Thread Painting and Silk Shading Embroidery E-Book

Margaret Dier

• Herausgeber: Crowood
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Beschreibung

Thread painting embroidery is one of the most beautiful embroidery techniques. Often mistaken for painted art, it shows off the true skill of an embroiderer. This book demystifies the technique and shows how easy it is to start embroidering your own stitched masterpieces. For the true beginner and the experienced stitcher alike it will be a treasured guide, explaining the techniques and providing the inspiration to master this exquisite form of embroidery. Over 600 colour photographs support twenty step-by-step projects that range from a simply shaded topiary tree to a three-dimensional hydrangea bouquet. Guide to getting started introduces equipment you may need, explains how to transfer designs to fabric and demonstrates the long stitch and short stitch. Advice on blending colours and stitching shades together to achieve depth and vitality. Provides inspiration and encourages experimentation to create your own designs. Illustrates historical examples and explains how to reproduce and learn from these pieces, while also showcasing contemporary techniques and ideas for finished embroidery. Over 600 colour photographs support twenty step-by-step projects that range from a simply shaded topiary tree to a three-dimensional hydrangea bouquet.

Leseprobe

THREAD PAINTINGAND SILK SHADINGEMBROIDERY

Techniques and projects

MARGARET DIER

THE CROWOOD PRESS

First published in 2018 byThe Crowood Press LtdRamsbury, MarlboroughWiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2018

© Margaret Dier 2018

All rights reserved. This e-book is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 78500 478 0

Frontispiece: A Shakespeare quote, an Agatha Christie title and a very apt line for embroiderers. A modern thread-painted graffiti – natural shading in stranded cottons with silver thread highlights.

CONTENTS

Introduction

CHAPTER 1   Inspiration and Designing

CHAPTER 2   Colour Theory and its Use in Thread Painting

CHAPTER 3   Materials and Equipment

CHAPTER 4   How to Use your Equipment

CHAPTER 5   Practice Exercises and Starting to Embroider

CHAPTER 6   Tapestry Shading

CHAPTER 7   Natural Shading

CHAPTER 8   Historical and Cultural Styles of Thread Painting

CHAPTER 9   Further Techniques

CHAPTER 10   Finishing Your Work

Appendix I: Templates

Appendix II: Frequently Asked Questions

Acknowledgements

Suppliers

Index

A naturally shaded wild rose worked in stranded cottons. The centre is padded satin stitch and there are shaded French knots for stamens.

INTRODUCTION

I am an acupictor. I didn’t know this until I started researching for this book. It is a Latin term for embroiderer. But when translated literally, it means ‘painter with a needle’, which I most certainly am.

Thread painting, needle painting, long and short stitch, silk shading – so many names for essentially one embroidery technique. So why this one? Apart from being my favourite it also has an air of mystery about it. ‘Is it painted?’, ‘Is it done by machine?’ are just a couple of the comments that frequently arise when people see thread painting for the first time. They just can’t quite believe it is embroidery.

I started embroidery as a child, little canvas kits of birds and my grandma trying to teach me feather stitch with a needle so sharp I didn’t want to hold it. I moved on to working my own designs, teaching myself satin and chain stitch from old books. I then found an article about The Royal School of Needlework. Could I do my hobby as a career? Embroidery all day, every day? It sounded too good to be true, but it wasn’t. I was accepted on to their three-year apprenticeship and yes, did embroidery all day every day. It opened a door to types of embroidery I didn’t know existed. Thread painting being one of them.

This wild rose is the first piece of thread painting I attempted. The design is a mixture of an antique painting for the rose to which I added leaves from my parents’ garden. There is so much about it I would now change; the turnovers on the flowers were padded, that is something I would not do now; I would use more colours in the rose and make the shading more sophisticated; you can also see that the edges of some of the petals are quite uneven and messy. However, I love it as it started me on my journey of discovery of thread painting. Every piece of thread painting has taught me something new and it is important to continually improve and learn from each piece you do.

I love thread painting; yes, I found the idea of it daunting, but I found it the most wonderful technique to learn and subsequently use for so much of my embroidery. I love that you do not need lots of specialist or expensive equipment and can just use needle and thread to create such works of art. You can create a picture with huge amounts of detail, with amazing shading, with texture and depth. I promise you it is achievable. I have taught so many students over the years to love thread painting and it is such a sense of achievement to stitch an embroidery of a favourite pet or a beautiful scene from a holiday.

I also love the freedom that comes from thread painting; although there are rules which you learn at the start, as you develop your thread painting you will break the rules to create your own style.

Thread painting is an embroidery subject that many people feel is too difficult or just a bit scary. It has no obvious way of working like many other techniques do. How do you choose the colours? How do you make it look like the stitches are curving? How do you know which direction to stitch? For the most part it is just one stitch that you have to learn. That’s it.

Thread painting is just long and short stitch. It either goes straight down the fabric without changing direction, known as tapestry shading, or it changes angle known as natural shading. Both these techniques give the effect of painting with the needle; tapestry shading is perhaps more suited to buildings and scenery. Natural shading as suggested by its name suits flowers and animals.

Silk shading is another term for thread painting, referring to the traditional way of stitching with silk thread. These days, however, we have so many different types of threads available that it is a misnomer to refer to this technique just as silk shading.

