Custom requests.

I love it when people have their own ideas for pieces of jewellery. Some can be a challenge, but who doesn't love a challenge? Here are some I have done in the last few months.
     The peacock range was made for the Royal School of Needlework shop to coincide with their Peacocks and Pomegranates exhibition. Details of that on their website. I have not made any pomegranate pieces yet but I'm working on it. I think I am much more drawn to the peacock colours , so they got first look in.

A lily of the valley silk ribbon and silk appliqué necklace. I really wanted to get the effect of the little flowers being like little round bells and quite three dimensional. I think I have achieved it.  

This large silk shaded brooch was done for a lovely mum on Mothers day. Her name ? Iris. Stranded cottons on a white silk backing. 5cms diam.

Close up of the colours, as the flower was so small I had to use stronger colours than I would use on a large project to enable me to get enough shading into a small amount of space.

Three necklaces with the letter G and two silk ribbon roses. Silver rococo thread and sequins make up the letter. 

 

The backing of this brooch is a silver lurex/silk mix which does not really show up in the photo, it really shimmers! Some fabric painting, sequins, beads and freestyle stitching finish it off.

Close up of a silk appliqué necklace with space dyed threads. 

Three peacock silk appliqué necklaces.

Silk appliqué and metallic threads bangle. 

Another initial , this one with three roses and a contrast colour on the sequins.

Close up of the silk roses and silver rococo threads

A freesia and buds in silk ribbon on a wonderful blue silk. 

A large brooch of two ginger toms. A little amount of fabric painting then alot of stripes. I had to do some editing to make the embroidery design simpler than the photographs I was given, but I think it has made the image more striking and therefore a better piece of jewellery.

Bits and blanks.

Some more jewellery pieces. Some new ones for me ; bangles and cufflinks .
        I buy my blanks in bulk from China. This is always a risk as it can be very hard to see the quality, some are great like the blossom bangle below. Others not so much, such as the atomic bangle I made for myself.

A thistle commissioned brooch, I would have probably put a leaf or third bud on this one but the brief was VERY specific. Long and short stitch thistles.I have added some purple metallic thread on the very top of the flower to catch the light. The backing is Campbell tartan silk from James Hare Silks. 

 A snowflake inspired small brooch. Stitched in silver machine thread with a Swarovski crystal centre.  

A cherry blossom bangle, now for sale in my shop. I will be making lots more bangles as I think they are a lovely way to wear embroidery as the person wearing it can also enjoy the embroidery. 

This metal blank was not good value for money, it is really lightweight and the corners are so sharp they catch on your clothes. I cannot use these in my shop so they will all be made up for me like this one. My favourite colour in a space dyed thread , satin stitch circles with antique Italian beads. 

     

Tiny cuff-link snowflakes commission. Machine thread with mini 2mm sequins and glass beads from Prague. The backing is a navy and black shot silk. 

Brooch commission.

Not posted for a while as been very busy, with work luckily. One of my lovely students that I taught last year at The Royal School commissioned me to work a number of brooches for her. A very exciting project . A few of them are shown below. All of them with very tight briefs , which sometimes I think is much better. Exact colours of silk backgrounds were asked for, and as an embroiderer I of course have every imaginable colour in my stash!!! The holly design was the hardest to work as it was so small but needed lots of shading for it to look realistic. So thank you to S , I know you read this blog . I enjoyed every minute of working them for you.

The brief for this one was just, black and white. My vase embroideries are always popular so I thought a black and white one would be interesting to work. I used a black silk thread and tiny glass beads from Prague. 2 inches dia.

 Two Autumn leaves in silk shading. Worked on a silk dupion. 2 inch dia.

 The tricky one !!! Two inch size again but it needed three leaves to balance the design which meant small stitches. 

 Pansies are one of the best flowers to silk shade as there is not much of an angle change and lots of dramatic colour changes. 2 inch diam.

 Another leaf this time I made it a little more orange. 1 inch dia.

Bundle of brooches and 10,000 views.

Here is my latest selection of brooches. My needles are hot right now !!
       Before I make any more I am going to decide on my next large embroidery project. Although I would love to do another silk shaded giant embroidery I think it would be good to do a different technique. Either blackwork or appliqué. Watch this space.
      I am also thrilled to see I have had over 10,000 views of my blog. I know this is a very small amount in the world of blogging but it is huge for me. So thank you to everyone who follows me or just checks in every now and then. Also thank you to everyone who comments on my posts. It makes me feel that I am not just writing to myself.

Polka dot pansy. Silk shading long and short with a beaded background.

Beads and sequins.

Another oak and acorn crewel work . I just love doing them.This time on a floral printed background.

Drawing straight onto the silk fabric with my silk thread. No design on there just sketching away with my needle. Try it !!

No traditional colours here for this crewel work. Cerise meets lime and turquoise.

Wool trials.

This little ( 5cms) brooch was an opportunity to try out my new wools from the wonderful Hand Weavers Studio based in North London.

            I used four acid colours for the long and short stitching and a stranded cotton for the Portuguese knotted stem stitch. All the colours were named so I used a worsted lime and lemon size 28 which were my favourite to stitch. Next sunshine worsted size 16 slightly thicker and stronger. Finally tan was polo merino which was very soft and had a lovely sheen but not as strong. All these wools are very fine and I did just use one strand of each but it's nice to experiment with new threads.

           I added the knotted stem stitch in stranded cotton as it is one of my favourite embroidery stitches. I usually need no excuse to use it !

            The backing was a silk dupion shot with purple and turquoise.I love the contrast between the matt wool and shiny silk.   

Close up of long and short stitch and Portuguese knotted stem stitch.

Finished long and short brooch. 5cms.

   

Prawn Star appliqué.

This little prawn started out as watercolour sketch while holidaying in Spain. My gorgeous friend Anne bought a kilo of prawns and patiently waited for me to assess everyone until I found the prettiest. I promised to make an embroidery from the watercolour so here it is.
         A few layers of felt padding on a white paisley printed background started it off. I thought the paisley shapes echoed the prawn outline. I used a pale orange silk for the main colour of the prawn and then built up layers of colour with old scarves in pink and red. As they were transparent it meant I could achieve a watercolour effect. Aqua and orange polyester threads were used to give the ink sketching effect. I had tried black but it seemed too harsh for the embroidery. Finally I hand quilted parts of the background to give interest.
       A relatively free style embroidery, it really felt as if I was drawing with thread as I added the detail. I think I will translate a few more of my watercolour sketches into embroidery.

Watercolour and ink sketch

Appliqué prawn and hand quilted background fabric.

Detail of the sketched effect created with polyester threads.

Detail showing the fabrics layered up to give subtle shading.

Seaside embroidery

This little starfish I embroidered ages ago. I wanted it to really 'grab' surfaces so there is a really fine florists wire under the edges. The base is a machine embroidered sateen with velvet discs french knots and various surface stitches. The background is a beautiful Japanese paper that a student gave me as a gift.