Back to work on Hiogi

 After an end of summer hiatus, it is back to Hiogi. I have finished the teal tassel, and am feeling quite pleased about that one too. Cords and tassels are now complete and it is on to finishing snowflakes and the cherry blossoms on the peach coloured cloud.

I am not loving the cherry blossoms in mettallic. I have decided to stop pulling out the petals as I go but am stitching each petal with a separate piece of thread so that when they are all done I can pull out just the ones that I hate the most, and try to stitch them better. Some of the petals are starting to look acceptable, but no pictures to share yet.

I have completed 'Toadstools' by Alison Cole in the past month, for fun. This was a workshop sponsored by Virtual Threads. Chipping is boring to do but the effect is just right. It is at the framer, and I haven't decided what to do with it once it returns. It might be a Christmas gift for a family member, no idea which one.

I am also working on 'Metalwork Squirrel' by Becky Hogg. This is good practice for the goldwork part of Hiogi, especially the circular couching. This is another Virtual Threads workshop. Becky Hogg, formerly an instructor at the Royal School of Needlework, has a lovely line of metalwork projects, mostly birds. I have the Heron kit set aside to work on at some point to. Her instructions are really clear and pretty much guarentee a delightful finish, and learning experience. Each piece is designed to be mounted in a four inch hoop for display when finished, so they are quick illustrations of various metalwork techniques.

more on cords and tassels

 The flame coloured tassel and cords are complete. The karayori  lines on the tassels really work at defining the shape and flow of the tassel, and joy of joys I did remember how to do the round knot. The knots on the edge are made with a gold filament in the thread but the gold doesn't really show up, one or two tiny glints and that is it, so not sure why this was asked for, but the gold is there in case anybody ever asks. The flame cords are finished, and the snowflake bricked, so the lower left area of the design is done.

A friend, who is doing the same level 2/3 piece commented that she had a hand-written note to herself saying to pad the head of the tassel before stitching. I did not do any padding , and I'm not going back now to change it, though it sounds like a really good suggestion, and would make the tassel stand up more from the cord. That is something for others to contemplate with their pieces. I have sent out a message to our instructor for an opinion as to whether I should pad the teal coloured tassel head or not. I think not as this tassel isn't over a cord and the tassel head doesn't really need to be emphasized more that it is.

Looking at the fuzzy effect snowflakes, the lower one is completely bricked, and the upper right one is laid but doesn't have the short stitch holding. I have decided to add a third snowflake, and a stencil of the flake is basted on in the upper left position, but will probably be moved so that it is partly behind the fan. The actual placement will take some more thought. All this is going on while I avoid the cherry blossoms on the peach coloured cloud.

Where things stand at the moment:

Cords and Tassels

 So, after not having great success with the cherry blossoms, so they are just going to sit there as outlined and padded, until I get back to them, I have moved on to work on the cords. I am fairly pleased with the results, so far. with the teal cords on the right hand side, emerging from the grommet. I tried having the metallic thread in the dark section first but really didn't like it, so pulled that out, and re-stitched with solid colour, and put silver in the lighter teal thread. My eye liked that better. I transitioned from dark teal to the light with silver so there is only one transition in the teal cord, but I am satisfied with the blending.

With the flame coloured cords on the left hand side there are two colour transitions. Dark flame to light flame, to light flame with gold.  The tassels is ready for the karayori to be couched on, before the cords can be completed. The Fuzzy effect snow flake needs to be couched too. Progress is being made.

Progress on Hiogi

Making progress on Hiogi, the paulownia buds are stitched and some of the stems are in, the veins in the green leaf ( separated single layer) are on, but the short stitch holding is not complete. the cherry blossoms are basted on , as is the grommet on the main rib of the fan. So what I need to do now is finish pulling away the tracing paper that was used to establish the stitching lines, and do some short stitch holding. I tried the short stitch holding and it is a challenge, so while it looks OK on the spaces in Shippo, it doesn't look good on the paulownia leaf. I think I need to set up some threads on a piece of waste fabric and practice this technique. I do have a piece of habutae and some orphan flat silks so I can practice before I go and ruin something on Hiogi.

Japanese Embroidery adventures

A group of people, all women, in St. John's NL, are working on phase 2/3 of Japanese Embroidery through the Jaoanese Embroidery Center. Our teacher has come to us from Edmonton AB, and was supposed to come in April 2020, needless to say that did not happen, so in the time of Covid 19 we have been learning via Zoom. With Zoom classes, two people were able to finish up their phase one pieces, two of us were already done, and now four of us are at different stages of the phase 2/3 piece called Hiogi.

Here is the piece with the pre-work done, the temporary holding threads on the top section are in correct, and had to be fixed before stitching there could begin, not a big deal ( fortunately).

There are some advantages to the Zoom style of learning. We can have shorter sessions spread out over time so that we can concentrate on one or two areas of the piece and then finish them before moving on to the next bit. Also we can discuss the prework that needs to be done for and  have it ready for the next zoom session, so we don't waste time stitching the foundation in class time but have it ready to do. Twisitng threads for classes can be done ahead of time too, and that can save a large chunk of class time. It looks like we will be able to have large chunks of this piece done before we will really need to have the teacher physically in the room with us. It is exciting to see it advance.

I found the woven effect ( in blue with a touch of gold) paulownia leaf hard, as the individually threads seem to swim together when you want to catch a specific thread to couch it down. And of course I managed to bleed on the white foundation thread for the tie dye effect leaf. Spit and blot, and tear out a section of thread, and changing the shape of the leaf slighlty fixed that little nightmare. However, the short stitch holding may defeat me.

I think the best way around this is to set up a hoop, and lay some flat silk and figure it out. And do a section of twisted thread too. I do have some Habutae and some orphan flat silks in my stash so this is possible.

I will add a photo of where I am as of today.