My puffin is finished ✅
He really needs something to stand on to ground him, otherwise he’s just floating around in midair.
I need to have a think about the rocks & sea pinks in the photo I used, but also to check I have not missed anything from assessment criteria.
The lower half is finished 😊. On to the top half, just a couple of bits to fill in. Lastly I have the sea pinks around the feet to complete ( these still need to be worked out & samples)
Progress has been slow over the Christmas & new year holidays, I did finished my puffin’s feet. I like the iridescent gold leather & the over stretched purls, I added a coral stranded cotton core, using the same colour used in the beak.
Slowly progressing , I’ve finished working on the wing for now. It’s time to work on the area under the wing & the feet. I need to start thinking about giving him something to stand on, in the original photo I took my design from he’s standing on a rocky outcrop with sea pinks. Time to think about that too
I managed to finish the lower wing bar today. Attempting the cut work through the carpet felt padding has been a nightmare. The thicker the padding is, the more unlikely you are to know where the needles will come out 😅. If your needle comes out in the cut gold it damages it. Too many cracks or damaged bits & you loose marks.
Anyway, I bent so many needles 🪡, I’ve had to order more. Cut work will be resumed once the needles arrive. Meanwhile, I have scattered chipping I can continue to work on.
Today I’ve started working on my gold work puffin embroidery again.
The head is finished, I’m going to return to the wing to add the plate and cut work ( lengths of cut wire) over soft string padding.
I thought I would have a little change from black work & return to the puffin. Today I plunged all the ends in.
I’ve been busy working away on the upper part of the head & eye. I’m really pleased with the look of the finished eye. I hope it’s going to look even better once the silver leather cheek is in place.
I’ve now got to start working on the beak design, I have various metallic threads & machine threads to help me create a stylised, but natural looking beak. This is definitely going to need working out on the practice frame, I hope to have something suitable for my tutor to comment about on Friday.
The wing area is still in progress, unfortunately I ran out of the gold passing thread I was using, so I hope the RSN still has the same reel & I can get some more of the same. I didn’t like to start the next part of the wing, just in case it’s not exactly the same & it notices. It was nice to have a break from pulling all the way through the layers of carpet felt & especially plunging the ends through, I had quite sore fingers at one point.
The first part of my couching marathon has begun. This was my first attempt at a basket weave pattern over hard string padding. The next couching phase is the wing area, leaving the soft string padding for cut work & gold plate to go in near to the end.
The padding for the metallic threads is finished. The white area will be silver & orange area gold.
I’ve also been thinking about the basket weave pattern for the chest, the face & beak. I have acquired some rather nice red & black metallic threads for the beak & some iridescent gold leather for the feet & iridescent silver for the cheek. I’m glad I’m sampling & working designs & stitches out for myself, with a little help from my tutors.
LucyAnn &Luna craft 