25 February 2014

Goldwork Bird a little progress...

I was back at embroidery class yesterday afternoon after the half term break. I am still working on my goldwork bird, I really like this design, but embroidery is a very slow process which can be frustrating at times! I have decided that it doesn't matter if I don't finish this by the end of this term, I can continue to work on it at home; it is important to me that I enjoy stitching it, learn some new skills, and I will actually finish at some point!
I have finished one side of the first pomegranate and plunged the gold passing threads to the back, I do find this part of the process difficult :(
I appliquéd some felt on to the suede body of the bird as a base for the Goldwork collar she will have; I have decided it must be a female bird with those eyelashes!
I started work on the tail feathers, a mixture of stem stitch in silk; couched gold rococco thread and my favourite - silk wrapped over stretched purl, couched in place
I also learned another new technique - block shading, similar to silk shading/thread painting but you deliberately work in blocks of colour without blending; I did find this quite hard as it was difficult for me to get a nice smooth edge, another technique that I need to work on!
I think one of the reasons that this is such a slow project, is that most of the stitches/techniques I have included are new to me, and so I have to be shown how and then practice before I can work on this piece. If nothing else, I should have learned something by the end of it!

11 comments:

  1. she is looking lovely. Thanks for including the details about the stitches and threads. I have started a crazy quilt this year and have my first block ready for the embroidery. I've been stuck at this point for a month now. I'm sure that once I put in the first stitches, I'll open the floodgates (so to speak) and i'll see more progress. Visiting with you is very encouraging.

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  2. That is just so amazing! I'm loving seeing how the prep work for the embroidery works!

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  3. Lovely work ... it is very time consuming!!

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  4. Beautiful work and thanks for the details :-)

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  5. Your embroidery looks beautiful... I do not see where you need practice :-)
    The gold thread looks quite amazing!!

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  6. Such details and wonderful work, this is going to be stunning.

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  7. Your embroidery is beautiful! Goldwork is new to me and I imagine the rest of the stitches would be too. You're doing a wonderful job!

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  8. I think it's looking wonderful. The topic for Needlequest at Sew In Love next month is Goldwork... maybe you could work on it for that?

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  9. It is beautiful. I think the variety of threads and stitch techniques is amazing. Thank you for sharing!

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  10. Am in awe of this - each time I see embroidery on blogs, it is exquisite - and yours is no exception! Wonderful how texture and shading are created with thread alone. xCathy

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  11. It's going nicely. All the silk and gold is really effective, You won't forget these techniques now you've learnt them!

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