles whip-stitched down one edge.
The silk ribbon is wonderful stuff to play with, smooth and supple, and with just enough body not to flop. The idea is to ensure that the spangles all end up on the same side of the ribbon as each other and as the Gold Twist, and I think I managed it (not without the occasional tweak!).
Silk Ribbon Gathered into a Ruffle
Then, we run a gathering thread down the other side and pull it up to make a ruffle. It looks wonderfully exuberant, doesn’t it, and I haven’t even set it into the shape it needs to fill on the project. Tricia suggests leaving that stage until the various unseen bits of backing are all assembled and shaped, and since I need to buy some fabric glue before moving to that stage, that is exactly what I am going to do.
Completing this fairly simple task took me most of an afternoon. But then, no one ever said embroidery was quick!
I don’t like producing very long posts, so when I realised how much was going to be involved in a synthesis of the conversations about digital piracy that I had a few weeks ago, I decided to split the follow-up into two. This post is the second of those follow-ups, so there are now three posts, the original, the first follow-up, and this one.
Before describing the various business models that have been suggested, I thought I should give some idea of what is involved in producing a design chart, for those who haven’t thought of it before.
In producing a design for hand-embroidery, the designer spends hours thinking about the design, planning and re-drafting it, then working it and developing instructions for her customers to follow. If you’ve never written instructions – try it. Then give them to someone who doesn’t know anything about what you have written about and see how well they do.
It isn’t easy. In fact, just preparing instructions can take hours.
Furthermore, if a design is to be issued only as a chart, and not as a kit of materials, there are (in the UK, at least) three main thread manufacturers whose colour numbers need to be included. There are conversion charts, but I’ve often found that the results are unsatisfactory and need to be checked and corrected by hand.
Unless the designer is supported by a spouse or family, or has another job that pays the bills, all that time needs to be paid for somehow, or they will run out of money and need to do something else in order to eat.
The current business model – in essence – is that the hobbyist stitcher purchases a kit or a chart from which to work, perhaps because they lack confidence in their design abilities, effectively “outsourcing” the design work. The pricing for a kit or chart doesn’t include all the design costs because the designer or manufacturer hopes to sell a large enough number that those costs can be amortised over the print/manufacturing run. A full kit includes all necessary materials, and while they can be illicitly produced, that’s not common. A chart, however, is just a piece of paper showing the design, colour key and instructions, and is therefore very easily replicated. Indeed, a design that was never issued electronically can be scanned and saved as a PDF and suddenly that, too is online – possibly even lacking one of the crucial elements (such as the key).
The sale of charts in the form of PDFs is really a simple translation of this basic process to the web-enabled world. It has the merit of providing instant gratification (insofar as the chart is immediately available for the customer to print out and use), but there is the risk of abuse, in that others may offer the same item without paying the designer.
I was reminded, by one of the comments, that there is no copyright in the fashion industry, which nonetheless seems to be flourishing. I confess that I can’t quite see a way for the needlework world to make the same model work, since it relies on the fact that the people who buy high street copies of designer garments wouldn’t be able to afford the original pieces, but it’s a point to bear in mind. I’m not even sure what analogy one can make between sales of high street fashion and embroidery charts that would be illuminating, although I feel there should be one. Charts perhaps equate to dressmaking patterns, but certainly not to high street fashion.
In addition, as we are all aware by now, the open source movement in software has entire businesses working within it, even though the product (such as a browser) may be free. In fact, however, these businesses are selling, not software, but support. Perhaps the needlework equivalent would be workshops and courses. There are even courses being delivered online now, although the necessary precautions against illicit use of copyright material must put a significant technical overhead on them.
There were other business models suggested to me, too:
- Building a community around free designs. The suggestion is that this might even increase the size of the market by making access easier to new customers (again, there is a technical overhead here).
- Custom design – that is, individually personalised designs for individual customers (only for those with the hide of a rhinoceros – or those who can pick their customers carefully!).
- Cataloguing – the sale of temporary access to a catalogue of existing designs. This could be used to build up in effect a curated assembly of charts which would be of guaranteed quality – not something that can be said of informal file-sharers’ offerings. I think this would involve a technical overhead as well, although there may be an existing system based on those used by eBook providers.
