Phase 2: Metal Threads and Cords

So I did have my JE class this last weekend, but it's been a very busy and stressful week since then. I got my second vaccine on Sunday and was not feeling good for the next couple of days. But I'm recovered now, so I can tell you all about my lesson.

Metal Threads

First up, let's chat about metal threads. I've talked a lot about my #1 gold, silver, and colored metal threads, which I've used in both my phase 1 and phase 2 pieces, as well as my earlier step 1 and step 2 Midori pieces.

Metal threads come in loop. You typically cut one end of the loop and then store the bunch in tissue paper or a holder like this (I got this one from Mary Alice; she sells them at Blue Bonnet Studio):

When stored like this, you can just snag one strand from the looped end at the top and pull it out from the rest when you need it. Then you half-hitch it onto your needle and start stitching. 

So when I got my #5 silver metal thread for this phase, I did the same thing. You can see it right there to the left of the dark purple thread, neatly snipped at the bottom. Alas, this is WRONG. 

Metal threads in sizes #3 and above cannot be stitched because they're too thick. They have to be couched down instead, as in regular goldwork. So you don't cut the end to make a bunch of short lengths. Instead, you wind it around koma so that it's in very long, continuous strands. Siiiigh. 

Which meant I couldn't learn to do the round-and-round couching on the main fan rib this weekend. I had to wait for Mary Alice to send me some more #5 metal thread. I received it yesterday and promptly wrote on the package, "DO NOT CUT." Live and learn, I suppose.

But it turned out to be all right because I found I couldn't really do that fan segment until I had stitched the cords that run up against it. Couched goldwork always has to be done last, so anything in the background must be stitched first, which is the opposite of everything else in Japanese embroidery, which usually starts with the foreground elements.

So we worked on cords. I'm happy to tell you that I particularly loathe cords. Maybe they'll grow on me, but after spending nearly 6 hours doing one six-inch section of a cord, I currently find them tedious and fiddly. But enough about my emotions. Let's move on to the actual cords. 

Cords

The first step in doing cords was to couch down the cotton padding. Since I was starting with a foreground cord, which required 12 strands of cotton padding, I took six strands from my lifetime-supply bunch and half-hitched them on a koma, like this:

This gave me my 12 strands. I then twisted them fairly tightly and wound the twisted strands around the koma. Then it was time to start couching the padding down. 

I needed to do some fairly rapid tapering at the end of the cord, so I couched down all 12 strands about a quarter inch from the end, with two couching stitches 2mm apart. Then I cut six strands off and couched down the remaining six strands 2mm from the last stitch. Next, I cut three strands off and couched down the last three strands 2mm from the previous stitch. Finally, I placed an extra couching stitch near the end, just to make sure it was secure, and then snipped off the last three couching strands. Here's what the tapering looked like:

I then went back to the area with 12 strands and continued couching that down with stitches about 2mm apart:

Mary Alice said this should be a pretty hard, tight cord, so I added twists to the cotton padding every inch or so as I couched to make sure it stayed very tight and firm.

When I got to the other end, I tapered off a bit more slowly, cutting my threads every 4mm instead of 2mm and ending completely about a quarter inch before the end. Here's what the cord looked like once all the couching was in place:

The next step was to start stitching over the padding. I decided to do this cord in dark purple metal thread and lighter purple silk thread, but I started with the metal thread. Each stitch was supposed to be at a 30-degree angle, so I got out my 30-60-90 triangle and carefully placed my first stitch near the end of the cord to set the angle:

Here's my first (roughly 4mm) stitch, in all its glory:

I then worked backwards and filled in the end of the cord with stitches at the same angle but in increasingly shorter lengths to make a sort of rounded end:

And then I continued the extremely tedious of process of stitching down the rest of this cord, checking every quarter inch or so to ensure that my angle was still 30 degrees and my stitch length was still approximately 4mm:

When I needed to end the thread, I came up in the middle of the cord and made my three tiny back stitches, which you can see here:

When I got a little farther along, I began to blend the metal thread with the lavender silk thread I would be transitioning to. There are two ways to blend threads — a quick transition, or a slow transition.

In either one, A is the thread you start with, and B is the thread you end with, so they both begin and end that way. The numbers on the letters in between indicate how many stitches you stitch in that color. When A and B are combined as AB, you generally do one strand of each, though this can vary when using twisted thread.

Quick Transition: A, 1B, 3A, 2B, 2A, 3B, 1A, 5B, 1A, B

Slow Transition: A, 1AB, 3A, 2AB, 2A, 3AB, 1A, 7AB, 1B, 3AB, 2B, 2AB, 3B, AB, 5B, 1AB, B

Now, these are just guidelines. You can vary them however you like. But for my first attempt, I decided to try the slow transition. I did not take pictures of each step along the way because it was tedious enough to just stitch it. But here it is once I'd fully transitioned to the purple silk thread:

There's one spot in the blending that I'm not entirely happy with. But I'm not sure I can bear to do it again. It's so finnicky and involves so many threads. I will probably wait until my motivation is up and try to fix it.

Anyway, the last step was to go around the curve. Stitching around the curve was tricky and involved making the stitches a bit closer together on the inside of the curve and a bit farther apart on the outside. But that's the best tip I have. I really just did it by guess, trying to make it look consistent and smooth (and I think the angle was still off). Here's the end of the cord segment:

I added a grandchild stitch or two to bring the cord closer to the top edge of the fan at a more parallel angle. But this segment is basically done. I think it's all right, though by no means fantastic. Now that I've got the process down, I'm hoping the other cords will go more smoothly, but since there are five other cord segments, I could be spending another 30 hours on these. It's a bleak thought. Maybe I'll enjoy them more when I get better at them.