ON MATERIALS, ETC.
After the design, or rather in conjunction with it, comes the choice
of the materials with which to carry it out. The only point one can
insist on is this—let them be the best we can offer. The best does not
necessarily mean the most expensive—but the most genuine and the most
suitable. Whether of gold or silk or linen, let there be no pretence
about it.
If silk DAMASK is chosen for the ground of the work (and there is nothing
pleasanter to work on, or more satisfactory as a background if the design
of the damask be broad and flat-looking), let it be a good rich damask
without any suspicion of cotton about it.
SATIN is too shiny and too difficult to keep from puckering to make a
really artistic background for large pieces of embroidery, although a
great deal of the old work was done on it. It also has this disadvantage
for the beginner, that it shows every mark of the needle if she is
unfortunate enough to make a mistake which requires unpicking.
PLAIN CORDED SILK is trying to the eyes to work upon, and is rather
hard-looking and unsympathetic, but it makes a good appliqué on satin,
velvet, or damask.
VELVET, on account of its richness and the depth of colour attainable
without giving the impression of ‘blackness,’ also from its strength of
contrast with every other material, has always been in great favour,
whether as a ground or as an onlay.
BROCADE is too assertive to make a good background, but brocade, and even
tapestry (where the design is suitable) may be outlined with gold or
cord, or further enriched with embroidery with a truly glorious effect,
when judiciously managed.
Fine WOOLLEN CLOTH, stout serge, and diagonal cloth are respectable
materials for inexpensive work.
Yarn-dyed or other good COLOURED LINEN and UNBLEACHED TWILLED LINEN are
particularly suitable for use in the colonies and for poor churches at
home. Both texture and colouring can be obtained in great perfection,
and when worked in pure flax threads, which are also made in many degrees
of thickness and almost as much variety of shade and colour as embroidery
silks, they will defy the ravages of white ants abroad and the poisonous
air of slums at home.
CLOTHS OF GOLD and of silver are truly splendid, whether as a background
for embroidery or to be used alone or for orphreys on a plainer material.
Only the very best kinds should ever be employed for Church work, any
thing else will look tawdry, and even the best is apt to tarnish in the
air of towns or near the sea. Needless to say, it is always expensive.
In all the specimens of ancient church embroideries which have come down
to us, we find a free use of gold and silver threads: some are worked
entirely in gold, others with a preponderance of the precious metals
used in conjunction with silk, while a third use was to touch up salient
points or as an outline to glorify the whole and bring it into unity.
The principal kinds of gold and silver thread now in use are:—
PASSING, which is made of flat strips of gold or silver twisted tightly
over pure silk; a firm, hard thread is the result, resembling wire, which
can be obtained in various thicknesses, generally sold on reels. This
is sewn down, almost always two threads at a time, with fine, strong
sewing-silk.
TAMBOUR, much the same as Passing, only finer, for sewing _through_ the
material.
BULLION, of various sizes and patterns, is made of fine wire, evenly
twisted in a spiral form without any silk core; usually sold by weight.
It is sewn on by first cutting into the lengths required and then
‘threading,’ like the beads called ‘bugles,’ with a fine needle and silk
well waxed.
PURL is somewhat similar, but coarser, and without a hollow centre. It is
sewn down by passing the sewing-silk over the Purl and drawing it down
between the twists of the wire. It is used more for outlines of silk-work
than for filling spaces.
PLATE is a flat wire, used chiefly in heraldic embroidery. It is laid
over raised thread or string, with a stitch on each side of the thread,
over which it is turned backwards and forwards till the thread is
covered. In working Bullion, Purl, and Plate, the silk they are sewn with
does not come into evidence at all. Strong fine thread is even better to
sew them with than silk; both should be waxed.
JAPANESE GOLD is the one most commonly used at present. It is made
something like Passing, only a very thin paper is used instead of metal
to carry the gold over the silk. Its chief virtue is that it does not
tarnish like most of the Passing. It is also less expensive, and made in
a greater variety of sizes. Its chief drawback is that where there is
much _wear_ the gold rubs off in the course of time, leaving only the red
or yellow silk it was wound on as the evidence of there having once been
gold there. The Passing, on the other hand, wears any length of time,
and, if made of pure gold, would be as untarnishable as the Japanese, the
excessive costliness being the reason it is so seldom used. Most of the
Passing is made of silver or other metal, gilded with pure gold.
CHINESE GOLD is very similar to Japanese, the chief difference being that
the paper used is thinner and cut in narrower strips. It is therefore
softer, and can be made in thinner threads than any other. It is more
easily damaged than the Japanese.
