Prototypes

Prototypes in more ways than one.  "Let's see if this works" has been the catch-phrase for the past couple weeks, and cameras and blogging are the latest things to try.

This particular project is to make an embroidery kit for a late-1500s English lady- the needle, needlecase, scissors sheath, embroidery frame, and an embroidered sweet bag to hold the little stuff- but that was also made with and on it... starts sounding like a children's song after a while, actually- "I made the case to hold the needle, made the frame to stretch the cloth, made the needle to pull the thread, made the bag with the needle on the frame to hold the case..."

I'm starting with a "doodle cloth"- really, it should be called a sampler, but "sampler" calls to mind something much more formal than just an assortment of stitches and thread combinations that you've tried to see what looks right.  In this pic, you can see my doodle cloth starting with a segment of Elizabethan Plaited Braid stitch (the thick gold stem), Reverse Chain Stitch (thin gold tendrils), and Tent Stitch (the bud).  The gold is half of the metallic DMC #5, and the bud is 2 strands of Splendor silk floss.  The frame is just a modern scroll frame I had around; the actual Elizabethan style "slate frame" hasn't been done yet.

I think I need magnification.  Trying to do 1:1 tent stitch on 32ct linen is actually too small for my eyes!

Doodle cloth detail 9/1/10

Not that making the needle was that much better.  This is a my first finished needle, out of 3/64" brass rod, the eye end hammered flat and drilled, and then sharpened on the wet/dry grinder.  I used a micro carbide drill bit in the drill press (kind of amusing, trying to chuck something not much thicker than a cat's whisker into a floor-mount drill press) since I didn't want to risk torquing and breaking the bit.  The next needles are going to be smaller diameter.  It worked well to whipstitch the edges of the linen doodle cloth, but not so well on the Plaited Braid- it was both too thick and too sharp.

The needlecase was my first ever piece on the lathe.  I didn't get the hole drilled quite centered, but I think I know how to fix that now. (Mount drill chuck in the tailstock of the lathe, drill hole, replace with cone center, then finish exterior.  We'll see if this theory holds.)