Final Assessment Piece!

Updated: Jun 19, 2023

For my final assessment piece, I chose to do something a little different to my other assessment pieces. This time, I was inspired by the Italian Embroidery I had researched earlier in the course.

Final assessment piece close up for city and guilds hand embroidery. Reticello background with Aemilia Ars wired needlelace flowers

The brief for this final piece was to create a 'show stopping' piece to attract people to a particular area of a national craft event. So quite vague, and there were no requirements on the techniques to be used, so pretty much a free rein!

As I had done my last two assessment pieces as stumpwork, I chose to go down a different route this time, although with a little stumpwork included for good measure! I loved researching Italian embroidery earlier in the course, so I thought this was a good opportunity to design my own piece inspired by the reticello and Aemilia Ars embroidery I fell in love with for my final assessment piece.

Designing

First step was to design the piece. If it was going to be a 'show stopper' then it couldn't be too small, otherwise no one would see it!

Gelli print that inspired my final city and guilds hand embroidery assessment piece

I started looking through my design work from earlier in the course and found this Gelli print I made, using toilet rolls and a flower shaped paper punch, and thought this might be a good starting point.

Initial design for city and guilds hand embroidery assessment piece

The Gelli print then got drawn up to create this design. You see how the circles have come from the original print, then I chose to keep some of the smaller flowers, but replace some with some larger ones, then decided to add in a butterfly to create extra interest.

Sampling

The next step was to choose the materials and do some sampling of techniques.

Reticello sample for city & guilds hand embroidery assessment piece

Although I had tried reticello before, I had never attempted a circle, so that was something I definitely needed to practice! This sample is far from perfect, but I learnt a lot from doing it, and was much better prepared for embarking on the actual piece. This was never something I ever really did before I started the course, but it's certainly something I will continue into the future, as it's worth every minute spent.

Materials prepared for city & guilds hand embroidery assessment piece

As I love using hand dyed fabric and threads, I got my green dye out to transform the background fabric and threads. Then I got to ordering some DMC special dentelles, to use for the flowers and leaves. I, as usual, over ordered, but then settled on these colours, as I thought they went well with the background colouring.

Starting to stitch

First of I needed to work on the background.

Background with threads withdrawn for city and guilds hand embroidery asessment piece. Green reticello background

This was the scary stage! Cutting out the circles and withdrawing the threads can be daunting, but once you get started, it's not so bad. I did cut a few wrong threads, but once the bars were wrapped it, I don't think anyone would be able to tell.

Reticello background complete for city and guilds hand embroidery final assessment piece

I do love wrapping the bars, I just find this stage so relaxing. Once that was done, it was time to put the stems of the flowers on.

Needlelace leaves and flowers added to green reticello background for city and guilds hand embroidery final assessment piece

Next step was to make the needelace leaves and the small flowers. This is when it starts to take shape.

Working the Aemilia Ars style wired needlelace petals

The petals of the large flowers were worked in wired needlelace.

Making up the Aemilia Ars style needle lace flowers

Stumpwork butterfly wings for city and guilds hand embroidery assessment piece

And then stitched together.

The separate elements of the butterfly were wired and stitched onto organza.

Final city and guilds hand embroidery assessment piece. Green reticello background with Aemilia Ars style needle lace flowers and blue stumpwork butterfly

Finally it was all put together and the finishing touches were added, and I laced it onto a mountboard ready for framing.

The completed piece

I knew this would take quite some time, as the techniques I had chosen are all very time consuming, and all in all it took around 163 hours!

Completed final assessment piece for city and guilds hand embroidery. Green reticello background with Aemilia Ars style wired needle lace flowers and blue stumpwork butterfly.

With my final assessment piece, it was time to finish off the course. You can read about that here: Finishing the course (claireharveyembroidery.com)