The key to long and short stitch is practice. There are lots of little tips that will help you achieve beautiful embroideries, and there will be some unpicking. Or backward stitching as it is also known! However, you learn every time you take a stitch out. It is worth it, I promise you.

USING THIS BOOK

I hope that this book is a practical workbook to help you get started on your thread painting journey and then continue to inspire you to work on your own designs.

There are practice exercises to try before you start on any of the projects. If you have never attempted this type of embroidery before I recommend you do practise these exercises as they will help you understand the projects. It is presumed in all the projects that you can embroider long and short stitch and blend colours. If you have tried long and short stitch before then please read the practice exercises chapter in case you have tried a different way of working.

This beautiful church embroidery shows tapestry shading on the face and veil. Additional stitches have been worked over the top of the long and short to add facial details and to catch down the longer stitches on the veil. (Royal School of Needlework, RSN2217)

Most of the projects have a design template at the back of the book, which you can use to trace and then transfer to your fabric. These templates are actual size.

All the projects have the threads and fabric used in the sample picture listed just before the instructions. You may wish to use different threads in your projects, which is fine, but you may need to make the projects larger or smaller accordingly. For example, the poppy project is stitched in one strand of stranded cotton; this project would also work well in wools but you should enlarge the design in order to be able to stitch the detail in the small spaces. In the same way the Jacobean crewel work leaf has been stitched in very thick wools, so if you decided to work it in a fine thread you should make the design much smaller.

Try and stitch your first project with the same type of thread as listed, so you can see how the projects work before you start altering the thread types.

The projects have a guide on how many and what sort of colours to use. This is just a guide. You may have more or less colours in your sample. Use the photographs of the finished projects to match the colours. If you do not have the same number of colours then it does not matter, you will still get a good result. Remember this type of embroidery is quite a free style and therefore it is perfectly acceptable to put your own slant on it. If you wish to add more colours, then that is acceptable too. I have kept the colours to a working minimum to hopefully keep the projects manageable for beginners – if you are more experienced then add more colours as you wish.

You can adapt the instructions to stitch your own designs. For example, the bullfinch project is in a classic bird pose. You can use the instructions to embroider a bird in a similar pose. The instructions for the order of working may differ slightly but they will teach you how to embroider different areas of a bird. Just start at the back of the bird and work your way forward.

This book should lead you onto hopefully creating your own designs too, which is incredibly satisfying. There are helpful tips on what to look for when creating your own designs, how to choose your fabrics and colours and how to mount your work when you have finished.

So pick up a needle, thread it up and start your love of thread painting.

CHAPTER 1

INSPIRATION AND DESIGNING

Embroidering your own designs is so satisfying. Kits are great for starting out but if you want to do thread painting, your options are limited so designing your own pieces is necessary. Creating your own designs can seem daunting and perhaps have you running away with bad memories of school art lessons. However, with a few guidelines and some inspiration ideas, almost anything can be thread painted.

A selection of pansy jewellery embroidered in stranded cottons on silk fabric.

WHAT TO EMBROIDER AND HOW TO FIND YOUR DESIGN?

Start with images that you like and are inspired by; flowers, landscapes, family, magazine and book covers, animals, advertising, films, still life, stamps, a favourite photograph you have taken, an abstract idea, a child’s drawing – anything you enjoy looking at.

Embroidering an image that you like will be much more enjoyable than one you feel indifferent about. You will be looking at it for a long time, so it helps if you have a connection to it.

SKETCHBOOK FOR IDEAS

Think of a sketchbook as a pin board in book form. Bits and pieces that you have collected and put into a book for easy reference and transport. It does not have to be a book filled with sketches, unless that is what you want. You may wish to use a pin board as a starting point for a project and transfer that information to a book, then start another board.

A sketchbook is useful for collecting ideas you may have; photographs, magazine cuttings, seed packets, postcards and greeting cards. Do not try and make a sketchbook neat, tidy and pristine; it is a tool. It is there to spark an idea and collect thoughts. It is personal and for you only. Write all over it; poems, quotes and ideas that come to you in the middle of the night. Or have no words at all and make it a visual reference book to dip into when creative block strikes.

Sketchbooks come in all sizes; a mini one for popping in your bag when out and about and travelling means you will never be without a way of recording an idea.

Larger sizes are useful for planning projects at home and sticking in all the bits and pieces that you need to create an embroidery project. Remember threads and scraps of material can be attached to your scrapbooks. You can also use them to record the projects you have done, what threads you have used, what went well, what you didn’t like about the project or what you would change. It is also good to list where you got the fabric you have used in case you want to repeat the project in the future – you could add a little scrap of it too.

This is a page of an embroiderer’s sketchbook; it has photos, sketch ideas, bits of fabric and some watercolour sketches. There is no theme or order; it is just a page of ideas as they happen.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Although there is unlimited photography on the internet and in magazines, it is much more satisfying to take your own photographs for your embroidery designs.

Camera phones are fine for a starting point for photography. Obviously, you may be limited in details for close and distance focus but they often have good editing tools that can be useful. A stand-alone camera will have more options for focus. Get used to snapping things that you think could be embroidered. Think about how much detail you would like in your embroidery.

For example, if you wanted to embroider a flower, do you want to zoom in on the petals and the centre of the flower and perhaps make the design more abstract?

