Sunday 24 January 2016

Blackwork with a bit of red

Here's the finished piece: yes, something finished! Pam's design was a pleasure to work and she supplied us with a couple of pages of filling patterns to choose from, so each piece will be unique. One of the things I discovered, having a couple of books on the subject, was that these are almost infinite; just take a grid and join up the dots one way or another, any way you can think of, and repeat. It's a testament to our very human delight in pattern making and complexity.


I stuck to Pam's suggestion of working a differing weight of filling for each section, but didn't use my variegated thread in the end, it was a little too thick and would have looked unbalanced against the outline. I did use red though, which is always the first colour one thinks of with roses and this is a sort of rose. I've used two closely allied reds to reflect the way the colour of rose petals is sometimes shaded from centre to tip. I'm really happy with the result though, no, I'm NOT going to show you the back!

Hope you like it.

6 comments:

  1. Wow. That has worked really well, especially using red to create a shaded rose, and I do like the acorn cups in brown. Any ideas about what you will do with it? Truly unique. Looking forward to seeing it in real life, and no, I won't look at the back. X

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    1. So glad you like it. I'm really pleased with it, such fun to do. Not sure what to do with it yet, I'm tempted to do some more using the same dimensions and create a series of them - oh for a few more free days in my week!
      I'll show you the back, just so you can say "ohhhhhh dear"!!!! :-)

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  2. Is the filling also done like the Holbein stitch ?

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    1. Hi Els, no the filling is a bit more random, especially when you don't work out the order of stitching on a trial piece first! If done properly (Pam showed us the correct way) it loooks good on the back too, but not identical to the front in the way the Holbein stitch is.

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  3. Excellent! Have you noticed how many Tudor portraits show people wearing clothes with blackwork peeping out from cuffs and collars? You'll look with a different eye now:)

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    1. glad you like it, I'll try and do some more when I've finished the current WIP and, yes, I love those little glimpses of blackwork in the Tudor portraits. Must try to get to the V&A to see what they have. Any excuse will do mind you :-)

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