I’m creeping towards the finish with the couched gold thread over the silk background on the Medallion Project. So close!
The little meandering thread of Elizabethan twist – a goldwork thread that’s quite fine and made of two tiny 2% gold wires loosely twisted together – has almost reached the finish line!
When working this vermicelli goldwork technique, it requires two hands, so having your work on a stand of some sort is really essential. One hand holds the wire and manipulates it into a general direction, while the other hand does the couching. What’s nice about working with the Elizabethan twist is that it is a fairly flexible thread, without being “limp” – it has some wire-like rigidity to it that makes it easier to manipulate and bend along the meandering, twisting path that the gold follows.
There’s no “pattern” for the path. You just start and let the thread wind along, couching about every 1/8″, with the only “rule” being that it’s best to move in some direction other than completely vertical. Remember that the silk threads are laid in a vertical surface satin stitch. So as long as the gold thread crosses over the vertical satin stitch either completely perpendicular or at some angle to the vertical stitches, then the gold thread won’t sink between the satin stitches.
Getting there! I couldn’t believe that I didn’t make it to the end! It took approximately three hours to fill that one background “petal” that you see in progress here. I ran out of stitching time and had to leave the last little bit of silk uncovered (probably about 45 minutes’ worth of stitching) until the next session.
So there we are – almost finished!
To read more about this project and see it develop step-by-step, feel free to check out the Medallion Project Index. Many of the articles may answer questions that you might have about techniques or materials, too. You can also find some questions and answers in the comments area on each article. If you have any questions you can’t find the answers to, feel free to leave a comment below!
Enjoy the weekend!