Or do you want to have a couple of flowers and perhaps a bud or leaf for a more traditional design style? Think about the background. Take the flower photo from a different direction. It may then give you an idea for a colour backing you want to use. Or you may want to include other images in the embroidery such as an insect or piece of wall the flower may be against. Notice the shadows that are being cast on your subject; do they make it hard to see the colours? Are you yourself casting a shadow on the subject? Do you need an extra light source to make a better photograph?

Although in focus, this image of a honeysuckle flower may be a confusing subject for a thread painting; it has shadows cast on it from other areas of the plant which may not make sense if you take it out of its context. Its stem and leaves are also cut off, so you would have to make up these parts if you wanted to add them to your embroidery design.

This would be a much better option for a thread painting. The shadows that are cast on it are from its own petals and leaves so would make sense when embroidered. The background colours in this photograph could also be helpful in choosing your fabric backing. A beautiful sky blue would show this embroidery off perfectly as we can see the sky does in this photograph.

Get used to seeing images when you are out and about as ideas for a thread painting; a window display, a meal, a scene on holiday, an interesting building. Use your camera to capture these little snap shots of your life. Very often you can look back on a photo you have taken and see a thread painting design in it.

With today’s digital age many photographs are just left on computers, phones or storage devices and very often you forget how inspired you were about a subject you have seen. Try and print out or at least put in a dedicated folder images that you thought would make good thread paintings. Creative block does strike and if you have somewhere your inspiring photographs are all collected, then you can use them to spark new ideas.

Copyright

Going on the internet or photocopying out of a book is a very convenient way of getting a design, but really that is someone else’s design, someone else’s hard work; even if it is a photograph, it does not belong to you. Use these sources as inspiration and a starting point but do not copy. The satisfaction of embroidering your own piece that you have designed is immense. It does not take much to change an image to create something that is truly yours.

DRAWING

Sitting and drawing your own design is daunting if you have never done it before. Practice does make perfect so it is worth trying a few drawing and sketching exercises to see where it may lead.

Perhaps start by tracing an image with a pencil to get a feel for it and the shapes it contains; this could be a photograph you have taken as a starting point. Trace as much or as little as you like. It is just an exercise in looking at your image in detail. Then copy this tracing on to white paper by drawing freehand with a pencil. Do not worry if some of the shapes are different, it is just for you so it does not matter how it turns out. If you are not happy with this design then repeat the exercise. Really look at the shapes you are drawing; is it true to life or are you just drawing what you think is there? Very often we have an idea in our mind of what something looks like but in reality, it is totally different.

MUSEUMS

Museums are hugely inspiring for getting ideas. Obviously, textile collections are relevant and can spark ideas of ways of using your embroidery. Historical collections are a reminder of how embroidery has been used for centuries and seeing historical methods can spark a whole new approach to a project.

Historical portraiture is also an amazing resource. Many old master painters, such as Holbein and Marcus Gheeraerts II, would replicate in detail the embroidery and textiles of their sitters. There are many portraits of Queen Elizabeth I where her embroidered gowns are covered in thread painted flowers and beasts.

Many fashion designers reference historical styles in their collections, often as thread painting. Fashions always evolve, but many times they look back to do so.

OTHER EMBROIDERY AND TEXTILE ARTISTS

Seeing how other artists approach their subject is invaluable. Inspiration from other embroiderers is very important and it should push you to create your own style and body of work. Exhibitions, textile magazines and social media are a good way to experience embroidery artists. It does not need to be thread painting particularly but it can help you get out of a creative rut or spark an idea. Use other artists’ work as a starting block to develop your own ideas, not as a way of copying the method or style they have used. A favourite embroidery artist may have embroidered stylized pop stars for example – could you use this as an idea to create famous landmarks or animals in your own style?

This little silk-shaded rabbit from an embroidered casket is a perfect motif for a springtime embroidery design. The hillock could be stitched in tapestry shading with greener shades perhaps and the oversized leaves could be replaced with little sprigs of flowers. The bunny is perfect as he is! (Private collection)

HOW TO REFINE YOUR DESIGN FOR EMBROIDERY

Once you have chosen your design you will need to refine it for a thread painting embroidery project. You will need to do this regardless of how you transfer your design to the fabric. It needs to be simplified so that the image on your fabric is not confusing and is easy to stitch. If you have a design on your fabric with lots of lines it can be hard to see which part of your design is which.

Equipment needed: design source at the size you are doing your embroidery, tracing paper, HB pencil, eraser, sticky tape, plain white paper.

Secure your design to your work surface with tape and place your tracing paper over the top. Make your tracing paper size larger than your finished design size; tape this just at the top edge and a little down the sides. Start tracing just the outside lines of your design. Move then to tracing any important internal lines that you think you will need. If there are lines that are very close together then perhaps just simplify these to one line. Make sure that you trace any important markings or strong shadow lines on to your tracing paper. If they are important to your design, then you need them on the tracing.

Place a piece of white paper under your tracing. This is a good way to check what the design will look like on your fabric. If there is anything that looks odd, lift your tracing paper to see what has happened. Perhaps the design source has darker areas that make it harder to see lines. You may have to draw these on freehand. Keep checking the design with the white paper to make sure it is complete. Refer to your original design and imagine you were stitching it. Would you be able to work out which part is which?

This shows the photograph and the tracing taped down but with the sides and bottom of the tracing unattached, so it is easily lift-able to check details on the photograph.

