Playing with Gold
I have been making time for more creative stitching. I know it seems a little crazy, but to take time out and relax from my stitch business, I stitch. Go figure…? Anyway. Lately, I have been spending time playing with metal threads.
My excitement for metal thread embroidery, or goldwork, was reignited when I treated myself to a retreat with the so-very-talented Hanny Newton last August.
It was an incredible experience in so many ways; a fabulous tutor and amazing company in a stunning location. I seriously cannot remember when I last sat and just stitched for a full week. It was simple bliss. I learned so much from Hanny - not just stitching skills, but how to look at and question what I do. Most importantly, it reminded me just how much I love learning.
There are endless ways for metal threads to flow and coil.
The sampler-style piece that I started on the retreat is still on my big slate frame. I haven’t added much to it since, and I regret putting it on the big frame because I would like to use it for something else. The sample piece might have to go. Most of the little samples on there are circles - perhaps some of them could be cut out and made into brooches? I don't know.
In traditional goldwork, the couching is most often very tightly planned and the stitching exacting. I am now discovering the pure joy of simply allowing the metal threads to meander and tell their own little story. I find it is almost like scribbling a doodle with a pen, only slower because of stitching the threads down. I find it so relaxing and rewarding, and sometimes surprising because you never quite know what will happen.
Meandering Metal Thread Sampler
I layered scraps of silk (leftovers from various kits) over a stretched canvas and started laying down different metal threads.
Letting threads snake, coil and meander across the surface. No plans.
I am still going on this, and it has almost taken on a life ot its own. I don’t quite know where it is heading, or when it will be finished, or even if it will ever be finished.
It doesn’t matter. I am really enjoying the process.
And as the threads wander, so does my mind…
I started to wonder…
What happens if I bundle a whole heap of leftover metal threads together and let them twist and turn around each other?
Could it form a chunky, textured, shiny log-like shape?
And if it does, what if I then separate all the threads into smaller and smaller bundles before tapering them down to single threads…?
Like the roots on a tree?
It gave me the idea of this little piece:
Rooted
I have called it ROOTED. Perhaps not the most glamorous title, but it is a tree root after all, and besides, embroidering in this way makes me feel really at home - rooted in what my hands are doing.
I absolutely loved the process of stitching like this; starting with nothing other than a vague idea and allowing my materials, needle and hands to do what they do. I am quite certain it won’t be the last piece I stitch like this.
The next Red House Group exhibition at Gallery M is themed around Trees, so I will be participating with my ROOTED gold in that show in May. It is not often that I take part in art shows, but I do enjoy adding a bit of embroidery to the mix of other art forms from time to time.
I want to learn more. So I enrolled in Hanny’s online course, Light & Shade. This one explores the use of coloured threads over metal. I have used coloured silks in the past to create motifs over metal in traditional Or Nue, but this course explores ways to use coloured threads creatively.
Sadly (but not unexpectedly), I didn’t finish all the modules within the six weeks allocated for the live sessions. 1) because finding enough time to allocate to it was too tricky, and 2) I get so engrossed with each discovery that I keep experimenting with different options. It is fun.. but it adds time and I end up with so many ideas; good, exciting, crazy and otherwise….
It doesn’t matter. The class notes are exceptional, with super clear directions and linked recorded lessons. With 12 months’ access, I should be able to get through it and (hopefully) beyond.
Nautilus
I was trying to think back when I last did a piece of creative gold work…..?
Then I remembered, I could use the Old Blog to jog my memory: 2015!!
Honestly!
That is way too long ago. I stitched a sampler-style piece with a variety of filling techniques. I have moved the blog posts about it over here if you would like to have a look at it and the process of making it.
I do love this panel. As with so many other pieces, it is tucked away in a box somewhere.
Looking at the Nautilus panel, I noticed some shapes are repeated in my last goldwork design, the little Marguerite. It is even stitched on a very similar coloured silk.
I find it so curious how these creative ideas and ways of using and mixing techniques and materials subconsciously repeat themselves.
Who knows, perhaps some of my current meandering metal thread discoveries will make their way into a project or kit in the future…
Until next time…