Embroidery Class- Learning Shadow Work

Here are a few photos from embroidery class today! I have yet to finish the embroidered Toad stall we had been working on (sadly not enough hours in the day at the moment), but full steam ahead with learning and today we've started on a piece of Shadow Work. I'm fascinated by the technique- I'd never tried it before, but having seen our very talented embroidery tutor's examples of how to apply the technique, I'm keen to experiment!

Firstly we traced the bluebell design onto a double layer of Organza fabric and secured with an embroidery hoop

We then started to fill in the outline of the design with tiny back stitches

To colour the design we used tapestry wool and a crewel needle, sandwiching lengths of wool between the two layers of fabric, within the back stitched outline. You poke the ends of yarn into the fabric pocket with the back of your needle to give a neat finish to the back

This is how it's starting to take shape!

This is one of our embroidery tutor's examples of a shadow work embroidery piece she has made- a really inspiring example of how the technique can be applied! 

I'll keep you up to date on the embroidery progress- hope to have a couple of finished pieces to share with you soon!

Embroidery class part 2!

Following on from my first embroidery class post, today I wanted to update on how the embroidery is coming along! 

We have finished our first piece, a small flower sprig that allowed us to practice french knots, stem stitch and satin stitch. I'd like to immortalise the finished piece as a card or a notebook cover. Perhaps as an embroidery class notebook cover, decorative and useful! 

I'm finding the classes so therapeutic that at the moment I just want to embroider everything, so I can feel lots of notebook covers and cards coming on! 

This is our next project! I'd love to say that this is the one I've made, but this is our very talented tutor's piece- a super cute mushroom painted with acrylic paint on canvas and embroidered over the top using stem stitch, satin stitch and french knots. Isn't it so pretty! Such a clever idea to combine the painting with stitch

So today we set about creating our own version of the mushroom! We stretched calico onto our embroidery hoop and traced the image onto the fabric in pencil

Then we had great fun colouring the drawing with acrylics! 

Once dry, we began embroidering the outline of the mushroom in stem stitch. Our homework is to continue adding the embroidery and I'm so looking forward to carrying on with it tomorrow!

At the start of the new year I decided that I wanted this to be a big year for learning so I'm really enjoying having a dedicated time devoted to learning these new skills and I'm looking forward to reflecting what I've learnt in my work.