It's been a busy few weeks, but what else is new? I ended one job and start another tomorrow. I also bought a house a few days ago! I'm really excited, but as with most things, good things come to those who wait. And as this particular house is a new build, I will be doing a lot of waiting. Probably 8-10 months. But I'm sure it will be worth it in the end because I get to customize quite a lot of things to my tastes.
Anyway, with my house hunt finally over, I found some time this weekend to get back to my Japanese embroidery. And once again, I was working on the everlasting cords. I was determined to complete the cords on the right side of the fan, and I had one to go. The last cord was in gold. I started with the light gold and then did a slower transition to the dark gold (very similar to the transition to the metal thread that I did on the teal loop):
I think I just prefer the slower transition in general. It feels more subtle and natural. I did that bit yesterday, and today, I finished off the cord:
I think they look nice, and I really love these colors together.
With the three cords complete, I could now move on to the outer part of the grommet, which is in the background. I started with five strands of cotton padding, doubled over and twisted tightly, and couched down the padding in sections, starting with the left:
My tutor said to taper at the corners like you do with the corners of maple leaves, instead of stitching down padding continuously. I think it's supposed to give a more defined corner. Here's the middle section completed:
There's just a slight gap between each section, and there's much less padding in those corners. Aaand here's the last section:
I had some concerns about the diagonal layer stitching over those corners because it's a tricky stitch at the best of times. So I started in the center section with two strands of flat silk:
I ended up having to redo the right side of that and it took me several tries on each corner to get it looking relatively decent, but I think I achieved a nice looking grommet in the end:
I'm really pleased with it on the whole. The angle of the stitching isn't always flawless, but it looks fairly smooth, the width is pretty consistent even around the curves, and the cotton padding is well covered. So I'm satisfied. Here's that right side in full:
Obviously, I still have to finish the tassel, which is just a foundation at present. But I don't know how to do that yet, so it will have to wait till my next JE lesson. But I'm pleased with my progress.
Since I start my new job tomorrow and new jobs are always a little intense at first, there may be another delay till I post again. But I'll work on this as I have the energy and the time. Here's hoping I have a little more of both than I have these last two months. 😊
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