Plum Blossoms and Japanese Knots

The last few days I have gradually been continuing my second JE piece. On Sunday, I started my first plum blossom using 2 -> 1 dark pink thread in a medium twist on the outer section of each petal:

Next, I filled in the rest of the petal with one strand of flat silk in the same color:

On the whole, not too bad. Some petals are more successful than others, but I really felt I was getting the hang of it by the time I finished this first flower. And overall, I think it's really pretty. The last step was to add the gold stamens:

I think it's lovely, and I adore the contrast of the pink with the greens! It's so fun to see it coming together.

The next step was Japanese knots. Oh. my. goodness. I cannot even begin to describe how to do them. The best I can do is send you to this video on Facebook, which another Japanese embroider tipped me off to:

Japanese Embroidery

The Japanese knots portion starts at about 0:46 seconds in. This person is clearly highly skilled, and I am amazed they can make these knots one-handed. Full disclosure: I couldn't make these knots one-handed if my life depended on it. 😂 Believe me, I tried. 

But I did figure out how to make them using two hands. After making the loop with my right hand and poking the needle halfway through the fabric, I have to use my left hand to hold the loop and then pull the needle from underneath with my right hand. When I do it that way, I can make a decent knot, lots of them, in fact:

These knots are supposed to form kind of a little cloud. And I think they turned out reasonably well. They add a nice, delicate touch to the piece. I could use a bit more practice with making them more uniform, but I'll certainly get the chance on this piece, as there are many more knots to do.

I texted Mary Alice about the technique for these, and she said that even she can't do them one-handed, which made me feel a bit better. 😊

Anyway, next, I decided to branch out a bit and try a little color variation on the second plum blossom. I used the dark pink silk from the first flower and the pale pink silk from my Cherry Blossoms and Chrysanthemums piece and blended them together using 1 1/2 strands of the dark pink and 1/2 strand of the pale pink. I made my 2 ->1 medium-twist threads and started stitching away:

Then I used 3/4 of a strand of dark pink flat silk with 1/4 of a strand of light pink flat silk to fill in the rest of the flower. And for the final three stitches, one up each side and one up the center of each petal, I used one strand of the dark pink:

The color variation is very subtle, but I really like the effect. The only thing I didn't like was how hard it was to divide a strand of flat silk into fourths. Oh man. Maybe there's a trick to it, but I found it to be an exercise in increasing frustration. But I like the above flower well enough that I'll probably go to the trouble for one more flower like this. Anyway, here's everything I've done so far:

I did two of the little plum buds in twisted silk (the upper two to the right) and the third in flat silk, just to see the different effects. I'll keep them this way because I really like both versions. I think it's interesting that the twisted silk seems to have so much more variation in color. I think it's because there are more angles for the light to hit.

Regardless, I am really loving this piece, and I feel so much more confident doing it. Even though I am learning new techniques almost every time I work on it, it's much easier than the first piece. I have three more plum blossoms to do and then it's back to some more Japanese knot clouds and maple leaves. 

I'd like to try and finish this piece by the end of October because I'm so excited to start my Phase 1 piece! Mary Alice and I have already selected the design, fabric, and thread colors, and she's ordered the fabric. Fingers crossed that the JEC has it in stock and it arrives in a timely manner. 🤞