Japanese Embroidery Phase 1 - The Last of the Bush Clover Leaves

I guess I had time this week. I had set myself two things to do before the weekend starts and both are done.

Yesterday I unwound the hank of Japanese imitation gold. It comes twisted on itself and folded in half.


I untwisted the wire keeping the halves together and kept it on one end of the hank as the other end already has a tie. I didn't feel that the wire was solid enough so I used a piece of cotton thread and tied it a few times.

In order to keep the hank tidy, it's better to wrap it in paper. A sheet of legal size paper or two letter size papers taped together would work. Some stitchers use this plastic slot thread organizer to store their metal threads. But in a pinch you can use paper like I'm doing now.

I had to do it twice to get it right. Luckily I had a friend to help me out with it. The trick is not to put both "legs" of the hank in the same place but to separate them. If you keep them together, the hank will be loose as it's very slippery.

(click on the post to see the animation below)

You can see it better here. It's also best if your fold is about two centimeters. Anything bigger and the hank has more space to shift around.

Once everything is good, the hank can be cut in half where the little tie is. Now it's ready for use. All I have to do is pull out a strand to stitch with.

My second task was finishing all the bush clover leaves of which there were five. The two smallest purple leaves were a little tricky as I had to figure out what is the best place to start and the angle of that first stitch.

Since both my goals are done, I'll have to make new ones. Someone suggested the leaves of the pinks. Those are very pretty, stitched with green flat silk with scattered stitches in metal thread. I can also finish my two pinks. Choices! Choices!