WIPW - BES, Beads and Sequins and A New Project

Wednesday means a report of Work In Progress Wednesday.

BES,
short for Brazilian Embroidery Study.
I have studied the booklet,

and got started on the practical preparations.

First I basted a thin sheet of woven interfacing to the back of the green silk to stabilize the silk and have somewhere to anchor the stitches.

Then I basted protective edges to the silk. This will make it easier to stretch the fabric in a hoop without damaging the silk.

I made a sketch for the design with white charcoal pen. The ink disappears when it is touched by a hot iron.

I then started on the stitching.

 Outline Stitch for one stem and Coral Stitch for the other. Nice and chunky.

Crazy for Crazy
I wrapped yellow shiny thread around a wooden bead and fixed it to the centre of the purple tatted flower.

I added sequins, glas beads and couched down a braid.



New:
Vaxholmskudden
This is the working title for a cushion I am going to make in Swedish wool embroidery á la Karin Derland.

So far I have picked out some fabric.

WIPW - Back On Track

THANK YOU for all well wishes and kind comments while I was poorly. I took time out from most things, slept a lot, and apologize for not having visited your blogs or left comments.

I am now well again and back on track.

Work In Progress Wednesday report

Greeting Card
or should I say Stumpwork Portrait.
Do you remember this out of focus picture, a teaser?

It is a Stumpwork portrait I made before I got ill, but could not write about it as it had not reached its destination. 

Now it has, so I can show you:

The hair was made this way:

Wind six strands of embroidery floss tightly around a bamboo skewer.

 Spritz with water and

 press with a hot iron.

 Unravel the curls and

stitch them around the head.

Twisted Perle forms the hair ornament, metallic thread the eyeshadow, a scrap of light blue accordion ribbon makes up the blouse, a ragged (cut roughly with pinking shares) piece of salmon pink nylon folds into a jacket and is held together with an odd necklace clasp.

For this portrait I also added ears and I will show how that is done on another blog post.

Crazy for Crazy
I filled in the leaves with Cretan Stitch and added a beautiful tatted flower I had been given from the owner of the portrait above.

Brazilian Embroidery

I managed to read through the booklet, made notes of some interesting points, but have not started stitching anything yet.

WIPW - Brazilian Embroidery

Here is my Work In Progress Wednesday report.

Crazy for Crazy
I made use of the Methodist Knot stitch to outline some petals. These will be filled with some other stitches, maybe next week. In the centre of the flower I will add a crocheted ornament.
Curved lines of One-sided Buttonholed Chain Stitch were also added.

NEW
A Study In Brazilian Embroidery
I have this friend, this very generous friend, who has on several occasions sent me goodies from her stash.

Among the gifts are several hanks of hand-dyed Z-twisted rayon thread, for Brazilian Embroidery.

From my own stash I picked out a piece of golden green silk that I will work on.

With my friend's help I have also downloaded a booklet from the internet:

I am all set to start exploring the beauty of Brazil.
Thank you dear M.