Goldwork viola

And I managed the strings! I didn't think they'd ever work out, but I ended up putting two rows of bright check purls over a small piece of felt to give enough height for the strings to both catch on the bridge and get over the bottom part of the finger board. If you don't look at that part too closely, it's OK!!

The background is now totally done on the narrowboat piece, but as it's not much different from last time, it's not really worth a new picture yet. Hope to show more of that later in the week.

In the meantime, I'm enjoying the sense of accomplishment that came from having finally completed that viola. I started it in Taiwan back in mid February 2010, so it's taken 20 months to get it from re-working the design to completing the stitching! I hope I don't have too many more projects that progress so shakily...


© Elizabeth Braun 2011

Two things actively WIP!

Wow! Two pieces currently being worked on! I've been putting in most of the half stitch sky on the narrowboat cross stitch piece. You mayn't be able to see it very clearly, but it's there in two shades of light blue. Not much further to go on that, and then it's on to the top stitching.

Much to my amazement, I had the urge to get on with the goldwork viola too! I put in this long piece of almost vertical pearl purl #1 and hope to get the other side done over the weekend, and maybe also some other bits. I'm really unsure of how the strings could be worked so that they look realistic, so it may be that I have to omit them. I'd rather leave something out than have that element spoil the whole effect by it's weakness!

I really need to get the slight white flecks (dust??) off this piece before it's finally photographed!

Digging around on YouTube (which I've begun to do too much of lately.....) I found this video, which some may enjoy. Also worth looking up is their 2009 display, which I actually preferred as it has some wonderful caskets, boxes and an album cover as well as a quilt that is a mosaic of a face! Well, head and shoulders really. The reason I've embedded this one though you can see from about 2.19 mins onwards for a while. There you see vertical rows of small square embroideries, probably worked by different members, on the same fabric background. I was struck by the potential of this idea for around the house! Perhaps I could do another piece or two on black silk to go with the viola?? A way to display samples of things and small pieces without having the expense of buying a frame. See what you think:



Hoping to get back to my old, pre-Taiwan posting schedule of bi-weekly WIP updates on Mondays and Thursdays. Perhaps I can accomplish this goal by the end of this year? Let's see! I'm feeling quite enthusiastic at the mo, but next month my umph could be stolen by other interests.....
© Elizabeth Braun 2011

A bit more goldwork

Another rather disappointing photo, (I can't tell you how much better it looks in real life!), but here are the latest two (counting both f holes as one element) additions to the goldwork viola picture. -> I was pleasantly surprised how smoothly these sections went. Next up is the whole fingerboard and neck/scroll area in no.1 pearl purl. The smaller detail will be done in a pearl purl of smaller guage (but I don't know what it actually is), then the nuts will be done in Coats Ophir (like a very fine Jap) - like the f holes have been - and then filled in with bright check. Then I have to think of how to manage a convincing bridge and strings....

Considering that I have a number of time sensitive things to do over this summer, I have actually no idea why I'm concentrating on finishing the two that have no deadlines and are just for our home! I've two cards and, assuming I can find the keyring 'blank', a small monogram to go in it to do for various points in June, the violets/fish cushion and the blackberries pouch to have done by July and another gift for mid August. Hmmm! If anyone's seen my common sense roaming free anywhere, do send it back express!;)

I think I use too many brackets - just looking at my first paragraph! Recently I was reading a book review by someone I know and found it really hard to follow as they had far too many asides and big words in their sentences. Simple, plain, concise. That's the mark of a good teacher/writer. Got it, Lizzie? Good!

Kid it is!

The vote went for a kid leather chinrest on the goldwork viola and, as I agreed with that - even though kid is a beast to stitch through - here it is in a side view to show how raised it ended up (only one layer of padding):


Rotten photo, I'm afraid! My photography seems to be going through a bad patch just now.=) Anyway, there's a border of Kreinik Fine Braid in 102C around the kid. I also finally managed to get that little bit of copper border that had frayed re-done without it going nasty again.

