Jacobean Piece Completed

It's done! I finally finished my Jacobean piece yesterday. I started designing this piece in early July of last year, and I began stitching it around the end of August, so it's been an 11-month journey overall. I didn't work on it continuously, of course. I was learning Japanese embroidery during this same time period, and I spent much more time on that. In fact, I completed three JE pieces and got very close to finishing a fourth one within the last 11 months.

I generally worked on my Jacobean piece as the motivation and inspiration struck me. But this was a rather delightful way to work on it because I ended up learning many fun, new techniques and really loving each element. 

When I set to work on it yesterday, I just had a couple of short stems and the pomegranate left to do (though they ended up taking me nearly six hours to complete). I decided to do the largest remaining stem in raised stem stitch, which I've never tried before but really like the look of. I placed my parallel stitches and then started doing the stem stitch process over these:

(I was working this piece upside down at this point, which is why it looks like I worked the stem from right to left.) I did two rows of this very dark thread to create a bit of shadow on the bottom edge, and then on the top edge of the stem, I did two more rows in just one shade lighter:

I really like it. It's such a cool looking pattern — very simple and neat and perfect for this stem. Next, I did the stem below in outline stitch but the curlicue in stem stitch because of the direction of the curves:

The outline stitch is very thin and delicate, which is what I wanted for this little drooping set of flowers. The stem stitch on the curlicue is a bit thicker, but it looks kind of like a curling leaf, which I rather liked.

The last step was the pomegranate. When I first started my work on this yesterday, I decided the pomegranate crown was too large. It overwhelmed the rest of the pomegranate and came too close to the large flower below. So I unpicked my stitches and put in a new, smaller crown that fit the pomegranate's size a bit better:

This is one of my favorite things about the stitch transfer method. It's so very forgiving and allows you to alter things any time you like. You can still see the stitch holes from the larger crown (which had five petals instead of three), but a little water dabbed on it and then allowed to dry easily removed those.

With the design adjusted, it was time to stitch. I decided to do the pomegranate in rows of stem stitch and started with two rows of my lightest shade of peach for the inner edges:

I went with this very pale shade here because the inside of a pomegranate has very pale flesh around the seeds. For the rest of the pomegranate, I used my medium shade of peach and then gradually blended into the dark coral color:

If you've read my earlier posts about this project, you'll know I've had issues with that dark coral before. These colors are all in the same family and look very pretty together, but I've always worried that it's too dark (and possibly too orange) for this piece. For that reason, I've never used that color anywhere else in this piece.

So why did I use it here? Well, the medium peach is a lovely color, but it just doesn't convey pomegranate like I wanted it to. It's a bit too light. Pomegranates are usually much darker. I felt that this particular element really needed something a bit bolder. But I freely admit that even at this point, I had my doubts. Nevertheless, I pressed on to the leaves at the top:

They're stem stitched in a lighter shade of the teal. I wanted something simple and leaf-like, and this did the job for me and wasn't too obtrusive.

It was then time to move on to the pomegranate crown. This part is usually lighter in real life, so I decided to stitch it in the medium peach, using a split stitch this time:

The split stitch gives a slightly different texture but works well with the rest of the pomegranate. As you can see, I also added a small lattice to the center of the pomegranate. Alas, sometimes I get really focused on my stitching and forget to take pictures of each step. 

Ordinarily, I would couch down the corners of the lattice to hold them in place, but that does give the lattice a slightly different look. And it looked so precise and tidy as it was, that I wanted to keep this look. Since this pomegranate is only slightly larger than an inch wide and none of the stitches in the lattice is even a centimeter long, I decided not to couch them down. Instead, I just added my peach beads to the centers of the squares:

I love the beads. They look so shiny and jewel-like, just as real pomegranate seeds do. And then, because I wanted a touch of silver to tie in this element with the rest of the piece, I added some delicate 371 silver thread around the pomegranate, as you can see above. On its own, this is such a sweet, charming little pomegranate. I really love it ... by itself. 

The only question for me was how well it would tie in with the rest of the piece. Well, you can judge for yourself:

When I look at the above picture, I confess, I'm not entirely sold. The dark coral certainly works for the pomegranate, but I have the same hesitations about it for the piece. My sister loved it and thought it was the perfect bright little spot in the overall design. Maybe she's right, and possibly my personal aversion to orange is blinding me to its virtues. 😂

I will say that, in person, it looks much better to me than it does in the photograph. In real life, the other elements appear so much brighter and more vibrant that the pomegranate doesn't really stand out as much. It's bright, but not overwhelmingly so, and it doesn't distract as much from the rest of the piece. So I'm going to stick it in a chest for now. Perhaps someday, I'll frame it up again, rip out half the pomegranate, and do it all in the medium peach color. Or maybe six months from now, I'll pull it out, decide I love it, and just go have it framed. 

For the moment, though, I think it's time to move on. I've really enjoyed working on this piece. I think it turned out very whimsical and enchanting, with its huge variety of techniques and materials. It was a challenge at certain points, a joy most of the time, and an excellent learning opportunity throughout. But after nearly a year, I'm ready to try something new. And that ribbon embroidery kit is simply calling me.