Young Samurai

In 2008 Jane-Beth attended Teacher Class at the Japanese Embroidery Center in Atlanta, Georgia to renew her teaching certification. "Young Samurai" was the set Teacher Class design. It is obviously a Samurai helmet, and was inspired by "Boys' Day" or Tango no Sekku, which is celebrated on May 5th. This is an ancient Japanese festival and may date back as far as 593AD.

Having done a little stitching on the piece, and worked out the 'How', Jane-Beth decided that it would give me practice if I were to finish it. Well, I know my place, and I liked the design.

Copyright Japanese Embroidery Center, Atlanta

It looks, initially, as though it is a comparatively simple piece to stitch, but it has quite a lot of superimposed work and fuzzy effect. It was fun to stitch, and although only a Phase II piece it definitely reinforced the lessons I had learned from earlier pieces.

Young Samurai is 13" by 9", I spent 90 hours working on it and the time seemed to fly by.

HOW, WHAT and a Crane

With two embroiderers in the house, we do tend to have a large and interesting stash even though we have different approaches to our stitching.
Jane-Beth tells me she is a 'process' embroiderer. She likes to take classes and correspondence courses to find out HOW. Her Hows include; how do you do that stitch, how does that floss feel in the needle, how did the designer come up with that? Once she knows  the HOW, her curiosity is satisfied and she moves on.
I work from the other direction. I have an idea, it becomes a design, and then I think about WHAT. My Whats are; what size of ground, what stitches, what threads, what textures, what am I trying to achieve with this piece? And I keep asking WHAT right up to the last stitch. What if I'd used a different thread or a different stitch?

Being a HOW and a WHAT, we collect threads of all kinds, sometimes because we like the colour, sometimes the texture and sometimes just because it's unusual.
Jane-Beth has an encyclopaedic knowledge of what is in our stash so when this WHAT is looking for something to create a particular effect and isn't quite sure what he's looking for, I go to my HOW and describe it. If we have it, she knows.
I doubt if this WHAT could do what he does without his HOW.

Which is how this piece came about.
Having completed Ribbons, I decided that I would like to do another piece of Rozashi. I mentioned this to Jane-Beth. She rummaged around in the stash and came out with 'Crane'.

This is another Margaret Kinsey piece and uses the same vertical stitch combinations as 'Ribbons'. As soon as Jane-Beth showed it to me I knew she was not going to get the chance to stitch it. Besides, she had already done a HOW on Rozashi.
Crane is 6" square and took 35 hours to stitch.

White Blossoms

October 2004. Sometimes when I look at a piece I have stitched I can't believe it was so long ago.

I started White Blossoms (small design) on a class as Hawkwood. The design is by Shuji Tamura of the Japanese Embroidery Center and it was taught by Tamura-San, Kazume-San and Chikako-San, an apprentice from the centre in Japan.

Class included morning talks in which we were told about the historic, spiritual and artistic background to Nui-do.

Design Copyright, Japanese Embroidery Centre

I don't always remember to put sizes on these pictures - I really should - but for reference, the large white outer circle with all the flowers inside it is only 4½ inches across.

I loved working on this even though I managed to break a sinking needle. It's a beautiful design, but if you don't like stitching Japanese Knots (similar to French Knots), don't even think about it. Not only is the smaller chrysanthemum stitched almost completely in them, they appear in the larger flower circle and some are even hidden under 'blister' work. Without exaggeration I can say that there are hundreds of them.

It too me 90 hours between October 2004 and January 2005 to stitch White Blossoms.

Suehiro

It took me nearly a year to stitch this. I started it in June 2001 and completed it in May 2002. The design is from the JEC in Atlanta and is called Suehiro, or Golden Fan.

Design Copyright Japanese Embroidery Center

This is my Phase II piece. It was a big step up from Nejiri-bana (post of 14th September 2018). The second, 4th and 6th sections from the left are motifs I learned when stitching my Phase I. Compared to the rest they were the simple parts. The 1st, 3rd and 5th sections are worked in flat or twisted silk and then a further pattern stitched on top, while the 7th is couched Japanese Gold.

All things are comparative, that is to say that compared to 3 and 5, section 1 is comparatively simple. First I covered the area with flat silk satin stitch, the stitches running in the same direction as the weft, then I added the superimposed pattern. The pattern is called Sayagata (Lightning) and is achieved by couching a Japanese Silver metallic over the stitched area in a series of zig-zags in a traditional format. What's really clever about it is that all of the couched silver is one unbroken length.

Area 3 is a base of twisted silk which is then topped with a grid of thin metal threads couched at the meeting points to form a star like pattern known as Flax Leaf. The position of each of the superimposed threads has to be measured accurately (in millimetres) or the pattern will not work. Trust me on this, I know how many times I had to take back a thread because it was a fraction out.

Segment 5 is called Tie-dye. It is created by stitching the dark thread between and over (never through) the base of flat silk (again stitched with the weft of the fabric) and is achieved by careful counting.

The far right, 7th segment, including the circular end, is Japanese Gold, couched every other twist, working from the outside into the centre. You might ask why not work from the centre out? What can I say? It just doesn't work if you do that. The angles at the end will not meet properly and the circle will want to become an oval.
Whatever else you learn from what feels like miles of couching, you do learn patience. I suppose you also learn to be accurate first time. All it needs if for the couching thread to cross the gold at anything other than 90 degrees and it screams out at you, giving you no choice but to pick it all the way back and correct it. Yep, I had to do that a number of times!

At first sight many people assume that the background of the superimposed areas is applique, but every part of Suehiro is stitched by hand, including the cords.

I wasn't counting hours at the time, but looking back I consider that every hour I spent working on Suehiro was time well spent.