I had hoped to get more done before posting again, but it's been a busy week. A week full of surprises too. The greatest surprise, beating the runner up by a small margin, was going into Sir's study on Friday lunchtime to find him on-line watching live coverage of the Royal Wedding on German TV!!=)

I've managed to get a bit more of the water under the narrowboat done and here it is, pretty much afloat. There's still more to do on that part, then a bridge and small tree etc to fill in on the left hand side. The main stitching must be about 70% done now. LONG gone are the days when I would get something like this finished within two or three weeks.=)


Thanks for the ideas on how to stretch and straighten the giraffe. I'll try that - when I get the necessary things. Might have to use a kitchen shopping board and wash out a cleaning fluid bottle thoroughly to use as a spray as I've nothing that will pass for a plant spray or cork tile at the mo. Will report back on that one once I've had a go at it.

Two finishes. Yes, TWO!

So, I really got going this week and finished two things! No, not the narrowboat - I haven't had that much stitching time.=) In fact, I've only put a little bit of water in on that, so it isn't worth showing, but as I've run out of ideas for 'information posts' for the time being and have got back into my own embroidery work somewhat (could be famous last words.....), I hope to post WIP shots more often instead.=)

The first finish was the giraffe needlepoint that I was given as a 12th birthday present by Nicholas Cook! I remember him explaining why he chose it out of the series (it was the only one with a girl's name, bless him!). I decided not to save it to complete whilst I'm away doing exam work in May, but rather to make use of mum's sewing machine those 3 weeks and get it finished up into the cushion cover I've planned. I'm going to give to a disabled girl (I say 'girl', but she's not much younger than me!!) who likes cushions on her bed. Had I given it to a little girl as I'd originally thought, she would have grown out of it in time, but Georgina won't as she will always have a mental age of around 13, so it's perfect.


As you can see, it's got a bit warped. I know that this wouldn't be a problem had I been planning to frame it as the stretching process would correct it, but I'm going to be using it in a patchwork. Any ideas on how to straighten it up a bit??

Now then, here's the finish of the month, the water violets design! I put the last stitches, the water lines, in on this early yesterday afternoon. I decided to exclude the mayfly after all. It would have looked better, more balanced with it, but I really had had enough by then and just wanted it complete. So, this is it:


This too will be made into a cushion cover and I'll do that at the same time as the giraffe. I'll need to get some backing fabric for it. Oh, the design is in the right hand half of the cushion, in case you're wondering why I was doing such a long, thin cushion.=)

I've also got re-started to some degree on the goldwork viola (don't anyone dare call it a violin!). I put the felt padding on the chinrest yesterday, but I haven't finally decided on what to overlay it with. The options are rough purl and kid leather of which I have silver and gold. I know very little about goldwork, but I have two or three useful books that can help. I'm undecided on many parts of it - what threads to use etc. Anyone with more experience care to comment? Mary? Ruth?


All the best with a dog design, Linda and, go on, start a blog! If you do that kind of work, then I want to see it!=)

© Elizabeth Braun 2010

Goldwork in progress proper

Here's the viola in the hoop and a start made on the stitching. The photo isn't clear (as is to be expected when having to take it in artificial lighting, it doesn't seem to be get very light today), but you might be able to see that I've done the foreground outline in gold twist thread and the outline of the back of the instrument in Kreinik #7 Japan thread in copper. The small bit on the left went rather bad, so I'll be taking that out and re-doing it. I've also just noticed that an angle in the copper outlining on the right hand side doesn't match the gold. Grrrr! Perfectionist, me? Not that you'd notice - if you were blind!!!!=)

I plan to do around the scroll, fingerboard and tailpiece in the pearl purl that came with the kit and was originally meant to go in these places, just putting the scroll detail in in finer Jap thread. The f holes I'll do in Jap thread too and the chinrest I'll probably fill in with Jap thread, kind of in or nue style, but I'm not sure about this yet. I could even be persuaded to do this in kid leather, but I may leave it almost to last. The big issue is how to get the bridge higher than the pearl purl will be so that the strings will look right and not go upwards when they get to the edge of the fingerboard. Sometimes it's easier not to feel such a commitment to getting the details right!=)LOL!

