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yummy, yummy!

Several treats this week, the workshop of course but also a beautiful goldwork book, and a stumpwork kit:

Very nice!

Goldwork is such a skill to have that creates a unique result. The book contents look amazing on Amazon - I pay no attention to the misery-guts who's the only person on Amazon to put up a star rating. Had there been a review with reasons I may have taken notice.

Regards,

Richard

Having admired Mabel's wonderful goldwork I decided to treat myself to a couple of kits:



I was just going to buy the single bee beginner's kit for £15 but realised if I spent more than £40 it was free postage (min £5 for P&P) and if I brought the three bees with the flower I got more bees for my buck And the Dragonfly is rather nice so he snuck in to take it over the minimum for free postage .

Looking in the kits they are rather sparse



In the meantime I have sorted out various gold threads and brought a couple of bundles of odds and ends and popped them in one of my really useful boxes with compartment trays:





Jo

Lovely projects Jo! When you say "sparse" I hope you're not talking about the instructions? Hope you enjoy tackling these, and anything i can help with just ask.

Hi Mabel,

I was hoping for more bits and pieces in them as we all do Some of the little packets have up to 5 different items in them.

The Dragonfly seems to be missing the gold beads but I have lots of those in the other kit and if necessary other gold beads in my MillHill bead collection left over from cross stitch pieces so I am not going to bother chasing them.


I will have to start a separate thread about my Goldwork. After I finish the current quilt and "Sunshine"

Jo

I continue my acquisition of "stuff" for goldwork. I already had Helen McCook's "RSN Essential Stitch Guide Goldwork" which is very basic and annoyingly a direct copy of the stuff in the RSN's Embroidery book

What I wanted was something with a bit more detail and having looked inside this book looks perfect:



Sitting on top of it is a pair of simply scissors serrated gold work scissors that I forced myself to buy as there is nothing worse than abusing a good pair of scissors by cutting metal with them. (I might find some wire cutters from my electronics days for the thicker cutting)

Still waiting for the second hand slate frame to appear

Jo

That is a lovely book, I have it too

The big RSN book has about 8 of the Essential Stitch Guides in it, I think - I do have some of the smaller guides anyway as I find them easier to use when stitching than the big heavy book.

As you already have the serrated scissors, I won't recommend anything else You're absolutely right that you need a separate pair for cutting the goldwork wires especially (the threads aren't so bad), but I've found that I prefer non-serrated scissors myself. The RSN sells serrated ones, some of my tutors swear by non-serrated ones - it's obviously a matter of personal preference!

I've also ordered a copy of A-Z of Goldwork from Golden Hinde who were cheaper for a new book than buying the book second hand

The second hand slate frame has arrived:



It is home made and I believe that I am the third owner. The lady I purchased it from lost one of the original pins and her husband ground down some stainless screws to give her a matching set of pins. The original are brass with a cross hole in the head, I suspect this was to attach a thread through and to tie the pins to the rails. I will look to make a replacement set of brass pins, complete with cross hole, and give it a general tidy up before I look to use it.

Having watched the Hand & Lock Goldwork videos on Utube I am struck with the size difference between these domestic slate frames and the professional ones. The professional ones with the 2" square rails would be easier to make (cutting the rail hole) than the smaller domestic ones and I can see the additional weight being an advantage ... once I have played with this second hand one I will decide on the way ahead as the cost of wood has sky rocketed of late.

Jo

What an interesting-looking frame! Let us know how you get on with it.

I found the frame I bought from Jenny Adin-Christie a lightweight revelation after my big RSN one - to be fair, one's a 12" and the other an 18" and I suppose the larger the frame the more bulk it needs for strength, but even so the difference was amazing, and i haven't found any problem with it being lightweight.

Picked up 50 beeswax hearts from a local beekeeper last Monday; they were so thick that I was able to halve them all - 100 beeswax hearts for kits!

Lots of winning going on here!