Had a lovely day earlier this week teaching a 1:1 Goldwork day to a student/friend who had been to a couple of my previous Goldwork days but wanted to take the technique further. She had already mastered the techniques of padding, working with gold kid, working with pearl purl and couching at the previous sessions.
This time she had designed an image of a bee which she wanted to stitch using Goldwork. She prepared the background of a lovely grey silk over a calico backing, transferred the design and framed the fabrics.
The techniques and methods we used this time included using lengths of purl over a padded felt area ( the bee’s abdomen), beads over felt (the bee’s thorax), tiny piece of gold kid over felt ( the head), and purl chips within couched Jap gold area ( the wings). The legs and antennae were worked using one strand of thread similar to Ophir.
I realise this is a very poor photo ! Goldwork is not easy to photograph, particularly on a shot silk background ( excuses !).
I am hoping we will get to see a photo of the finished piece !
Goldwork has always been a real passion of mine. I could just do that alone for the rest of my days and never get bored.
This is a piece I did for my niece Hannah.
And this was a piece I worked as part of my City and Guilds Goldwork with Tracy Franklin at her studio in Durham.
Finally, just to show that it can be worked in a freer, more contemporary way, a piece I did a couple of years ago on a pieced silk and chiffon background.
