Mr Mabel gave me the RSN Online course Goldwork & Silk Shading for Christmas 2023 (yes, I know...). The videos are only accessible for a year, but I've been given an extension until this coming May so I'd better get on with it!
It doesn't look like much yet, but I've done all the stab stiching to secure the main and backing fabrics together, and am now ready to start the diaper-pattern couching on the lower wings. (Below the not-much-progress picture is an image of what it will hopefully look like in a few months' time; I think I posted this at the time but I doubt anyone remembers !)
This one has run into problems in that I'm having trouble with the dots - either I follow the dots, or I have nice snug couching, but both at the same time is impossible. I emailed the RSN Online department and eventually got some feedback from the tutor which basically amounted to "couch correctly, create the pattern, and ignore the dots"
And I've been doing some sampling for the hideously complicated Elizabethan plaited braid stitch on Heather Lewis' Elizabethan Beauty, which is worked in gold passing. Following her advice I tried it in perle cotton first, but here is my sample using a spare bit of passing:
And what the project looks like at the moment, complete but for that stem...
Finally got some of that Elizabethan plaited braid stitch on to the actual piece! Not easy to keep the curve even, and the gold has snapped in a few places, but on the whole not too bad.
That is going to be the subject of my next FoF....
I don't know how she did it in the stitched model, but covering the design lines which were pre-drawn on the fabric this is the space that's left and will have to do!
You could do it more tighly with a more supple thread, but not really with the passing thread. Also, it doesn't look as good all bunched up. I may just have to cover a bit of the leaves.
It's actually stitched Debby, quite a complicated process although not too bad when once you get into the rhythm. You can see how it's done here on the RSN Stitchbank - there's a video at the bottom of the page.
!)
