Branching out.

Sorry I have not posted for a while. I have however been busy stitching. Before Christmas I had lots of work from The Royal School which used lovely silk threads, they catch all over your fingers but it is a treat to use them. I also had a lovely commission from a friend of four brooches. Two were ones you have seen before but here are the other two. Such original ideas, it was a fun job. Other pictures are brooches and a new idea of embroidered rings. These are work in progress. Enjoy.

A silk shaded poppy brooch. The backing fabric was a beautiful shot black and blue silk from James Hare Silks. The long and short was worked in stranded cottons. A few french and bullion knots give some texture. 5 cms.

Brilliant idea for a brooch for my friends daughter. Beaded bun, silk lettuce, felt tomato and cheese, shaded french knot burger all on a silk gingham background. 5cms.

I am keeping this one for myself, satin stitch and beads on silver plated adjustable ring.

Embroidered rings. Space dyed thread used for satin stitch, metal thread embroidery for the centre and tiny glass beads. Silver plated adjustable setting.

A different style brooch, this one based on 17th century black/red work. This style was not geometric pattering but a seeding embroidery often worked in crewel wools with metal highlights. I have used wool, stranded cottons, silver spangles and silver rococo/ check thread. These silver threads will tarnish over time but hopefully not for a while yet.

Crewelwork brooch. Long and short thread painting and seeding on orange silk with stem stitch . 5 cms.

Jacobean style leaf worked with stranded cottons, stem stitch filling and french knots. 5 cms.

Silk shaded oak leaf. Stranded cottons on a flat silk.

Silk shaded oak leaf with silver passing thread.

Embroidered rings . Satin stitched in space dyed threads with antique beads on silk.

Blue tit silk shading.

 I am at home for Christmas I have taken a few photos of old work to share. This little blue tit was a present for my mum about 15years ago. I think it took about three days to complete. All worked in stranded cottons except the branch which was painted. Not the best photo as it is through glass but I thought it worth posting.

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.

Silk shaded thistle brooch.

This little thistle was embroidered on a beautiful Campbell tartan silk. I used stranded cottons but felt they needed highlighting as the tartan was quite dark so I added some metallic thread stitches.

Silk shaded beetle.

I like a challenge, I especially like to challenge myself ! So I did, with an amazing photograph that I found on Pinterest. Usually I prefer to design my own embroideries but I just wanted to do a photo realistic embroidery.
         I loved this beetle mainly because of the colour and I decided to do it justice by embroidering it the size of my palm. So quite big, especially in this technique. Long and short stitch in stranded cottons. The challenge for me was to get the shine on the body of the beetle to give it a three dimensional effect without padding it.
          I added a little specimen tag with my name and date in an aged look paper. I think I quite like this one!!
 

Long and short embroidered blue beetle. Stitched with stranded cottons on a silk dupion background. Total height of embroidery 15cms. 48 colours of anchor and DMC thread used.

Close up of body embroidery. I added the tiny dots of colour at the end.

I am a messy worker as this picture shows !! I never line my threads up in a row. All 48 colours in a lovely big bundle.

 

Pansy stumpwork silk shading.

Long and short embroidered pansy stumpwork.

Close up of the centre of the long and short pansy.

This pansy was embroidered in long and short stitch with stranded cottons. I used a very fine linen backing and couched wire around the individual petal edges which was then covered in the long and short stitch. The petals were all then cut out and the edges turned back and stitched. Having wire on the edges under the stitching meant that I could manipulate the petals so they are curved. The stem is covered millinery wire. I had hoped the pansy would have a more delicate feel to it so next time I may paint part of it and add some stitching to that.

Silk shading on a necklace.

This was a little silk shading sample I did for a necklace. The necklace blank was really narrow so it was a bit of a squeeze to stitch. The embroidery is only one centimetre wide. The little acorns are french knots and satin stitch with stem stitch for the branches. All worked in one strand of stranded cotton. I mounted the embroidery on vilene but I think I will use thin mount board next time so I can stretch it tightly. I can see a few wrinkles on this one!!

Thistle.

This little thistle was part of a recent commission. It is in a slightly heraldic style with long and short leaves and flower head with extra straight stitches for all the spikes. All worked in stranded cotton. It looks shiny as the lengths are kept very short for working. Frustrating as you only do a few stitches of each colour but vital to keep a good sheen on the thread.

Thistle stitched in long and short with stranded cotton on silk dupion.

20 years of silk shading at the Royal School.

Last month I celebrated 20 years of working at The Royal School. I still love embroidery now as much as I did when I started as an apprentice . Of all the techniques that I have learnt my favourite one is long and short silk shading. It is also the one that I was most apprehensive about and as a teacher it is also the one that I find students are most keen to master. All I can say is practise, practise, practise!!

This was my first attempt at silk shading, a wild dog rose. I can see many mistakes in it, the edges of the rose are very uneven and the turnovers on the petals are unshaded and very heavy. I also padded them which I think is unnecessary . A three dimensional effect should be achieved just by the shading. I used just anchor stranded cottons for this worked on a flat silk background.

I was pleased with the leaves though, I tried to include blemishes in the leaves and picked some actual leaves to copy as I worked. 

This silk shading I really enjoyed a green woodpecker, although again I would do it very differently now. I stitched this in the second year of my apprenticeship so felt more confident at long and short. I used anchor and DMC stranded cottons and worked on a very fine linen background. 

Rosie the cat. A companion piece to Lonnie which I talked about in another post.I enjoyed Rosie more , I think as I learnt so much from the first piece she seemed much easier to work. Her eyes were harder though, they were huge and she really liked to stare. I think I managed to capture her character and her stripes!! 

A close up of the long and short showing the many colours used. 

Another close up of her fur. 

My latest long and short stitch piece a crewel work embroidery. The long and short was worked in medici wools on a calico backing . I then edged the whole embroidery with silver pearl purl number 1.This is a real metal thread which is coiled like a spring , you pull it slightly apart to stitch it down. This one contains a small amount of silver which will tarnish over time. I then cut out the embroidery to wear as a brooch. Embroidery is not just for pictures. 

Silk shaded cat embroidery

Painting with the needle. This cat is embroidered in long and short stitch using a combination of Anchor and DMC stranded cottons on a dupion silk fabric. Traditionally this technique would be worked with silk but with the amount of colours I used the cost would have been huge.

I am lucky enough to work at The Royal School of Needlework. I was one of the embroiderers who worked this beautiful crest. It looks like it has been worked in silk but actually it is stranded cotton, in long and short stitch.
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