Simply Irresistible and some blackwork

Seems like I have been on a binge lately working on designs from Cynthia Jackson.  It is true, but her designs not only look great but have so many fun and unique techniques that how can I resist?
The last finish is called Simply Irresistible and features sweet peas and leaves. She has used some very old but spectacular techniques from the late middle ages. The layering allows the metal threads to just peak out of the color and adds such sparkle to the motif. The stitching is not perfect but that is how we learn. We try and then we get better.

I have been stitching some other things during this time of pandemic that I can't share with you yet. It is for a class that is hopefully far enough away that it can be held. For now I will share one of the bits of blackwork with gold added. I love the way that the gold adds such a nice highlight to the pear.

It is fun to see a design grow from an idea to a stitched and finished work of art. I have been doing some reading about historical embroidery and how it was considered a high art and much more valuable than painting. I have done both and one is not necessarily harder than the other but just different. The play of light on silk and metal threads is wonderful to see and the feel of the threads in your hands is such a tactile delight. Japan has not lost the high regard for the textile arts that we have in the western world.