Last time, I had finished stitching the flowers on my Midori silk purse, so it was back to the leaves. Because it's easier for me to stick to one technique as long as possible, I stitched all the foreground leaves that were supposed to be done in diagonal layer:
Some of these are a little better than others, the angles vary more than they should, and the edges aren't quite flawless. But I swear, this represents about a dozen hours. I took stitches out and redid them many, many times. In Japanese embroidery, they have a saying: time equals skill. And this just represents the skill level I'm at right now. With more time, practice, and projects, I'll get better. But since I was on a deadline, I couldn't futz over these forever.
In this next photo, I added the tiny little leaf second from the left, which is stitched by couching down rows of #1 twisted silver thread using Japanese holding stitch in white couching silk:
This was a somewhat easier stitch for me to do, and my progress moved along a little more swiftly:
At this point, I moved on to a few new stitches, but I forgot to take pictures, so I'll just summarize. I outlined a couple leaves in two rows of #1 twisted silver thread held down by regular couching (e.g., the highest currently stitched leaf in the center of the picture below). I also stitched the flower stems in this gorgeous #1 pale sea green metal thread (the calyxes are stitched in long and short, and the stems are in diagonal layer). But it was getting to be a lot of silver for me, so I decided to stitch a few leaves in #1 antique gold metal thread to vary things up and also tie into the pale blond gold leaf around the mother-of-pearl flowers:
And here's a little more progress:
I did remember to take a couple pictures of the bigger leaves, which were stitched in a combination of Hon-komadori (similar to round and round couching) and Tate-gashi (basically to-and-fro).
I started with a pair of #5 silver threads on the right, went up to the tip and down the left side, but then instead of going along the bottom and back up the right side (which is what you'd do in round and round), I went up the left side to the tip:
I then couched my pair back down the right, repeating the whole process until the entire tip was filled in:
The result looks a lot like round and round couching. The bottom of the leaf was more rectangular in shape, and this is where I stitched the to-and-fro pattern in #5 silver thread. It ends up looking very much the same as the top of the leaf (but I forgot to take a picture of just this part). Still on the hunt for more variety, I decided to stitch some of the other leaves like this in my #4 majorca thread, which is a variegated blend of silver, gold, and brown:
I really like the variety. And here is a photo of all the leaves completely stitched:
I thought I was done at this point (woe is me), so I did the finishing process and stitched on my name label (so it won't get confused with anyone else's while it's being made into a purse):
I was so proud of myself for finishing in time (or so I thought). This was my final shot before I took it off the frame, wrapped it up carefully, and shipped it with tons of insurance to Mary Alice:
But at my next JE class in August, right after I'd sent it, Mary Alice mentioned she just had to finish the beads on her own purse before shipping them all off to Japan. And that's when I realized I'd forgotten to stitch on the little rows of silver beads that go alongside some of the leaves. Le Sigh. I was so annoyed with myself.
I could have had her send it back to me, but I was worried about holding up the shipping to Japan (and increasing the chances of the work getting lost during two additional rounds of shipping), so I was on the verge of just forgetting about it, but Mary Alice offered to stitch them on for me and then ship the purse.
I could have wept with gratitude. She is a fabulous bead embroiderer as well, so they will undoubtedly look much better if she does them. I do normally like to do all my stitching myself, but I kind of love the idea that both Mary Alice and Midori will have done a little stitching on this purse. They've both taught me so much, so it will make this an even more treasured keepsake, having had a little stitching done by two exceptional Japanese embroiderers.
My next update will be when I get the purse back. Midori is going to Japan next February and will hand carry them to the U.S. to make sure they don't get stolen during shipping (apparently this happens sometimes because Japanese embroidered pieces are highly valued). I really can't wait to see the finished project.
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