- An honesty-based system for payment, such as flattr
- Escrowed prepayment, y similar to the way in which Mozart and Beethoven arranged their subscription concerts (which suggests that it would be most suitable for creators of art for public display)
- Creators funded by the state based on the popularity of their work (this perhaps would work for textile artists, but not for designers of kits for hobbyists to stitch at home)
- Distribute hardcopy via shops rather than via internet (this is still done, but is increasingly difficult as shops close)
If I seem to be picking holes in many of these ideas, it isn’t because I don’t believe they are good ideas or because I want them to fail. It is simply because I want to make it clear that this is going to be a really difficult problem to solve, and there are going to be artists and craftsmen and women who will suffer until a new model is created, a new market is created, or until the existing market is educated enough to realise how much work goes into the things they take for granted.
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Thanks to: Davide ‘Folletto’ Casali, Robert Bronsdon, Mace Moneta, Harleqin, Alex, Eric Larson, Ed Marshall, Philip Hunt, Posy, and Janice.
Floral Glove Needlecase - Gold Lace added
I’ve been prevaricating on the finishing process for the Floral Glove Needlecase, because it will involve glue, and I’m clumsy with that sort of thing.
I’ve worked very hard on the embroidery, I’m quite pleased with most of it, and I don’t want to fall at the last hurdle!
Finally, however (largely because I’ve been blogging about it and felt I should finish what I started!) I’ve screwed my courage to the sticking point, printed out the instructions and promised myself I would read everything twice before starting any stage of it.
That’s one of the effects I hoped blogging would achieve – providing encouragement to finish things properly. So I think we can count that as a success, can’t we!
What you see here is stage one of the fifth month’s instructions – adding the gold lace to the edge and around the tabs. This has actually been fairly simple, in that the lace has loops on the straight edge, and the whole thing is done with a single length. No joining ends to worry about, just making sure that the lace is neatly attached along the line, carefully controlled at the corners, and back-to-back on the lines separating the tabs.
I’m pleased with this. In real life it has a lovely sparkle and – yet again – the addition of further embellishment seems to have brought it to life even more.
The Peacock
I’ve only recently begun to design my embroideries entirely for myself. To begin with I took painted canvases or transfers and worked them using a variety of stitches and thread combinations, depending on what I had to hand and what aspect of embroidery was catching my attention at the time.
I was attracted by this transfer of a peacock a long time ago, in fact I think I bought it when I was still a teenager. If I had paid attention to my whims I would have bought a good many canvases and transfers of peacocks over the years. In fact there is a painted canvas that I didn’t buy that I now would, if I were to see it somewhere!
Peacock - Close Up
The fabric is a linen napkin, and the threads are a variety of silks bought when a needlework shop I worked in as a teenager closed. I got a very good discount, in gratitude for services rendered..
I didn’t actually get to begin stitching the Peacock until after I was married. He’s worked using chain stitch and heavy chain stitch, rows and rows and rows in blues and greens with a little purple in some of the eyes on his tail. I quite deliberately left some fragments unworked because it was beginning to feel rather congested, and although a peacock’s tail can look pretty bedraggled when it is closed, I wanted to bring to mind the glamour of the open tail and not the impediment of the closed one!
Gate - Close Up
Now I look at the design again, it is worked almost entirely in chain stitch and chain stitch variations. The olive green tree is worked in twisted chain, with detached chain stitch leaves.
The brick work is outlined in ordinary chain stitch, and the arch includes cable chain stitch, which is one of my favourite surface embroidery stitches. It looks much harder than it really is, produces a line which is slightly more marked than ordinary chain stitch, and can be tweaked and ornamented with French Knots or simple seed stitches inside the links.
I tried to make as much use as possible of the variation of colour in some of the threads, so the work in this piece is done by the colour variation rather than by trying to make excessive use of stitch texture changes. It is now stretched and mounted over padding and framed without glass, so that the textures and colours have the best chance of being seen, and hangs in our spare room. Whether our guests notice it is altogether a different matter!