Try not to copy every line. Just the ones that will enable you to stitch. This is especially important if you are using the prick and pounce method of transferring. Too many lines or ones that are very close together will allow too much of the pounce powder onto your fabric making it hard to mark your design on.

When you have finished your design transfer to the tracing paper, it is useful to copy this so you have reference to write notes on, plan stitch directions and so on. Photocopying or scanning your design to white paper is a good way of doing this.

The pencil tracing is now ready to be pricked for the prick and pounce method or retraced for the tracing method. Do not use the pencil version of your design for tracing, the pencil can transfer to your fabric. Even though the tracing will be underneath the fabric, pencil, if transferred, can mark your embroidery threads. If you are retracing the design, then use a permanent black ink pen on tracing paper. This is to allow maximum light through when tracing using a light box or window. (See Chapter 4 for more on these transfer methods.)

COLOUR AND SHADING IN YOUR DESIGN

Once you have your design in linear format you need to create a shaded and coloured version. If you are working from a photograph that you have taken, you could just use that and get stitching but as a starting exercise it is a good idea to look at the colours you are going to use and how the shading works in your design. It will help you

when choosing your colours if you have already studied the colour ranges in your source picture.

Start with the greyscale shaded drawing; make a copy of your design on to white paper, so it is just the lines you are going to use for your transfer. Using a graphite pencil start shading in the darkest parts of the designs, this will be the shadows and heavy markings. Press hard on the pencil so that it is obvious where the darkest parts are going to be. Then with less pressure on the pencil, shade in the medium tones. Do the same with the lightest tones. Now look and see if there are any other tones, something between medium and dark. Adjust your shading to show this. The more detail you put in the more you are really looking at the light and dark in your design.

This photo shows how a little watercolour sketch can become an embroidery design. The design has been refined to take off the top of the twig and extra highlights have been added to the acorn, as it is very dark otherwise. It has also been made slightly larger and longer than the original – as a designer you can change whatever you want to make the design more pleasing to you.

You may find converting your original coloured image to greyscale on a photocopier or printer can help you in this process.

The next step is to create your own coloured version of your design. Yes, you may be working with a photograph, but perhaps the original is a pink flower and you want to make it a bit purple, or bring in other colours. This stage will also help you with choosing threads; you will have looked closely at the colours and noticed little details and odd patches of colour that will help to make your embroidery more natural.

How you colour in your design is up to you. Colouring pencils are good for beginners as they can be rubbed out easily and you can layer up the colours. Computer graphics can be used or perhaps watercolours. Whatever you are confident in. This is not supposed to be an amazing coloured artwork for a gallery, it is a tool to help you in your embroidery. It is for your benefit.

WHAT DOESN’T/DOES WORK IN THREAD PAINTING

If you want to stitch it… try it. Some things will be easier than others to stitch, but you can edit the design to suit your embroidery and your vision.

Once you have embroidered a few projects you will understand the easy and hard parts of long and short stitch, so this will help you in your choice of design.

Lots of tiny details and small spaces on a design will be harder to stitch. If you are embroidering traditional long and short stitch, you want to try and get a flow to the stitches so think about that when choosing your design. Making your design bigger can help with little details. You will have more room to turn your angles, more space for your shading and therefore perhaps more colours.

This little forget-me-not necklace has been inspired directly from plants in the garden. It is exciting to take directly from nature when embroidering. Nature has been the most inspiring subject for artists; you will never fail to be inspired when you look to nature.

Your imagination is the only thing stopping you. There are rules to traditional long and short but once you have learnt them, break them! It is your embroidery, so create the effect you want. Thread painting is an art form, it is a way to create beautiful art in a technique going back thousands of years, and over the years those techniques have changed many times. They need to continue to do so.

CHAPTER 2

COLOUR THEORY AND ITS USE IN THREAD PAINTING

We use colour theory to a certain extent every day without realizing it. What scarf to wear with a coat? What colour to paint the walls to go with the new sofa? These are all questions that you may use colour theory to answer. You know that a certain scarf looks better with one coat than another. In fact, this is colour theory –you do use it, just without knowing it.

You may feel that colour theory is something that can be overlooked in thread painting; it is too scientific, too complex. Surely you just choose a picture to stitch, look at the thread availability and choose your colours? Not quite, very often the background colour you choose to stitch on can make a huge difference to the outcome of your embroidery. The wrong colour backing can make your embroidery disappear into the background, the right colour can make the embroidery pop out and enliven your work. Then there is the problem of the thread range not having the right colours. Can you still embroider the picture successfully?

The guidelines below will help you understand a little about colour theory for thread painting. We can obviously not mix colours as such, like a watercolour painter, but there are ways we can blend our threads or stitch one shade next to another to give the impression of another colour.

Scientists estimate that we can possibly see up to 10 million different colours. The thread ranges we use have a limited amount of choice; sometimes a good thing, other times not. It is sometimes very tempting to decide to embroider a flower that is perhaps yellow and pick every yellow that the manufacturer makes. This will just confuse things hugely and you will be using some colours that are almost identical. Another option is just to choose a run of colours that belong to the same range, for example five colours that go from light to dark very smoothly. Sometimes this will make your embroidery look very stylized and perhaps flat, which is fine if that is the effect you want, but to make it look natural you will need other colours.

So, it is understanding that although the flower is yellow, to make it look natural you may have to add grey, white, and perhaps colours like lilac. Really looking closely at what we see around us is fascinating, seeing what colours make up our surroundings rather than what we think they are is a constant surprise.