It's absolutely slinging it down here in Taipei and the Gov't issued a cold weather warning on Sunday as temperatures dropped to just under 5C overnight in the very north of the island. That may not be cold for those who have -20C to deal with in the winter, but this is a sub-tropical island with the southern third fully tropical and there is no heating installed in the vast majority of buildings. I just read that about 10000 fish died in Changhua county thanks to the cold! Our two heaters are doing sterling work and we're OK and even getting our washing dried, but it's a bit boring having to waste the whole week's holiday stuck indoors! Nothing much to do but read, study, stitch, watch DVDs and listen to music. We've just braved the rain to get some groceries in, but the local supermarket is v low on fresh produce given that it's still officially New Year's holidays. Thankfully, I stocked up well before the break.=) So, plenty of chance to get on with my embroidery, but I doubt I'll do anymore on this viola today. I'm really dopey at the mo, would prefer to work on the mouse for a bit and, frankly, I forget how monotonous goldwork can be!!!

Re-designing a goldwork kit

This afternoon and evening (in 2 sessions), I made a start on the Benton & Johnson Goldwork String Instrument kit that I'd brought with me. I remember buying this one as part of a real retail therapy session - serious comfort shopping - during the time I was horribly unhappy doing my old teaching job, along with several others. I spent as much at that one stitching show as I would normally do at two or three - a whole year's worth!!

This is the original design of the kit, although the one I bought came with black silk as a background fabric, which is what I wanted.

Anyone who knows much about modern string instruments would see at a glance that this design is far from accurate and, whilst I'm no expert player (yet!!!LOL), I do actually own a viola and so I always intended brushing this design up a bit. Well, a lot actually!! I know it's meant to be a generic sort of stringed instrument, but I wanted my own instrument represented in goldwork, so it needed a chinrest for a start. The body shape also needed refining and the pegs needed to match the strings - 4 strings (very badly placed strings at that) and 6 pegs, since when?? Recently, via the Pin Tangle blog, I came across a blog posting by Kirsty on the 'Feeling Stitchy' team on how to turn a photo into an embroidery outline and so I followed that wonderfully simple and effective process as follows.

Find the photo you want to stitch from. This is one I found via Google images of a viola, complete with chinrest (some are pictured without, some folk even play without one, but I'm not up for that!).

Using Photoshop Elements' 'Filter' tab, select the 'Sketch' type and then pick the one that best suits your needs from the list given. The tutorial I read said 'Pencil Sketch', but my version doesn't have that, but the 'Photocopy' option worked beautifully and, after increasing the contrast to make the outlines really stand out, I was left with this image:

Print it out at the relevant size, take a tracing from it and transfer the design to your background fabric in your preferred way (mine is good old dressmaker's carbon paper in white for dark backgrounds, although yellow would have been good too), the results of which you can see below.

That's it, ready for stitching and not needing to go to all the fuss of drawing it out myself.=) This really is a good method, try it and see for yourself some time.

To my delight, I found that I'd actually brought some of my goldwork threads with me - 3 colours of Bright Check (chips) and a thing of Twist, as well as the Kreinik Japans and other Kreinik cord type metallics, so I can adapt the threads and actual working of the design as well. Haven't got that far yet, will work up a stitching plan tomorrow, but the design is on the silk, which is tacked to the backing fabric ready to go in the hoop for working.=)

Sometimes kits provide the needed inspiration and materials and you can do the rest yourself. Oh, if anyone knows how to get the strong packing crease out of the middle of the fabric, please let me know ASAP!

Last night I added yet more eye candy to my blog sidebar in the shape of some of the 2007 finishes. Putting them all on would have meant that it was ridiculously long, so I dropped some of the cards and monograms. In time, I'll merge all the three years' worth of finishes into a single 'Gallery' bar, but not until I've got something to show for this year. The needlecase isn't considered a finish proper until it's made up. Many, many thanks to Margaret of NZ for kindly offering to send me the needed doctor's flannel (which I didn't see anything like whilst out at the fabric market last Friday), and also to Nic for offering to send more novels. If the postage hadn't made me feel uncomfy, I would have accepted this last offer too, but I just wanted to publically thank you wonderfully kind and generous ladies.=) Mwah! xxx

Editted to add in credits for the transformation method, Friday 11:43 am