Phase 3: Sayagata Pattern

I learned how to do the sayagata, or lightning, pattern in my JE classes this weekend, and I finished the pattern yesterday evening. So now I can show you how I did it.

I started this process by laying the quilting paper with the sayagata pattern printed on it over the foundation and basting around the edges to hold it in place. I accidentally put the printed side down, which is risky because the ink can rub off on the material, but fortunately this didn't happen. Once it was basted down, I began stitching the lines using a half-hitched strand of #1 copper thread:

I had thought that I would just transfer the pattern lines with couching silk (like the stitch transfer method) and then do the actual goldwork after removing the quilting paper, but apparently for sayagata, you do the actual stitching through the quilting paper. So I stitched all the lines in one direction first:

Then I went back and started stitching the perpendicular lines. I placed these stitches just beyond the edge of the first lines to try to achieve a sharper corner where the lines met:

Then I stitched all the lines in that direction:

You can see that I removed that bottom corner of the quilting paper. I had to check and make sure none of the ink had rubbed off onto the silk, but happily, crisis averted!

With all the lines stitched down, I began the painstaking process of using my tekobari, my tweezers, and my fingernails to carefully remove the remainder of the quilting paper, while trying not to disturb my lines too much:

Alas, I think I did disturb some of the lines a bit, but I got the paper off, and I didn't think it looked too bad:

You can see on the bottom right that I started to couch down the lines in roughly 2.5mm intervals with a coppery-colored silk couching thread. But for short segments, I just couched in the center of the line. Here's the couching completed:

The last step was to remove the temporary holding threads, which was trickier than I thought it would be. Sometimes they didn't want to come out, and I had to get creative or tug pretty hard. Also, once I removed the holding threads, the tacking stitches that had held them down didn't quite "sink" into the foundation like I imagined they would. But I just gently stroked the silk and then they seemed to disappear pretty well. Here's the final pattern completed:

The sayagata lines aren't flawless — in some spots, the angle of the lines is a little bit off — but overall, I think it looks really pretty. And I couldn't actually fix it without starting completely over, from the foundation up. So I'm just going to accept it as a good demonstration of my current skill level. And really, for my first ever attempt at sayagata, I'm quite pleased. It does create kind of a cool lightning effect. And I really love the copper against that tropical sea blue silk.