After my struggle with Goldwork Embroidery the first time round, the thought of having to do more, certainly did not excite me, it was more like a feeling of dread. However, this time I was determined I wasn't going to be beaten.
With my new found determination to crack Goldwork embroidery, I ordered some finer Jap thread, this time I used a T72 for the Or nué and outlined it with the K4 that I had tried to use last time. This was a game changer! So I still didn't find it easy but using the finer Jap certainly did help. I used tweezers to try and get the folds in the Jap as neat as possible, still not perfect, but definitely an improvement on last time.
Keeping Going
After the first sample was complete, it gave me confidence to keep going. This time I thought I'd mix in a bit of long and short with a gold thread edge, which is something I had seen when looking at historical examples. I was actually really pleased with how it turned out!
So I continued, and experimented using some silver Jap alongside the gold and got the hang of the kid leather padding. Again, I tried the basket weave technique, it was far from perfect, but I would say a vast improvement on my first attempt, so as far as I'm concerned that counts as a success. And then I only needed one more traditional style sample!
Last but not least I thought I'd try out a different type of design. When researching historical goldwork embroidery designs, I'd come across this circular design, so I thought I do a repeat pattern of this to try out the different techniques.
This final sample includes plenty of couched Jap, couched pearl purl and twist, gold plate and kid leather. I do love the couched trellis patterns found in Crewelwork, so I tried out a simple version here in Jap.
All in all, I was happy and relieved to have finished these samples. I felt like I had conquered Goldwork Embroidery! Is it one of my favourite techniques? Certainly not, but I'm no longer scared of it. I don't think I'll ever do much in the future, but I have since couched some Jap in one of my stumpwork pieces! It was definitely a good lesson in perseverance and determination, not to let it beat me, and I can feel confident that if I did want to include a bit of glitz into one of my pieces, that I could do so.
Next time I'll be telling you about a technique that I find much more enjoyable - needlelace! To read about that please click here: Getting Into Needlelace (claireharveyembroidery.com)
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