Something Different

Shortly before the Millennium, Jane-Beth graduated as a teacher of Traditional Japanese Embroidery (Nuido)  through the Japanese Embroidery Centre in Atlanta. This is, in my opinion, her masterpiece.

It is called Sake Boxes and is based on one of the 17th Century Konbin No Fukusa. Fukusa are highly decorative gift covers which are placed over the gift before it is presented.
It's a large piece , two feet high, and a bit over a foot wide. Everything you see is hand stitched in the traditional style using flat silk threads and gold.
And yes, that fabric behind the embroidery is silk woven with gold.

Photo. by permission of Jane-Beth, Design © Japanese Embroidery Center, Atlanta

When she graduated, and this is how I remember it, I made a comment that if she was going to teach Japanese Embroidery then she should find a numpty (translation; idiot, not clever, know nothing, ham fisted - any or all of the above) to practice on. Again as I recall it, her reply was 'I have your first phase piece ready for you'.
Ooops!

To be honest, I was quite keen to try it. This is the result, my Japanese Embroidery Phase One, "Nejiri-Bana" (Twisting Flower).

Design © Japanese Embroidery Center, Atlanta

In Phase One I learned how to mount the silk fabric on the frame. The fabric is stretched through and around split dowel rods until it is drum tight, then it has to be laced onto the side bars of the frame and the lacing pulled as tight as you can get it, to stretch both the warp and weave. The weave has to be kept at right angles to the side of the frame.

The basic thread for Japanese Embroidery is flat silk. You learn very quickly to treat it with respect. If you don't, it can become quite obstreperous.

Sometimes the silk is worked flat, sometimes you need to use a twisted silk, in which case you have to twist your own. In Phase One I learned how to lay flat silk using a Tekobari (Tr. Stroking Needle), and how to twist multiple strands into a perle-like thread. This involves gripping one end of tightly twisted silk in your teeth (I'm not aware of a better way to hold it taut) while you twist the next part. Don't let it go loose, is the big lesson. If you let it go it springs back into a knotty coil and you have to start again.
I also learned that you have to be patient, disciplined and focused. Let your mind wander and you lose rhythm and your stitches go anywhere but where they should.
In Phase One you learn how to stitch the basic flowers used in Japanese Embroidery. Working clockwise from the top they are; Chrysanthemum, Maple leaves, Cherry Blossom, Plum Blossom and Pine Trees.

While I was working on this Phase Jane-Beth was invited to display and demonstrate Japanese Embroidery under the "Something Different" section of the Lace Guild annual get-together in Scarborough. Guess who got to do the demonstrating?
Well it certainly was "Something Different", a YOUNG MAN in a KILT doing JAPANESE EMBROIDERY. It certainly gathered a crowd.
It was fun, but it was also freezing in the demo area. My hands were so cold I could hardly stitch and at one point I dropped my 'snips' point down onto the silk. They bounced, but only after piercing the fabric.
Disaster!
What do you do when the point of your scissors make an inch long hole in your silk?
Once I stopped panicking and realised that the rip was not getting any longer I came up with a solution. Add a second cord.

It took me a year to complete Nejiri-Bana. It taught me patience, and the importance of being disciplined and accurate in my stitching. I also learned that the best way to start a period of stitching is to sit at the frame and think of nothing for ten minutes. It clears the mind and allows it to focus on your stitching. I apply these lessons to every piece I stitch or design, and I'd be lost without my Tekobari.

It had to happen!

It had to happen eventually. Peer pressure from friends and fellow embroiderers has finally dragged me kicking and screaming into the Twentieth century. If it goes well I may even dip my toe into the Twenty-first.

So what's he going to talk about? Hand Embroidery, mostly. Over the years so many people have asked if I have a blog or a web site that I decided it was TIME.

The latest (first) news is that I have recently returned from the American Needlepoint Guild annual seminar in Washington DC. This is the eleventh time I've attended seminar and as always it was great fun. There were hundreds of other Needlepointers and there was enough beautiful needlepoint on show in the Exhibit to make your head spin.

Did I win?
Well yes. And got another verbal buffeting about not being on-line, so here it is:

Unicorn Sporran, designed and stitched by Jonathan G Brown

I don't make any claims to be a photographer!

The sporran front is stitched in basketweave on Congress Cloth using two strands of Soie d'Alger. The background is a grid of green filled with blue, a nod to the main colours in my kilt and the Unicorn uses three whites, two golds, a silver and of course a red. The sporran was made for me by a well known Edinburgh sporran maker.
Why a unicorn? I wanted to make a sporran front and the Unicorn is a Scottish heraldic beast. The original design had a wide diadem for a collar but when I sent it to the Lord Lyon's office I was told I could use a collar but not a diadem.
My sporran was awarded First Place in the Non-Professional Adaptation Class and was also awarded the Wearable Art Ribbon. Both ribbons have beautiful hand stitched centres. Thank you, ladies!

It didn't happen overnight, I've been doing needlework of various kinds for over thirty years. It's been an interesting, sometimes disappointing, often funny adventure and I plan to share the printable bits of it a little at a time, along with pictures of my work.
Incidentally, the white background is the reverse side of a hand made double bed quilt, of which more later.

So why embroidery?
Honestly? It was supposed to help me stop smoking. What can I say?  I'm sure some ancient Greek philosopher said that failure in one venture can lead to success in another, and if he didn't, he should have.
We all have a spark of creativity in us. I can't sing, I don't play an instrument and I can't draw a straight line with a ruler, but I did discover that I could manipulate threads and design embroideries. It's just a case of finding the right art for you.

And this is how it all began...…