Japanese Embroidery Teachers and Twisting Silk Threads

In my attempt to find a Japanese embroidery teacher who could teach me online (in-person lessons not being an option during the pandemic), I reached out to a few different teachers. And since this was all new to them, it took them a while to get back to me and figure out a way to do it, but in the end, I found two teachers who worked out an online solution at about the same time. 

So I decided to work with both of them for now, as their time and mine allow. Tonie got back to me first and was very nice and helpful, so I set up my first lesson with her. Then Mary Alice spent hours talking to me and we really clicked, so I set up lessons with her as well. She's the teacher who actually comes to my area a few times a year to do in-person lessons, so I'll probably attend those classes once the pandemic is over because, while the Zoom lessons are helpful, I think in-person lessons would probably be most effective.

For now, though, I have two teachers, which Mary Alice thought was actually a good idea, as sometimes you can learn different helpful tricks from different teachers. And I agree with that. Plus, they bring very different perspectives to the table, which is always interesting. 

I had my first real Japanese embroidery lesson on Saturday with Tonie, who taught me to frame up the correct way. I had mostly been doing it correctly before — that is, it turns out you do put the fabric ends into the split dowels and adjust them by trial and error to get the correct tautness. There's no other secret to it. Then you lace the other two sides — I won't go into detail about that because, again, my lacing method was accurate before. You can read more about it in my Beginning Japanese Embroidery post or see a good description in any JE book.

But I did learn a couple new things that helped me a lot, both from Tonie and my earlier conversation with Mary Alice. For one, when doing the lacing, you go through the first hole in the frame three or four times and then buttonhole stitch around those stitches a few times to secure each end of the lacing. I'd done something similar before (with a slip knot), but it wasn't quite as effective.

Additionally, with silk fabric, if you don't have a selvage, it helps to turn the silk under a 1/4 inch on the lacing edges and then machine stitch a fairly tight seam along this section about 1/8 inch from the edge to make sure the lacing doesn't pull the silk threads out. You lace through the fabric on the inside of this seam and it holds like a selvage would.

And finally, when sewing on the cotton ends (that go into the split dowels), it helps to do a double row of machine stitching to join them, and the cotton should be about 1/4 inch wider than the silk on either side. You can see my setup here:

Generally, they advise getting the silk as close as possible to the warp bars to limit how far you have to reach to the center of your silk. I did that on the left edge, but it really wasn't necessary on this piece because it's so narrow (only about 6 inches wide). And it made it hard to get the right side as evenly stretched because the warp bars can't go any closer than this. It turned out super taut — much more so than last time. Almost hard as a board. You'll notice the seams are on the top. That's to avoid having any loose threads accidentally get caught in anything underneath where you can't see them.

Once the framing up was done, we went over how to twist silk thread. It's really hard to describe, but basically, you run your left hand up the right a few times, with the silk in between your palms, to undertwist it. Then you take two undertwisted threads and place them between your palms and run your right hand up your left to overtwist it (one fewer time than you undertwisted them). But any good JE book will describe and demonstrate this. And alas, I needed both hands to do it, so I couldn't take a picture of the process. (Update: I shot a video of it here.) But here are some of the threads I twisted:

The pink thread on the left is a four into one (4 -> 1) thread of two shades of pink. I undertwisted one dark pink thread and one light pink thread together, then did the same with another dark pink thread and a light pink thread. Then I overtwisted the two undertwisted threads together. If I'd undertwisted two darks and undertwisted two lights and then overtwisted them together, it would look like a candy cane or barber pole. This is a more subtle way of blending. 

The next thread is a 4 -> 1 dark pink thread. To the right of that is a 3 -> 1 green thread. For that one, I had to divide one green thread in half (8 sugas or filaments in each since I'm using 16-suga silk thread) and undertwist each half thread with another whole green thread. Then I overtwisted both sets of threads together to make a 3 -> 1. The next green thread is a 1 -> 1 thread. Again, I divided the thread in half, undertwisted each half, and then overtwisted the halves together.

Finally, there are my 1 -> 2 pale pink couching threads. I never could understand how this was possible until Tonie explained it. You divide one thread in halves (8 sugas each), then divide each half in half again (4 sugas each). You undertwist two 4-suga threads separately, and then overtwist them together. Then you do the same with the two remaining 4-suga threads. So one flat silk thread creates two very fine, tightly twisted threads that are then used for couching down thicker threads.

