At last, after the happy busy-ness of Christmas, I have time to sit down and catch up with my blog. Hopefully my internet connection, a bit dodgy of late, will stay connected for long enough for me to complete this.
I have now finished the stitching on the outside of my scroll. It was difficult to get a good photograph, but I'll put a few different views:
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3.9. January 06. overall view of outside
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| 3.9.January 06. another view of outside |
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| 3.9.January 06 detail of outside |
I used a pale brown thread on top, as close to the background colour as possible. In the bobbin I used a pale blue, a close match to the colour of the printing on the outside. This produced a nice effect on the inside of the scroll, subtle and interesting, but not enough contrast to fight with the individual ammonites that will be applied thereon. See below:
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| 3.9.January 06. inside of scroll |
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| 3.9.January 06. detail of inside |
In between working on the scroll itself, I've been working away on using different techniques for individual ammonite shapes to apply as slips to the inside of the scroll. I've used beadwork, machine embroidery, French knots, layered fabric with border stitches, satin and long and short stitch, cut away applique and net layered over dyed cotton with a variety of hand and embroidered stitches. In the photograph below, I have laid them out in a trial layout. To add a bit more colour and variety, I have scattered various Dorset buttons between the ammonites, kind of vaguely thinking about bubbles under the sea where the creatures would have lived originally.
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| 3.9.January 06. trial layout for inside of scroll |
I can't decide with the ammonite roughly in the centre, with a blue spiral surrounded by flame-like red, orange and yellow stitches, whether to leave the dark blue edging, or, as I had originally planned, to turn it under and slip-stitch the shape in place. I quite like the effect of the dark blue outline, but it does emphasise that particular shape at the expense of the others. Mmmm ... a bit of thinking to do. Any feedback would be very welcome.
