The finished piece has a fantastic texture to it, that you can’t fully see from the frontal photo. The two types of strings I used are dramatically different in texture and size, with the lighter, yellower one being significantly thicker and higher.

The greyish string was much softer and more thread-like, which meant it acted quite differently when I couched it down. It was easier to squeeze into the sharp corners than the other string, but also was harder to keep in smooth lines when couching it down, and had a tendency to get squashed or come a little unravelled. As you can see below, some corners were a little tricky and it was difficult to get perfect coverage. From a distance you can’t see these imperfections, but it still annoys me a little that they’re there. I used two different coloured threads to couch down the respective string, and a dark brown to create the portrait. I only used stranded cotton on this project, figuring silk was far to fine and shiny for the effect I was after.

Now for the final conclusion: did I achieve the effect I was after? This whole project began as a vague idea in the back of my mind as to whether I could use the inherent characteristics of Or Nué (the flowing couched lines) to become an integral part of the design itself. The idea formed further when I saw a beautiful photo in a book several years ago of an elderly woman with a face full of laugh lines and wrinkles. The two ideas merged at some point and coalesced into a serious project when I took a photo of my husband’s eighty year old uncle at a family wedding last year.

In the end, I didn’t find a way to fully create what I had in mind: because you need to couch over the string at mostly right angles and I didn’t want to create monstrously thick lines by fully covering the string, I couldn’t quite get the string to create the flow of wrinkles I was after, and still allow me to couch the outline of his face. However, I’m still really happy with how it worked out, slightly different though it is from my original plan, and think it became quite a unique portrait.

With that charming introduction I’ll go onto the first book: New Ideas in Goldwork by Tracy Franklin.

Goldwork, frankly, rocks. It uses gold-wrapped threads (among others), involves a lot of couching (so as not to damage the golden strands, or waste lengths of it behind the fabric), and is shiny, shiny, shiny. Tracy is a graduate of the Royal School of Needlework, teaches and takes commissions and is at the forefront of modern goldwork. Check out her website, it’s purdy.

The book is set up with pages of photographed step-by-step instructions on how to do the various techniques of goldwork, although unlike many other goldwork books, it focuses less on how to do the traditional stitches stitch-perfect the traditional way, and more on how to use those methods to achieve new effects (while still being stitch-perfect but in the modern way). The second half of the book is artworks utilizing goldwork techniques by different embroiderers. These she’s broken down into their component parts and described so that readers can reproduce them if they wish.

The photography in the book is excellent and the descriptions clear. It’s a great resource for technique as well as a stunning source of inspiration for both beginner and advanced goldwork-ers. I love this book and it often comes out for me to flip through before bed. Then I lay awake for an hour with visions of golden threads dancing through my head.