Friday, April 23, 2010

Nearly done! And a touch of embroidery!


The warp is almost finished! I am very pleased with the cloth and the process. The packing paper in the warp is all gone and just half a round of the warp beam is left - about a metre of weaving. Already there is enough for 6+ chairs. So maybe I haven't quite forgotten how.
I did manage to pick up a needle. My first issue of RAKAM arrived. This is an Italian embroidery magazine with some absolutely exquisite blackwork and pulled thread work in this February issue. The only drawback is that I now need to study the Italian language to get full value from the magazine. However I have had incredible assistance from some very talented Italian embroiderers on stitchin fingers Pulled Threads group. So with their help and the great diagrams I find I am not totally working in the dark.
I was very taken with piece of white work that is unlike any pulled thread I had done previously. It requires every fifth thread in both directions to be removed after an outline of the area is done in overcast stitch - a very scary operation and I was only working on a small sample. However once the threads are all successfully cut counting is much, much easier.
The satin stitch section which I think would have been sufficient on its own
Plus my not very expert dove's eyes - unfortunately I changed tack midway and thought I could substitute Greek cross. The original used dove's eyes but the difference is minimal and if I had done a better job I don't think the change would have been particularly discernible.

I like the effect but will try another sample before deciding whether or not to attempt a larger complete piece similar to that in RAKAM.
Thankyou Susan and Megan for telling me about Live Writer - I have not used it yet but downloaded the program .

3 comments:

Elizabeth Braun said...

Hi! Did you hear of 'Rakam' through my blog? I can get it off the shelf here in Taipei (amazingly enough!), but I used to get copies in Germany from the international press shops in the major railway stations. The euro title I like best is a French one called 'Broderie Traditionelle', which I can't get here. However, we will call in at Germany for a while on the way home....

This is my fave dictionary site, in case you need it with foreign lang mags.
http://dictionary.reverso.net/

neki desu said...

glad to hear you havent' forgotten how to weave- it's like riding bikes.
now we want to see that fabric

re italian may i suggest http://www.italianpod101.com/?
i'm doing the japanese and it's very effective. i'm doing the free option where you can download the podcasts and videos.
the pulled thread work is very pretty.

sharonb said...

I know I am a little late with this but I wanted to say how nice those samples look - just delicious in a restrained tasteful way