While working with Nicola, I asked her advice on the Trevelyon’s Cap project I’m doing now. I’m not happy with it at all. The solution I was happy with a few days ago I’m not pleased with now. The long, narrow leaves just look too heavy, or too overwhelming, or too childlike or too…something! And the red flower in the middle looks the same way – but I couldn’t put my finger on exactly what was wrong.
Looking at photos on my computer (it’s framed up so I hadn’t wanted to carry it on the airplane) the first thing she said was “When you’re working on such a small scale, everything must be on a small scale.” Obvious, I suppose, to an artist, but it hadn’t been to me. My materials must be on the same small scale as the piece.
So we began a sampler of different combinations of threads to see what might work for the cap project. The first thing we did was to stitch a leaf in corded Brussels stitch using Mulberry silk thread. This thread is more tightly wound than the Pearsall’s silk and works far better for detached stitches. The result, above, was much finer in texture.