A blue beetle embroidered in natural shading with stranded cottons. The identification tag was based on one of Charles Darwin’s own labels.

THE COLOUR WHEEL

Sir Isaac Newton was one of the first scientists to explore, develop and understand colour theory. His circular diagram of looking at colours and therefore the relationship one colour has with another is still used today.

We can use the theories in the traditional artist’s colour wheel to make good choices in picking our backgrounds and our thread colours.

Primary colours: Primary colours are those that cannot be formed from any other colours. They are red, yellow, and blue. All other colours are a result of mixing these colours together.

Secondary colours: Secondary colours are colours that are formed from a combination of two primary colours. They are green from blue and yellow, orange from red and yellow, and purple from blue and red.

Tertiary colours: Tertiary colours are colours that are formed from a combination of mixing a primary colour with a secondary colour, usually from next to it on the colour wheel. Yellow-orange, red-orange, red-purple, blue-green, and yellow-green.

This is a version of the traditional colour wheel made up from machine spools. It is an invaluable resource for an embroiderer when choosing background colours for your work. It can also help with choosing card mounts or coloured picture fames when you have finished your embroidery.

Left to right; primary, secondary and tertiary colours.

Hints and tips

You can make your own version of a colour wheel with embroidery, coloured paper, watercolour or by buying a colour wheel tool from an arts shop.

COLOUR HARMONY

Colour harmony is a way of using the colour wheel to pick colours that work together in a pleasing way. These combinations of colours will be more balanced and natural. There are many formulas for picking colours from the wheel but the examples here are a few simple ways to help you use the colour wheel in your thread painting projects.

Complementary Colours

These are colours that are opposite each other on the colour wheel, for example orange and blue. The contrast of complementary colours will create a lively, vibrant effect. They create a high contrast. Use this idea when you want something to stand out.

This is useful when choosing a background colour so that your embroidery does not fade into the background.

These four blues all stand out on the orange silk; an embroidery worked in these threads will glow and be enhanced by the background.

These same blues on a turquoise background will just fade away. The turquoise colour sucks the vibrancy out of the thread.

Triadic Colours

These are usually three colours that are evenly spaced around the colour wheel. Imagine an equilateral triangle placed on the wheel, the points of the triangle being the chosen colours. This is useful when you want to create a harmonious design using more than one colour. Sometimes it is useful to make one of these colours dominant and use the other colours a lesser amount. They then become the accent colours that make the dominant colour ‘pop’.

This photo has a red-purple background, with blue-green and yellow-orange threads. The main part of embroidery could be worked in yellow-orange with small touches of blue-green to make the embroidery come ‘alive’.

Analogous Colours

These are colours that are next to each other on the colour wheel. These colours can create a balanced and harmonious effect on your design, are often found in nature and can blend well.

This is useful when you do not have the exact colour you require when stitching. For example, you may have an orange-yellow colour in your design but you do not have the correct colour in your thread range. Blending orange and yellow together in the needle or stitching these colours next to each other can give the impression of the correct colour needed.

A close-up of an embroidery showing that rather than just using a range of blues, extra colours have been added from a blue-green and green range to enhance the main blue shell of the beetle and create new colours. The blue-green and green shades are stitched next to the blue colours to create a turquoise effect. In the darker areas of the head a grey-purple colour has been stitched next to the darker blue colours to create shade without it going too dark a blue.

Split Complementary Colours

These are formed by taking one colour and using it with the two colours either side of its direct opposite on the colour wheel. This scheme is again vibrant and contrasting but less so than the simple complementary colours. Sometimes you may have a brilliant colour fabric that you want to use as a background and are unsure what colours to embroider on it. Using this colour rule would help you pick the best thread colours.

A vibrant blue silk fabric with orangered and orange-yellow threads. All these colours will work together to produce a vibrant design.

Colour Temperature

The temperature of colours is referred to as cool and warm. The colour wheel can be split in two to show this. Generally, we think of red, orange and yellow as warm, and blue, green and purple as cool. However, all these colours can also be both warm and cool. A colour wheel can be used to find a cooler version of a colour. If it goes towards red, it is warmer and towards blue it is cooler.

Warmer colours are vivid and can come out of the design towards you.

Cooler colours are sometimes thought of as calming and generally recede from you.

This rule can be useful if you feel the colour of threads you are working with needs a lift and you want the embroidery to stand out more. You may be using quite a cool range of colours with a warmer background fabric; try adding a cooler colour to your stitching and seeing how much of a difference it makes.

This blue feather on an orange background looks fine and stands out well, but it is quite plain.

The same feather with reds and pinks added is totally transformed. In this sample lots of red has been introduced to show in the photograph, but even just a little touch of red or pink that may not be immediately obvious would have transformed it. Try adding unusual colours to your embroidery in a very subtle way to give it an artistic slant.

The centre of this pansy could have been very easily stitched in black, but a much more interesting colour combination is a dark purple and dark berry colours to stop the centre of this flower from looking flat.

EXCEPTIONS TO THE RULE

All the rules above are useful aids for helping with colour choice. However, we all see colour differently. We all have our favourite colours and there are colours we would never wear or have in our homes. So, it is perfectly acceptable to just pick the colours you like because that is what feels right and pleases you. They may clash, or blend, but if they work for you, then use them. You do not have to always refer to a colour wheel; nature has its own palette and can provide endless colour combinations so look around you if you are stuck. You may also have a favourite scarf or cushion whose colour combinations you love – use those items to help you choose colours.

