Antique Mirror Foundation

The foundation of the round foreground mirror is done. I'm all set for Mary Alice Sinton's class this weekend! I'm looking forward for some pointers on doing the blending thread, as I'm not too happy at the way they turn out in the trial areas.

Faded Treasures

The gold paper strips woven in the weft direction make it easy to lay the weft foundation. In places where the background showed through, it emphasizes the bronze mirror. I think this is the right fabric for this piece. I mapped out the color changes for the foreground mirror.

I tested out the blending color at the top section, to make sure it is ok. The blue and brown patch at top left and the top edge are the blending threads that cover up the needle holes

Pooky is keeping me company, sleeping on my spare (and currently unoccupied) Japanese embroidery frame.

Faded Treasures

Got started on Faded Treasure (or Antique Mirrors). Initially I was disappointed that it did not come in the mottled red-brown fabric of the photo. Now I think the nishijin mottled black gold is prettier, although it is challenging since the fabric is unforgiving of mistakes, and the outline was hard to see because of the reflection. It got better after a while. So far the weft foundation was not too bad. I will have lots of practice with superposition and cords; I did not do either technique well in the earlier phases.
All the motifs will be covered up once the foundation is in place - and then they need to be transferred back on top of the foundation.

Hydrangea Leaves

The leaves look nice with the veins  in. This fabric (Sha) turns out to be really easy to stitch - as there are definite delineated rows, making weft foundation really a breeze to do!