Historical Sampler – Stylized Borage  

Posted by MeganH in

This is from

http://tinyurl.com/6ygpfh

and is a Pillow for a cross with depiction of stylized vegetal ornamentation

Late 16th – Early 17th century

s_borage

I am going to do a borage from it. It’s very stylized.

 

s_borage_2

I had originally drawn it leaving room for the paillettes in the centre, but decided to modify the petals and ovary to meet in the middle, and will put the paillettes over the top.

Hence a little design line modification using thread instead of pen :

 

s_borage_3

I’m going to do it in Laid Embroidery, with the two horizontal petal in silver, and the others in gold. (with matching couching threads in silk)

I attempted a petal in silver passing thread.

I did not have a good time. *grin*

The passing thread is quite stiff, and the petal quite tiny. I lost the ‘pear’ shape of the petal, and got an oval instead :

s_borage_4

I was using Mary Brown’s Technique for laying thread for irregular shapes. It ends with only one thread in the middle. My attempt just doesn't look 'good'.

It took 2 hours, and I just couldn’t get the passing to obey me, even tho I had my nose to the canvas, and was keeping the tweezers in my teeth in between very frequent uses of them in an attempt to bend the thread into shape.

I think it’s a case of inexperience with using the passing thread (this is my first time) in combination with a very small irregular shape.

I'm going to have another go using a modern silver metallic thread, that should be more malleable to my needs to get a better petal shape.

I'm having thoughts about using Lurex for the gold petals - that'll be more malleable than the gold passing.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 12, 2008 at 11:28 AM and is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the comments feed .

5 comments

How do you keep the silver thread taut as you stitch? I know how frustrating it can be when you spend two hours and it doesn't come out like you want. That's the way Japanese Embroidery can be for me sometimes. Oh well, it's all part of making you a better stitcher. Have a great day!

September 12, 2008 at 12:00 PM

so if you are holding the tweezers in your mouth, how do you swear at the embroidery?

i admire your patience and fortitude. I know the final outcome will be worth it

September 12, 2008 at 2:03 PM

Thankyou, Paula!

The laid work with the stylised borage did take a lot of patience, because it was just so fiddly! But I think it's turned out well :-)

September 13, 2008 at 5:07 AM

You're braver than I, using a new technique/material on your sampler. I always try first on a practice cloth. Saves unstitching, and I get to keep the practice cloth for future reference. That's what I'm doing now--figuring out how I want to stitch various parts of my jacket scarf and trying out different threads.

September 13, 2008 at 7:30 AM

Well, it's laid work (so doesn't intrude through the ground until you've finished, except for the couching stitches), and passing thread is for laid work.

So I didn't think I'd go wrong! It didn't even occur to me to practise on my doodle cloth.

Famous last words!

September 13, 2008 at 11:54 AM

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