As part of my City and Guilds course, I did cross stitch for the first time in years, and also had a go at Blackwork.
When I first read in the course notes that the next thing I had to do was counted thread embroidery, I can't say I was overjoyed. I used to do a lot of cross stitch, which I did really enjoy, but I felt that I had moved on to other things, and I wasn't sure if I really wanted to go back! But as I found out, going back doesn't necessarily mean going back for more of the same. It can also help you moved forward, just in a different direction.
Design
The course is very focussed on creating your own designs, and for this project I chose to look for inspiration in the paintings of Alfons Mucha, who was an Art Nouveau artist. I have always loved his work and Art Nouveau in general, with it's beautiful flowing lines
I chose one particular poster design that had bubbles in the background, and used this as a inspiration for my design. The next step was to translate this simple design into a cross stitch pattern. Although I had done a lot of cross stitch in the past I had never attempted my own design from scratch. I got out my graph paper and colouring pencils and got started.
Well I'd clearly made things tricky for myself, by choosing a design essentially made up of circles to try and chart it out on paper built up of squares. But hey the idea was meant to be to stretch myself, so I definitely managed that! Once the design was finished I was ready to start stitching.
I decided it would be nice to choose a coloured background, so I chose a 14 count aida fabric as I already had some in blue. I chose to use different thickness of thread to do the stitching, to add some interest. I also did some of it in half stitches, this was mainly to create a different look, but it also had the advantage of it being quicker! I had forgotten how long cross stitch takes, altogether this small piece took over 20 hours. I was also reminded of how relaxing cross stitch can be, but that you also have to concentrate, it's not called 'counted' cross stitch for nothing. Overall though, this was a great reminder of the joys of cross stitch and how I got into embroidery in the first place.
Blackwork
Next it was the turn of Blackwork. I had never tried Blackwork before, mainly because I am generally speaking drawn to more colourful designs, but that's never stopped me admiring it. It's a technique that was made popular in England by Catherine of Aragon, who was from Spain. The Spanish had borrowed this ancient technique from the Moors and Arabs, who had in turn borrowed it from the Egyptians and Persians.
For my sample of Blackwork, I used the same basic design as my cross stitch piece. I really enjoyed looking up the different pattern designs in various books, and I chose some of my favourites. I tried to choose some patterns that would create lighter areas and some patterns that would create darker areas. There are so many patterns to choose from you could never get bored!
To stitch, this time I chose a 27 count evenweave fabric. I do prefer the look of evenweave over aida, and I thought with the intricate patterns being stitched, it would need something fairly fine. Before I started stitching, I had a go at dyeing my fabric with tea. So simple, yet really effective. It gave the fabric that aged look, which I think works really well.
Once my dyed fabric had dried, I was ready to start stitching. I chose different types of threads: stranded, coton à broder and perlé of various thicknesses. I also added in some metallic thread. Metallic thread gives that extra bit of interest and sparkle, but was also used back in the time of Catherine of Aragon too.
All in all, I was pretty pleased with how it turned out, considering it was a first attempt, and I would definitely try it again. There are some really amazing modern embroideries done in Blackwork, where the patterns are used to create dark and light areas of pictures. Colour is often used no too. I can definitely appreciate the huge amount of skill that goes into making the fantastic pictures done in the interesting technique.
There are so many more counted thread embroidery techniques out there and this was not the end of counted thread for me. But I'll save that for next time!
To read more about the other counted thread embroidery techniques please click here: More Counted Thread Embroidery Techniques (claireharveyembroidery.com)
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