Monday, February 23, 2015

Byzantine Silk Swatch

Fill for the leaves are done Starting the outline stitching

I've been stitching along and making progress.  The leaves finished up nicely and although the red isn't as full as I'd like on the stitching, the shiny silk lends some forgiveness.  I used a fat pearl cotton to padd the border stitches and started in on the white.

Satin stitch border is finished

And I finished out the border!  The pearl cotton didn't provide as much loft for the border as I had hoped.  I think that next time I will need a fatter stitch to give a bit more dimensionality.  Just back stitching seemed so fat next to the leaves so I was afraid that a stem or chain stitch would add too much bulk, but I could have added more.  I like the coverage on the border though and the contrasting stitch directions is a nice design element.

Outlining with Japan gold

Here is the start of the shiny gold!  It's finally coming together and starting to look pretty spiffy.  I took an angled photo so show some of the depth that the silk shine adds to the piece.   I've got a Kreinik Japan #7 here for the leaf outline and it has a very complementary shine.  I fiddled with a number of gold options, but the Japan was really what I needed for all those curves and tiny points.  I probably could have gone a teensy bit smaller and used a Japan #5 just because the design is so detailed, but I didn't have any #5 on hand and I am trying to pull supplies from my hoard.  Although the #5 would have been a bit more delicate, the #7 works just fine and really isn't too bulky for the outline.

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