Thursday, June 18, 2009

Back to the Needle

The Needle calls. . .The Muse sings. . .I must follow.
Actually I have an assignment. Ring pillow for Sarah's wedding.
Her flower of choice is the Bird of Paradise. I believe that ring pillows should be something you use after the wedding. Thus not making it entirely in white.
Here is one side of the pillow in progress. All of it is in Silk. The white is a sheer silk, the flower is made of a hand dyed silk, done by Gail Flotre in Alaska. I must thank Gail for creating two silk scarves for me with a wash of many colors so I may have a palette to choose from. She does such lovely work in silk. Makes me afraid to put a needle to it in case I mess it up. Yet I know I have my own expertise and should feel confident that this pillow will turn out as I envision it.

I am embroidering with silk thread on top, you can see some of it already. This is a couching technique to give the stems some dimension. And yes, there is a loose thread. It will be "couched" down, but first it must lay on top. I will be putting in the petal details with this same technique, also with silk thread.


The opposite side will have Poppies on it. So the whole pillow will be reversible. I hope to finish it with Amber chrystal beaded fringe along the side. We will see if the silk can hold up with all this embellishment.