Part H on Japanese Landscape involves a new material: kid leather. I've never used it before so I was a little worried about getting it right. By the way, the instructions asks for matte gold kid leather but the small square I received from Alison doesn't look like the image in the book. So either Alison made a mistake, there is a typo in the book or there are different matte gold kid leather available on the market. Not sure which one. I didn't notice the difference until after I'd stitched it down and it looked so nice I didn't want to take it out.
The kid leather is only used for the circle in the center flower. The instructions said to transfer the circle onto the kid leather using the prick and pounce method. I have a pricker but no pounce. Instead I used a pen to go over the lines again, letting the ink bleed through the holes.
(click on the post to see the animation below)
Including the Craftsy class, I have quite a few books on goldwork. I took a look at what I had and the one with the best technical tips of using kid leather was Hazel Everett's. I had a discussion with Jen Goodwin over Facebook and all of her recommendations matched what was in this book. The other's were a little too brief.
I started by placing holding stitches using white thread just to make sure the kid leather is exactly where I want it to be. From there, I started placing little stitches in the same way you would when applying felt padding. A thimble is
(click on the post to see the animation below)
One of the things she said we shouldn't have is a shape that looks like a pie crust. It's those frills on the edges.
It will look like an excessive amount of stitches, but even what you see below isn't enough. I needed to add more stitches at the top where there was still a little bit of frill.
Once the kid leather is couched, the little dome is surrounded with pearl purl.
My piece so far. The next step is to fill in the petals surrounding the dome. I think I will be okay even if the kid leather isn't the same one as in the design. It will bring out more of the copper tones in the piece. I guess we'll see once I start filling in the petals.
The kid leather is only used for the circle in the center flower. The instructions said to transfer the circle onto the kid leather using the prick and pounce method. I have a pricker but no pounce. Instead I used a pen to go over the lines again, letting the ink bleed through the holes.
(click on the post to see the animation below)
Including the Craftsy class, I have quite a few books on goldwork. I took a look at what I had and the one with the best technical tips of using kid leather was Hazel Everett's. I had a discussion with Jen Goodwin over Facebook and all of her recommendations matched what was in this book. The other's were a little too brief.
I started by placing holding stitches using white thread just to make sure the kid leather is exactly where I want it to be. From there, I started placing little stitches in the same way you would when applying felt padding. A thimble is
(click on the post to see the animation below)
One of the things she said we shouldn't have is a shape that looks like a pie crust. It's those frills on the edges.
It will look like an excessive amount of stitches, but even what you see below isn't enough. I needed to add more stitches at the top where there was still a little bit of frill.
Once the kid leather is couched, the little dome is surrounded with pearl purl.
My piece so far. The next step is to fill in the petals surrounding the dome. I think I will be okay even if the kid leather isn't the same one as in the design. It will bring out more of the copper tones in the piece. I guess we'll see once I start filling in the petals.
The metallic leathers do come in lots of different shades and levels of shine, and even in the amount of texture. I think this is going to look lovely so if it was a mistake it's a good one!
ReplyDeleteAn a new interesting technique! Looks great. I hope you can find some way to use the left over leather...using just that tine circle out of the square would be a shame.
ReplyDeleteNice start on the large flower. I agree with Leonore, you must find something else to use this for. It's a lovely colour.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting, thank you for sharing. I have Hazel’s book too, and am going to look through it over the coming days in preparation for my goldwork piece. It’s good to know the RSN way agrees with it!
ReplyDelete