Undertwisting first and then overtwisting apparently creates a Z-twisted thread, which is believed to look shinier in JE. I have no idea if this is true, but it seems to be how everyone does it, so when in Rome....

I started to get the hang of this pretty well, but there are some definite tricks, so it helps to have a book or a teacher for this bit. But I had tried it on my own before this lesson and didn't do too badly. So it's not impossible on your own. It's just a little easier to see it demonstrated, get tips, and be able to ask questions.

After my lesson, it was time to transfer the pattern. This time I taped the pattern and Chaco paper down with scotch tape, which worked much better than trying to pin it into place. I also used a Venetian glass pen to trace the design:

This worked better than the ballpoint pen, but I still pressed too hard and tore through the vellum tracing paper. And again, those damn ridges in the shioze silk made it hard to trace in certain directions without getting weird little jogs in my lines. I can't wait till phase 1 when I'll be using a completely flat silk with the pattern preprinted on it. Have I mentioned how much I hate transferring embroidery patterns? 😂

To deal with the accidental jogs in my lines, I took my fine Japanese brush, dipped it into some filtered water and gently stroked away the lines I didn't want there:

It worked very well. Here's the completed pattern:

I think it looks pretty good, and I was excited to start stitching it. On Sunday morning, I joined a group lesson with Mary Alice and did my first stitches:

The twisted silk thread is a little easier to work with than the flat silk thread. It doesn't fly everywhere, but you do have to re-twist it every few stitches to maintain the twist. If you're right-handed, you do this by placing the needle between your right thumb and forefinger (or middle finger) and then rolling your thumb towards your palm. I assume if you're left-handed that you would hold it in your left hand and roll your thumb away from your palm.

Next, I used some blended threads to try and make a gradation in color, but it was not very successful:

It was too lumpy. My stitches needed to be a little more even, a hair farther apart, and have more jagged edges — in other words, I need to use more accentuated long and short stitches so that it will look more gradually blended. I cut all of this out at the end of the lesson in fact.

Owing to my need to cheer on my fantasy football team (I am kicking ass, thanks to Alvin Kamara 😂), I did not do any further work on Sunday. But last night after work, I finally got back to it. 

I decided to do three sections of slightly different colors. First, I did the left third or so of the maple leaf in 4 ->1 thread in only the medium green color. Then I made a 4 -> 1 thread using three medium green threads and one light green thread (that was left over from my first Midori kit) and started blending those into the first section using more exaggerated long and short stitches:

Instead of starting at the top, I started from a centimeter down and worked my way up to the top of the leaf first, very carefully following the weft lines, and then worked from the middle back down, which helped keep my stitches more even. Here's the second section done:

It's not flawless, but it's a lot better. Next, I twisted some 4 -> 1 threads using two medium green threads and two light green threads to go just a bit lighter for the third and final section. This time, I really exaggerated the long and short stitches to make them much more varied:

I think this was the most successful blending yet. I really think it looks pretty nice overall. I sent a picture to Mary Alice, and she said it looked fabulous. 😊 Certainly, I think it looks fabulous for my first ever maple leaf and my first time stitching with twisted threads and incorporating blended colors. 

I'm kind of considering doing the leaf behind it in flat silk, though. I want the leaf underneath to recede a bit, and Mary Alice said I should use two strands of flat silk (2F) to achieve that. The only thing is, I think it may be harder to blend colors using flat silk. And I do want to have some shadows on that leaf, so I will need to blend in a darker green. But I may still give it a try.

It's so exciting to be progressing! I can't wait till I'm ready to start my first real phase 1, but one thing at a time. Things are starting to get really busy at work and will likely only get worse over the next three months (it's our busy season). I also have my Jacobean project to work on when I can. 

And I signed up to take a pottery class with my mom every Saturday in October — we're going to throw pots. Don't worry. We'll be in a small, socially distanced class of no more than six people, presumably masked, being safe and responsible and all that. I just want to try to still live and enjoy life a little bit, even though 2020 is a dumpster fire in general. But I will post updates when I can — as soon as I've made some more progress.