Jo's Goldwork

[Steam.Jo]

Having admired Mabel's wonderful Goldwork I decided to try my hand at some of my own.

I understand that this should be done on tight as a drum fabric either on a deep hoop or a slate frame. I am not a great lover of hoops but I will give them a go



So a small 6" and a larger 10" hoop bound using 1" bias binding. By the time all that extra thickness has been added there is not much left on the hoop tightening screw. If necessary I will make a longer set of screws.

And in case I don't get on with them I picked up a home made slate frame the other day which now has a new set of 4 frame pins (and a spare)



The holes in the frame are tapered so the new set of pins are also tapered to match. This has the advantage that they will press in and hopefully stay there. In the heads of the pins are cross holes. I have yet to decide if these are for a secondary securing to the frame or just there to put a loop of thread through so that they can be held together with the frame.

It strikes me as very wide (18" of usable space) when much of Goldwork is rather smaller

Jo

[Steam.Jo]

I have purchase a couple of kits to "have a go with instructions":



I thought I would start by trying out one of the bees on the Flower and Bumblebees kit on a bit of spare fabric.

All the Goldwork books mention mounting your bit of work fabric on a piece of calico, so off I went and found my one bit of calico. In the kit I found What I would (unkindly) consider to be cotton bedsheet fabric. When I do quilting we are advised not to use any fabric heavier that 150gsm cotton for backing because if you get it long arm quilted the heavy fabric puts a load on the sewing machine throat. The only reason I can see for using calico is it is cheap. I have lots of spare quilt backing fabric that strikes me as a better choice ... Mabel could you confirm?

The piece of top fabric in this kit is also cotton. For some reason I thought the in fabric for doing this is silk and in the previous post you can see on the left a box full of pieces of silk, mainly hand woven 100% silk dupion large off cuts, which cost about the same as buying a piece of calico.

More decisions before I can start dressing a frame

Jo

[Mabel Figworthy]

Here's to a lot of enjoyment on your goldwork journey of discovery!

Can I offer a couple of comments based on what you've written?

Fabric - Goldwork definitely needs backing fabric, whatever your main fabric is, because besides giving strength it is helpful to have an extra layer when oversewing plunged ends, so you can pick up the backing fabric only and not poke through the main fabric. Does it matter what fabric you use? No, not really. If your main fabric is very lightweight, use something a bit heavier, if your main fabric has a good bit of weight to it you can get away with something lightweight. I have in the past used old pillowcases, although you do need to make sure that the fabric still has structural integrity and isn't actually disintegrating.
What you use for your main fabric is entirely up to you. I love silk dupion because it sets off the metal embroidery so beautifully; in fact I started the umbrella-and-parasol pair on cotton but felt that just didn't do the stitching justice so started over again on silk dupion. But I can imagine projects where a different fabric works too: I did a little silverwork lamb on doeskin fabric, and the precious heart brooches are worked on faux suede because I like the contrast between the matt suede and the shiny metal.

Hoops - I like hoops, and when bound you can get pretty good tension certainly up to an 8" hoop, and I've used a 10" one to good effect as well. I only ever bind the inner hoop, because I never stitch anything so large that it requires the hoop to be moved over previously stitched areas (not that you'd do that with goldwork anyway), and I've had goldwork projects in a hoop for months on end without having to re-tighten. They are idea for smaller projects, for which you wouldn't bother dressing a slate frame.

Slate frame - as you said, and I mentioned in my hoop comment, for a lot of small goldwork projects a slate frame is overkill; generally I would choose the slate frame if it needed more than a 10" hoop, or if it was much taller than wide (or much wider than tall), that is to say it doesn't really fit into a round hoop, or if it was likely to take a long time. Slate frames do deliver great tension, and although dressing it takes time, once it's dressed you're done for the rest of the project.
Bear in mind that you don't have to use the entire space available on a slate frame. You don't want the lacing to be ridiculously long, but on an 18" frame I can't see any problem with having a 10" width of fabric; and the height can be as shallow as you like, it's just that you'll have bits of side bar sticking out top and bottom.

Sorry for the lecture, I hope some of it helps!

[Steam.Jo]

Thanks Mabel, that is just what I needed to know.

So a piece of new bedsheet 10" square (too small next time must be bigger than the larger hoop ), bound over the edge. Then find a scrap piece of silk and using a light plate thingy with a heat erasable pen transfer the outline:



Turn the LED light off and an outline:



The piece of silk is actually more near a Purple colour than the blue the camera has captured I could not find a DMC or Anchor colour to match but The Purple used by Cadbury's on their Chocolate bars is the closest I could find.

Stretch the backing fabric on the larger hoop (yes still too small a piece of backing fabric ) Having pinning it tight using silk needles, tack the silk on to it:



Trying to make sure the tacking stitches are outside of the 6" of the smaller frame.



Its drum tight so that is something But must finish Sunshine before I get carried away and then there is also that Wispa bar I found while trying to match the colour that looks like it might need eating .

Jo

[Mabel Figworthy]

Just a quick tip about applying your main fabric to the backing fabric, for when you come to the real thing - the advice is to have the backing fabric slightly slack when applying the top fabric, and then stretch them taut together. That way there is less chance of puckering when you take the fabric out after completing the project. I wrote a bit about it here.

[Steam.Jo]

Thanks Mabel, it is always useful to have someone with experience looking over your shoulder

I have just read through your notes and, while the various books I have brought go into great detail about how to bind a hoop, their description of putting the backing and the top fabric together is worded a long the lines of: "Place the calico on the lower hoop, put the top fabric on top of the calico and top the top hoop on to tighten the frame to get a drum like tension."

The only description I can find for attaching the top and backing fabric is in Hazel Everett's book when she talks about "working in a hole" where the top fabric does not reach the stretching frame and she joins the two piece of fabric using a short running or back stitch.

The pure silk is so much more stretchy that the cotton fabric Another point to note is the need to align the weaves on the top and bottom fabric so when you stretch the fabric they both give in the same directions. I don't (yet) have any silk embroidery threads but I do have some Rayon machine embroidery threads so I will either use those or the DMC threads for infill.

Still trying to be good and not start stitching on this ... I am beginning to think that the piece might collapse on it self when it is taken off the frame The design for the bees uses single strands of jap and I can see them making a mess as they are not couched down ... its all a learning experience.

Jo

[Mabel Figworthy]

Not couched down? How are they attached then?

[Steam.Jo]

The instructions say: "Use the gold metallic thread and work long stitch radiating stitches on each wing. " Some of those long stitches are 22mm / 7/8" long. Which I am concerned will be a bit loose if the fabric is not stretched. There is a gold bead over the longer ones so that might help. I wonder if the stiffness in the outer couching thread would be sufficient to hold them in place?

I am not there yet, but I've nearly finished my Sunshine then I will be allowed to study the instructions in greater detail.

I did wonder about using some freezer paper on the back to provide a bit of stiffness when complete and it would also erase the marker pen on the front

Jo