HOW TO CHOOSE COLOURS FOR A PROJECT

You have your design, your background fabric, you’ve picked a few colours from your stash. Can you get going? Yes, but how do you know if the colours are right? Do you have enough? Do you have too many?

THREAD COLOURS

Take the colour photograph or version of your design to your stash of threads, colour chart or local shop and match as many colours as you think you can see in the picture. It is better to have too many colours at this stage than not enough. If two colours seem identical then put one of them back. You can of course add more colours once you have started stitching, but if you have to order them or wait then it can be very frustrating.

Look closely at the shadows; have you just chosen a darker version of your main colour, if your subject is yellow do you need some purples or greys to help with the shadows? Do not be tempted to rely on black – it can be very harsh, as there could be a lack of colours to blend with it to stop it jumping out.

Look at the highlights; is the highlight white or is it perhaps a light pink or blue?

This tomato could be looked at as just having a few reds and a light pink highlight, as the colours to the left of it suggest. These colours used as they are would create a somewhat ‘flat’ piece of work. To create a more realistic embroidery, look at the colours on the right. Dark rust shades have been chosen for the shadows to give a sense of depth. An orange has been added to the medium tones to give the tomato some vibrancy and in this case the highlight is white, so this has been added instead of a baby pink.

BACKGROUND COLOURS

Once your threads are chosen, you can then select your background fabric. The background colour can make or break an embroidery. A very quick and easy way to see if your threads will work with a background colour is to place the threads flat on the fabric and see if they pop out at you. This is where the colour theory talked about earlier in this chapter will help you to create the best combination of colour.

If you have lots of fabrics to choose from then placing your threads on each of them in turn to see which combination is best is vital. Do not just go with your favourite colour, or think that because you are working a flower, your background fabric must be green.

You can also hold your threads like a bunch of flowers and wrap the fabric around the outside to see if it is a pleasing ‘bouquet’. Doing this may also show a thread colour that doesn’t fit with everything else; if so, remove it. When they are all held together like this it will give you an idea of the overall feel of your embroidery – the colours should all work together.

COLOUR SAMPLES

A useful way to get to grips with your colours is to make a stitched colour sample on a piece of fabric. If you are working on a large frame, then it is useful to do your colour sample alongside your project. It is then always there for you to refer to. Write the numbers down next to the stitched sample so you know exactly which colour is which.

The sample is invaluable to see if your colours blend smoothly; if you notice a big jump between shades then you can immediately see it and add another colour to make a smoother graduation. You may also find that the skeins of thread look very different to each other in your hand but when they are stitched next to each other, they look almost identical. There is no point having threads that look the same, which could get confusing. Leave one of them out. The background colour you have chosen may also affect how a colour looks, so try and work your samples on the same colour background that you are using for your design.

Start by stitching one single colour in a block, either the darkest or lightest in a range. Then stitch a combination of this colour and the next one in the range. Then a block of single colour, then a mix. Continue until you have worked through all the colours. Remember that two or three different colour ranges can be stitched together too. So, try a few blocks with mixed colours such as pink, orange and peach. See if they blend – see if they are stripy. Do you need extra colours from these ranges to stop the striped effect? Do not undo the colour combinations that haven’t worked. They are useful to remind you what doesn’t work with your threads.

This pink colour range has been stitched from light to dark to see if the colours run through smoothly, and then a couple of extra colour combinations have been stitched on the side to check they are not too stripy together. The bottom sample seems a little stripy, but the top combination seems to blend together well. The colour combinations on the side will help you when you are shading to make a smoother-looking embroidery, it is best to try them out first rather than experimenting on your actual piece and having to unpick.

Once you have chosen all your colours for a project, it can help to work a stitched sample with all of them in one long row. This will give you an exact idea of the whole feel of the project by mixing all your colours together before you start. This way you will know exactly which colours to pick when you start stitching.

These samples of threads can also be useful after you have finished a project. Keep them in a notebook with your design and any notes. If you want to re-do an embroidery for any reason, you then have all the colours recorded rather than trying to match to the embroidery, which is difficult when using many colours. You may also stitch a project with similar colours, so you can see what has worked and what hasn’t.

Looking carefully at your design will help to make the right choice in choosing colours. It is not what you think is there; you need to look and see what is actually there.

This colour sample shows a range of peaches and oranges. It shows all the combinations of the light colours mixed together and then the medium and dark colours. In this sample the bright orange in the medium range does jump out more than the other colours perhaps, but it will be a useful colour to add a bit of life to an area if it is looking too bland and flat. There also seems to be a bit of a jump between the light and the medium colours, so more blending between them is necessary to create a smooth effect. It is useful to know this before starting on a project, so you are aware of any possible problems.

This little acorn brooch uses some of the background colour within the embroidered design. This is sometimes a useful way of tying your embroidery and backing together to produce a more pleasing piece. The orange in this leaf is a slightly more subtle shade than the backing to prevent the orange from taking over the embroidery.

CHAPTER 3

MATERIALS AND EQUIPMENT

Thread painting is a relatively easy technique to get materials for and get started on. At its most simple a small ring frame, a piece of cotton fabric and some thread, needles and scissors are all that you need. As you progress and want to make larger pieces, use different threads and advance your skills, there are lots of equipment and materials to make the process easier and more enjoyable.