Passing, Japanese, and Chinese gold and silver are sewn down (generally
by two threads together) with a fine twisted sewing-silk; the colour
of the silk used affects considerably the colour of the gold-work, red
producing a fine coppery glow; green, blue, and violet ‘cooling’ the
gold; and yellow or gold-colour merely intensifying, or hardly modifying
it at all.
Some of the old work was done in solid gold or silver wire. Strips of
parchment were sometimes laid over with gold-leaf and twisted upon silk,
like the Japanese and Chinese do with their paper. Small metal plates,
spangles of various shapes and sizes, were and are still used with good
effect when in moderation.
The silks employed are chiefly FLOSS. French floss or ‘stout’ floss,
being rather thick and very smooth and bright, is useful for large, bold
work; ‘Bobbin,’ ‘Church,’ or fine floss for finer work. Decca silk, which
has a loose twist, may easily be split, and is useful for the brilliance
of some of the dyes, different from any other to be met with in European
makes.
PURSE-SILK is often used, couched, in place of gold or silver, being
easily managed and wearing well.
FILOSELLE is chiefly useful for edging appliqué and for outlines.
FILOFLOSS answers the same purpose, and is brighter in texture. It can
also be used for fine embroidery by taking the threads separately; but
the slight twist in each thread makes it less desirable for such work
than the bobbin floss.
SCISSORS should be strong and sharp, cutting accurately at the points.
THIMBLES, of gold, silver, or ivory, are at their best when worn smooth.
They should be as plain as possible, as decoration is apt to catch and
roughen the delicate silks. New thimbles may be improved by rubbing down
with the finest glass-paper or a burnisher. The indentations should be
large. In framework both hands are used and two thimbles required.
NEEDLES should be procured from the best makers only, as cheap ones are
apt to cut and roughen the silk by friction through the eye in the course
of the work. If for any reason it may be worth while to improve a needle
which has this defect, it can be done by the simple process of threading
the eye with strong cotton (as coarse as it will conveniently carry),
dipping it into olive oil, then into fine emery powder, and working it
backwards and forwards until it ceases to roughen.
Round-eyed and ‘egg-eyed’ sewing-needles, crewel and embroidery,
large-sized chenille, and occasionally a curved (so-called ‘circular’)
needle, are required.
PINS should be fine and as sharp as needles. Very nice little pins may
be made from fine needles by warming the eye and sticking a little
sealing-wax on it for a knob; but beware of _leaving_ steel pins in any
part of the work, as they rust very quickly and make an ‘iron-mould’
stain. Indeed, it is safer to use pins for temporary fastenings only, and
to put in a few stitches wherever required for more than a day or two;
brass ones leave a green mark and silver-plated ones black, while even
gold-plating soon wears off.
A small instrument called a piercer is sometimes used to keep gold laid
in its place, but a rug-needle, or the eye of the chenille needle, will
do as well.
A good stiletto, a pair of compasses, a T-square and a set-square, a
ruler, measure, and tracer conclude the list of implements necessary to
the Church embroiderer besides the frame.
There are several kinds of EMBROIDERY-FRAME which have been invented from
time to time to save trouble or to stretch more evenly than the ones in
general use, but the two still most commonly to be met with are the old
flat-bar and screw-bar frames. The former can be rested on trestles when
large, or supported on the edge of a table and kept in place with weights
when small; those with screw sides are generally mounted upon stands of
their own. For work not exceeding 30 inches square I find the screw-frame
the most convenient; it can be adjusted to any angle, so that the worker
has no need to bend over it, being able to see her work without effort,
both as a whole and in detail. To sit for many hours at a frame which
lies horizontal is apt to injure the spine (whenever there is the least
feeling of over-strain the work should be discontinued). It is, moreover,
bad for the eyes, forcing the vision into an unnatural focus. The small
screw-frame on a stand can be clamped to a table or held in the lap, and
is almost equally comfortable to work at.
TAMBOUR-FRAMES and rigid wire-frames may be used for very small pieces of
work.
The light should always fall upon the work from behind, over either
shoulder of the person.
Due attention to these points (_i.e._ a comfortable position and proper
light) would prevent much of the weariness and actual injury to the
physique for which Church embroidery is often considered responsible;
not always, I regretfully admit, without some foundation in fact. Still,
the majority of these cases have their own carelessness to accuse,
considering these restrictions to be mere details which may be safely
ignored instead of taking the trouble to form a habit of doing everything
in the best possible way.