Here's the next applique-in-waiting to be attached to the robe. It's silverwork on silk gauze, dyed, and backed with linen. 3 3/4" x 2 1/4". Another rose, as you see.
Up to a few minutes ago it was mounted on a linen piece, with raised areas done by soaking with pebbles and rubber bands. It still has a linen support, and I'll whip stitch around it with silk thread to reinforce it before I attach it to wherever it ends up on the robe..
The rest of the linen will find a home somewhere I expect.
The difference between the silverwork and the goldwork is that a lot of my gold threads are real gold, given me by a goldwork teacher who could see I was serious and couldn't afford this very pricy thread. Gold doesn't tarnish so it won't change. Silver does tarnish and can't be cleaned, so the lovely stitching turns black in no time. So this thread is silver-colored only, not the real metal.
I love this little piece. I was stitching it at a stitch-in-public event and several people decided to take up, or resume, embroidery, when they saw it in progress. It's appealing.
I explained how I'd designed it and how they could too. That's surprising to folk who think of stitching as predesigned by someone other than the stitcher. You can definitely design for yourself, if you want to.
This is couching, where the metal thread lies on top of the fabric, secured by tiny stitches.
In this design I made the stitches invisible to emphasize the silver, but you can introduce color into couching threads, to shade the motif, as I did with those leaves and acorns. It's slo-mo painting with thread.