Start with basics and then progress to more advanced frames and materials. This chapter will explain the different types of equipment you will need from beginner to advanced ability. You may find that one sort of frame suits you more than another; you may also prefer using wool to cotton for example. There are so many different options out there it is important to find what is best for you.

A freestyle embroidery stitched in space-dyed threads on a white linen.

FRAMES

Working any type of embroidery just in your hand can make the embroidery dirty, cause threads to get tangled and distort the fabric. A frame will make it much easier to stitch your embroidery.

RING FRAMES

If you are working on a small project, then a ring frame is more than adequate. It is easy to put the fabric into and you can get started right away. They are also easy to transport, cheap and come in many different sizes. Ring frames can just be held in your hand but ideally they should be supported if possible. Seat and table attachments are available on frames that come with a dowel attached. This allows you to use both hands while embroidering, an important consideration for speed and tension.

Hints and tips

Use a shower cap to cover your work when you have finished stitching on a small ring frame.

The frame in the foreground has a dowel and works with the seat frame on the left. You can sit on the flat wooden attachment and adjust the height of your frame with the screw. The ring frame also has a hinge and screw setting so you can adjust the fabric tension and angle of the frame as needed. The frame in the background is a plastic clip frame; this would only be suitable for small, simple projects as you cannot adjust the fabric tension. This seat frame has many adjustable parts so is more adaptable for positioning your frame.

SLATE FRAMES

As you progress to larger embroideries or ones that you are going to spend a long time on, you can then start using a slate frame. These require more preparation but keep the fabric tighter than you can get in a ring frame, without needing to loosen off. They also allow you to have the fabric pulled evenly in all directions, which helps if you are using two fabrics together. These frames do need to be supported; a pair of trestles is the usual way to work with slate frames but they can be clamped to a table too. They also allow you to stitch with one hand above your embroidery and one hand below. This will enable faster stitching and a more even tension to your stitch, important for all types of embroidery. A slate frame is an investment so make sure you buy one that will accommodate the size of embroidery you wish to do. You should be able to buy extra arms and rollers of different sizes so that they are interchangeable to allow for various sizes of work. If looked after properly, they should last a lifetime.

This slate frame is fully ‘dressed’ and with an embroidery ready to start. Notice that only the part of the fabric that is going to be stitched is uncovered, the excess fabric is all protected with tissue paper.

OTHER FRAMES

There are also lots of other frames out there, some for canvas work, others for quilting or appliqué – to a certain extent you could use them for needle painting but it is important to make sure your tension is tight and pulled evenly all the way around the fabric.

TRESTLES AND FLOOR STANDS

To enable you to stitch with both hands it is important that you are not holding the frame with your hand and when you are using a slate frame, you need something to rest it on.

Trestles are used to hold slate frames, they can be moved to the correct height and width and may allow you to adjust the angle. An alternative, although not as comfortable, is to clamp your frame to a table. G-clamps are useful for this and can also be used to clamp a ring frame.

Lighter weight slate frames and ring frames can also be attached to adjustable floor stands. These have the advantage of many hinges so can be very comfortable for working on in terms of the height and angle of your frame, and can fold up easily for storage.

FABRICS

There is such a huge choice of fabrics it can be quite daunting to know where to start. Thread painting is easiest to stitch on a closely woven fabric. Cottons, linen and silk are all suitable. As thread painting is quite an intensive kind of embroidery, sometimes a backing fabric is used. This gives strength to thin fabrics such as silk.

BACKING FABRIC

A cotton such as calico can be used for backing thinner fabrics. It is best to use a thinner weight as heavier fabric could wear out the thread you are using; also check that it is not too stretchy. The backing fabric supports the thinner fabrics and helps take the strain of the frame. If you are using a thin or translucent top fabric make sure your backing does not have marks, as these can show through on your embroidery surface.

FABRICS TO EMBROIDER ON

Silk, linen and cottons are all great fabrics to embroider on to. They are all natural fabrics, which make them enjoyable to stitch through. If you are embroidering in silk or fine cotton thread you may want to choose a silk fabric as it will complement your embroidery – silk has a natural shine, therefore embroidery and backing will work well together.

Similarly, if you are embroidering in wool you may want to choose a linen fabric; wool comes in thicker options so a stronger fabric may be suitable and both have a more matt finish.

Silk

Silk comes in many different weights and finishes. Ideally it needs to be closely woven and without slubs. You can check to see if it is closely woven by holding it up to the light, perhaps at a window. If you can see lots of daylight and gaps through the fabric weave, then it is probably too loose to stitch on successfully. Dress weight silk is ideal. This will sometimes require a backing fabric as above. Try to keep silk rolled rather than folded after purchase. Fold lines can be difficult to remove and may stay on the fabric even after being ironed or stretched in a frame. It is best to not use steam when ironing your silk as it can cause water marks.

Shot silks are also an option; these are fabrics which have two colours woven into them, one each way. Depending how the light hits them they can look like very different colours. Do be careful that the effect of the background does not distract from the embroidery and that all the colours complement the colours in your stitching.

These three silks are all perfect for thread painting and are very closely woven; the purple silk has a slight ribbed finish but not enough to distract from the embroidery, the turquoise silk has a very flat smooth finish and although the blue has a small amount of texture, it would not interfere with the stitching at all.

