Inspect a morse

This week has been one full of different and amazing jobs.

My friends Rod and Sheila are wonderful gold, silversmith and enamelers and they had an incredible piece to make for a Bishop. 

The clasp that runs across the front of a cope is called a Morse and it was the morse that Sheila & Rod were making. It had to be attached to the cope that was originally made by Juliet Hemingray. Little old me got the job. 

The original morse had to be unpicked and new hooks attached to link the new one on securely. Rod had cleverly made some silver hooks for me to attach but it was nerve wracking work dealing with such heirlooms.

 You can see here, the finished item with its garnets and enamelled plaques. Beautiful work. You can just make out some of Rod's chasing of shells and wheat.

In other news, I was asked to make some tiny cushions filled with rice from some of my beautiful kimono fabric to act as rests or supports for a 500  year old sword for a client who does aikido. 

I sometimes add a scent to the cushions I make, especially if they are for something so precious. These tiny cushions with birds flying across them smelled of Bergamot as it is helpful for grief and bereavement and the man who owns the sword had recently lost his father. 

If that makes you a little sad, here are some photos for you of what's happening in the garden of late. Spring has indeed sprung.

These next ones aren't actually from my garden but are from the botanical gardens in Cambridge

Great Hockham Mothers Union banner

A while ago a friend came to me with a plastic bag filled with something in the way of fabric in a very sorry state. She quietly told me that she'd noticed the Mother's Union banner at Church had been very grubby indeed so she washed it. The entire background of silk had rotted away and the embroidery was sadly in need of some tender care. Could I please have a look at it and see what I could do.
I love these kinds of jobs and have absolutely loved every minute of restoring this old and very beautiful thing. I had to use tweezers to pull out the old threads and it was fascinating to see what was underneath.Appliqueing primroses is a therapeutic exercise on a cold and wintry day.


and though replacing the threads around the lettering was a painstaking job, it was worth while in the end.
Luckily the embroidery and applique of the mother and child was still in good condition. It's extremely hard to make faces look good with fabric, it's where the real Art lies in this sort of piece and this one is beautifully done.
The work that no one sees is just as important as without this stitching , the banner would bag and look like a sack. I was able to use the original interlining but it was very thick linen and I ended up with plasters all over my fingers as I stabbed & stabbed again to get the needle in exactly the right spot.
Finally though it's finished. I'm very pleased with it and hopefully it will last another hundred years or so.

My desk

Kellypuffs has delivered a challenge and I'm rising to it.
She asks for pictures of where you work...
Luckily at the moment I have something interesting on my work table, not just some boring old curtains (not that there's anything wrong with that). It's the beginnings of a banner for East Harling Church. Designed by Maz Jackson

Need more storage please.My fabulous long table that Ricardo made for me. Never quite big enough either though.
My trusty sewing machine and the thing I couldn't work without....the radio; small and really crappy, but all I need to take me to lands far & wide.

Oh yes and there is this headress I whipped up the other night to go to the Speigel tent in Norwich.
Oh alright here I am in it.

I finished a stole today that is to go to Australia for a friend of a friend.
The woman it's for is studying to be an interfaith minister and wanted a motif that would transcend and combine all religions. We decided on a lotus as she has one tattooed on the back of her neck. I think it worked out alright.

Across my desk

At the moment I am completely immersed in embroidery and couldn't be happier, except for my sore eyes and shoulders from sewing.
Another reason why I have sore eyes is that I haven't been able to stop reading this blog about embroidery. There is so much there with videos and detailed information. I discovered a link there to this blog about sewing with beetle wings.
So, I've been asked to replicate a banner for the Mother's Union at Swaffham Church and have been beavering away at it. Here are some pictures of where I've got to so far. I'm using the blue silk that I managed to get from Watts; the symbols are for Saints Peter & Paul, crossed keys and crossed swords.
Here's the old and ...new.Plotting the design.
The gold lettering starting to take shape.
Here's the banner as it was. Old & really faded. The blue is hardly even blue any more.
Another bit of inspiration is this amazing Chasuble our buddy Jeremy dropped off the other night. It seems the vicar had taken it off rather hurriedly & ripped it at the neck. It's completely salvagable but I need to find some matching red silk damask. Jeremy thought it was from the 1970's but we discovered a label inside from a French company that dates it somewhere in the late 1800's. The narrow fabric width helps date it back to when looms were much narrower. I love this kind of detective work. There are tiny sequins sewn on it to make parts of the embroidery sparkle.
The swirly pattern is all done in tiny chain stitches and I wish I'd seen these grapes when I did mine.
There are moonstones too.

Raise the banner high

Ages and ages ago our very wonderful friend Harold Lock asked me if I'd be interested in having a look at a banner they had at their Masonic Lodge. It was the centenary of it's consecration in 1909 and they needed a new one. Did I know anyone who could do the job?
Here's a picture of it. Faded and cracked but still a fine example of the Victorian banner maker's craft.

Would I be interested in trying to replicate it?
I was.
At the time I thought it should be no problem at all.
I thought I'd embroider the gold lettering to save me having to learn how to use gold leaf on fabric ......
A million miles down the track I discovered that it was a much harder brief than I had expected.
First I had to find the material, which took forever and lead me through a range of very expensive silk manufacturers. I finally ended up finding exactly the right fabric at a sale in North Norfolk.
I had to trace the original onto transparent plastic, then trace again over that before putting it onto the fabric.
Without moving it an inch...
Next I had to find the gold embroidery thread. NO GO. Embroidery threads come in yellow or beige or taupe. Nothing like the gold I needed. I decided I would try to find some gold paint instead. I had success here again in Norfolk at the Norwich Art supplies shop where I found the perfect gold powder that became a fabric paint when you mixed it with a particular medium. So far so good.....
Every morning I'd wake up thrilled to be working on such an auspicious piece. I honestly loved every minute working on it.
Such great symbolism, with the all seeing eye, the sun and the moon, the Mason's square and compass.
So after much joy & a small amount of anxiety I finally finished it. Here is Ricardo the Magnificent holding it up for your perusal.
It was great to see something so old and faded come back to life again .