Embroidered Collage

Erica Wilson defines crewel embroidery as surface embroidery worked in wool.  That can cover a lot of ground, but historically it brings to my mind the Jacobean bed curtains and then the more recent projects from the seventies.  I had never tried the technique but a couple years back I bought a kit that refers back to the former for inspiration.  It is designed by Carolyn Hook and called "Jacobean Impressions I."  The thread used is actually Caron Impressions, a wool-silk blend that I believe is a little finer than traditional crewel wools.

I was feeling the yen to do a bit of traditional embroidery so over the weekend I finished a cross-stitch sampler from my pre-original art days then unearthed the crewel embroidery kit from my stash.  Each flower represents a couple hours of stitching.  The width of the blue one is a little under an inch, for reference.  The petals of both flowers are made of long and short shading stitch while the green portion is satin stitch.  There are some more complex stitches elsewhere in the piece which I haven't gotten to yet.  I used a small hoop for this work and do not think I would have been able to keep the tension properly if I had not.  Since the threads pull over a larger area in such density, they distort the fabric more than most counted embroidery.

It is a very different feeling to stitch so closely, deliberately trying for full coverage and somewhat realistic shading.  The thread feels nice going through the fabric and I like the effect.  I intend to continue with the project in odd moments and evnetually complete it.  I can see using these types of techniques on slips for my layerings, or even working directly on an ungessoed canvas that has been treated in other ways.  I'm not sure how well it would work on gessoed canvas.