These two silks are not suitable for stitching on; the turquoise silk has a lot of tufts and raised slubs and is very loosely woven, so would get damaged if you stitched on it and would probably wrinkle very easily. The raw peach silk has a very loose weave, so it would be very difficult to get a neat edge when stitching and it would not hold up to the intense stitching needed in thread painting.

This silk has been woven with both a turquoise and pink thread. So, it can look blue, pink or purple, depending on how the light hits it.

Linen

Dress and upholstery linen are both suitable for thread painting. Again it comes in many weights. Usually you will not need a backing fabric if you are embroidering on linen as it is strong and usually closely woven. Traditionally linen twill was used for wool thread painting for items such as curtains and bed hangings.

Even weave linen that is used for counted thread techniques such as cross stitch and black work is not suitable as it is not of a close enough weave. The holes in this linen make it difficult to create a smooth edge.

Other fabrics

Cottons are good to embroider on as long as you follow the rules above. Synthetic fabrics can also be used but be careful of fabrics that are stretchy (especially in one direction and not the other) or have additional threads in their weave such as metals, as it can cause problems when embroidering.

When starting out it is probably best to use a plain coloured fabric rather than one with a pattern. Patterns can get distorted around the embroidery if you have a large amount of dense stitching. This is especially distracting on striped or checked fabric. When you get more confident and your stitch tension improves then it can be fun to experiment with patterned fabrics and even other alternative materials, such as metal and plastics.

Slubs and textured fabrics

For thread painting a smooth surface is essential to stitch on, especially for beginners as it makes it much easier to embroider. Slubs are often found in the natural process of weaving, especially with natural fibres. They are thicker parts of thread that occur randomly in the fabric causing lumps if you embroider over them. If your chosen fabric, such as a silk dupion, has slubs try and position your design so that you are not embroidering over them. If you try and remove the slubs you will cause a hole and weaken the fabric, so this is not recommended.

THREADS

Traditionally silk and wool were used for needle painting. Today we have a huge array of thread for embroidery and thread painting especially. As a beginner it is easy to use stranded cotton and wool as they are cheap and easily available. Silk thread is available by mail or web order unless you are lucky enough to have a shop supplier. It is more expensive but gives the most beautiful results in thread painting embroidery. This is often referred to as silk shading.

Choose the thread that suits you and your budget. Great results can be achieved with only a few colours. You do not need to go out and purchase the whole range of colours when you are starting out.

STRANDED COTTONS

Stranded cottons are probably the most widely available threads used for thread painting. Usually they come in a skein. As you pull a thread from the skein you can see that the main thread is made up of separate strands, usually six. In this book we will be using either one or two of these separate strands. Stranded cotton is strong and comes in a huge range of colours, which is a big advantage if you are trying to embroider something and colour match it to a specific design.

Find the end of the cotton that pulls out more easily than the other from the skein and pull out a length for working with (no longer than thumb to elbow); now pull out just one strand of thread from this length – do not attempt to pull more than one or it will tangle.

Cut just this one strand off.

Wrap the other five threads around the end of the skein so that they do not get tangled up. Cutting and wrapping your threads in this way means all the excess threads do not get separated from the skein and mixed up with other colours, which is vital if you are using similar colours in a project. If you cut all six strands off the skein, it can be very easy to mix up all the little bits of threads with one another and potentially damage them.

WOOL

Wool comes in many weights and there are specialist wools for embroidery. These are recommended rather than using knitting wools. Very fine crewel wool can give beautiful results and naturally dyed wool is also lovely to use. Wool for embroidery is twisted but you do not separate the strands. You can of course use more than one strand of wool in the needle for a thicker effect.

From left to right: aqua and lilac very fine wool, a skein and reel as used in the toadstool project, pink crewel wool skein as used in the topiary tree project and thick olive wool skein as used in the Jacobean leaf project.

SILK

Silk, although more expensive and perhaps harder to get hold of, has the most amazing allure for the embroiderer. It comes in many types, from ones that are in skeins like stranded cotton and used the same way, to floss that is as thin as human hair and shines magically when stitched.

It is lovely to stitch with silk so if you are able to use it then do. The floss silk can take some getting used to as it can catch on your skin and shred infuriatingly as you embroider but the results are worth it.

Use caution when purchasing old or antique silk thread. Silk does have a tendency to become weak over time. Antique threads will look very enticing in beautiful colours and wooden reels but more often than not will break as you stitch with them, unless you are very lucky. Also, there is a limited supply, which will be a problem if you run out of a colour halfway through a project. Always use a specialist supplier of antique threads rather than threads you pick up in an antique shop, to be sure of their quality.

From left to right: a spool of fine twisted silk as used in the Leek embroidery project, a spool of Japanese silk, this one sold in a one-gram spool as used in the Japanese blossom project (you can see the thread is made up of many individual thinner stands of silk), a fine silk spool as used in the Opus Anglicanum project, and a reel of antique silk that is unsuitable for stitching use. You can see how hairy and fluffy the strands are.

MACHINE THREAD

Machine thread is used to apply your top fabric if you have a double layer, and to secure the two layers together throughout the design with stab stitch. Polyester thread is ideal for this as it is fine and strong and comes in many colours, which is useful for colour matching to your fabric.

BUTTONHOLE AND THICK LINEN THREAD