Sunday, October 09, 2016

FNwF/ Goldwork Workshop

Hello Dear Reader,

I stitched along with FNwF, however, yesterday I went to a Goldwork workshop, held at my local handicraft group. Therefore I haven't had a chance to take photos of Friday night's stitching yet .... I hope to do this later today .... and to be able to show you the new key tray I was making on Friday evening!

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If you've done Goldwork before please excuse me ..... as it's new to me ..... and I'd especially like to show my mum what I am working on  (she follows me on-line, although her sight is very limited, and we do not see her as often as I would wish, as she lives some distance away). I also like to put this on my blog as it acts as a very good reminder should I want to look back at my work in the future.

Our tutor on the Goldwork Workshop was Jenny Beal who is Vice Chairperson of the handicraft group. We are extremely fortunate for her to tutor us as she was trained at the Royal School of Needlework.

The aim of the project was to demonstrate different ways of attaching gold wirework onto fabric. I should make clear we were not working with real gold, its imitation gold, however, it has completely gone out of my head what the material actually is, and I will find out at the next meeting of our handicraft group.

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The fabric to be worked has to be held in a very secure frame, so the first thing Jenny showed us was how to put a frame together and tack the fabric into place.

Jenny had prepared the fabric, drawing the pattern onto the silk ready for stitching,
and attached the silk to the backing fabric ready to hold the silk in place in the frame.

Fabric pulled tight, and tacked to the frame.

With a No 10 needle, which I found very small, and red Sylko cotton to couch the Imitation Gold (named Imitation Jap Gold No 9), after running the cotton thread through beeswax .... which makes the thread stronger, and also helps it to pass through the fabric easier .... (quilters will already be familiar with beeswax ..... and, in fact mum mentioned only the other day that she had used beeswax in the past for her quilting).

Imitation Jap Gold No 9 - First to be used.
Stitching the Imitation Jap Gold.  
From this photo I see that I haven't done a very good job as there shouldn't be any gaps between the gold threads .... I guess the lighting wasn't as good as I thought when I was stitching!

I don't mind admitting to errors, amongst friends .... after all, as I said earlier, this is the first time I have attempted Goldwork, and the experts like our friend Jenny have spent many months and years perfecting their skill, and this was only a few hours' work, and, after all, that is how you learn, isn't it, by trial and error?????

Then we "parked" our threads and needles and started adding felt circles


Attaching felt circles .... just a stitch to keep them in place (so I don't loose them) until I can work on them further!

These were next ... cut into small pieces for beads.

This was my first attempt but it's really way too large

My felt pieces were too large to start, here I've cut some smaller and also tried to bunch some of the felt up with stitches to make the circles smaller! Starting to add more "beads" to the third circle.
You can also see the row below being couched into position - this was Gold Purl Super.



As we didn't have much time for all Jenny wanted to show us, we "parked" our threads
by attaching them by their relevant needles in the margins while we learnt other techniques

This will be a seasonal decoration .... there will be more, as I do intend to finish this soon!

I hope you are all having a super weekend.


Hugs,
Barbara xxx

Linking to France Nadeau's Fabric, thread and yarn link party - No 41
I urge you to have a look at France's link party! There are some lovely projects to see!

20 comments:

Queeniepatch said...

Thank you for sharing this very interesting and impressive workshop. Are you sure you have not done Goldwork before? Your work looks fabulous to me.

sunny said...

That looks very interesting. I haven't heard of it before. Isn't it fun to learn something new?

Pamela said...

Very nice. I would like to take a goldwork class. This piece looks like a good project to start with.

Alex said...

A coincidence indeed!! That is a lovely design and it's really interesting to see your progress through it. I really like those chip covered circles!

Bea said...

I'm glad you were so detailed - I've never seen this kind of work before. Your ornament is lovely, period. Can't wait to see more.

Lin said...

Looking good Barbara. It's many a year since I did any goldwork (C&Gs probably!) but I still have some threads stored safely away.xx

Christine B said...

Barbara your bauble is looking beautiful.... can't wait to see more! Christine x

Carol- Beads and Birds said...

I have never seen this technique and found your post MOST interesting. Do you like this process? I think it's pretty cool!
xx, Carol

Mii Stitch said...

That is promising to be fantastic!!!

Raewyn said...

Gosh this is going to be so lovely - what an interesting workshop to go to!!

Chris of UK City Crafter said...

Oh workshop envy! You are doing a great job with your goldwork, I look forward to seeing your work all completed.

ukcitycrafter@live.co.uk

France Nadeau ❅ inspiration imagination creation said...

For a first, I think you did pretty well. I've never tried this technique myself and it looks interesting. Thank you for showing us the steps of your learning class. I liked reading about it. :-)
Thank you for participating to my Fabric, Thread and Yarn link party. Have a nice week!

Summer said...

I love that gold. Very pretty ♥

Glenda said...

Hi Barbara, you don't ever need to apologise for showing some thing there are lots of sewers thirsty for detail on any subject and there is always a new craftsmen who want to know the basics, you have shown us a wonderful tutorial here step by step, all though I have watched my mum do gold work when I was a child I found your tutorial very very interesting, do love love that bowl shape you are working on. Glad to see you back been motivated. Glenda

FlashinScissors said...

Thank you Glenda.

I didn't really mean to write a tutorial. I suppose I was just so excited by the whole process I got carried away with the photographs, and wanted to share them with all my blogging friends!

It's so rewarding that people have enjoyed reading my post.

I really appreciate yours, and all the other wonderful comments that have been made here.

Thank you Glenda, and everyone else.

Barbara xx

FlashinScissors said...

Thank you Alex, I squealed when I saw your Goldwork, and you have really inspired me to do make some Goldwork of my own design when I have finished this project!

Barbara xx

Brigitte said...

This must be a very interesting workshop, Barbara. I have never seen goldwork before but I have heard of it. Great to see your tutorial and see how it is made.

Wendy said...

looks like a great workshop! I did a goldwork workshop with a RSN tutor too, she was brilliant. I think the imitation gold does have a small percentage of gold in it - though maybe not the Jap, maybe that was the purl or the stuff you cut to make chips with. I've forgotten a lot of the terminology though, though I did finish my piece recently!

Plum Cox said...

Wow! What a great start - my late MiL was fab at goldwork, but I'd never considered how many different types of gold threads she too must have been using. This was a real eye opener - thank you! Keep up the good work!

Jo who can't think of a clever nickname said...

I did a goldwork class many years ago (pre children!) but it wasn't for me. Your's is looking lovely. I hope you do finish it and show us all.