Pearl Butterfly completed

That's all, now to frame it.
Am I happy with it? Well, mostly.
Will goldwork be something I'll do in future? I think - no. This is not "my kind" of craft. It was interesting to try, but nothing more than that.

27 hours total.

Work done this weekend:

1. Antennae, made from this kind of thread.

2. Thorax from very soft thread (well, you know, soft metal):

 3. Twists around beaded lines. I was bored... Cutting metal thread to 0.5 cm pieces and applying them was not so fun. Mostly because the pattern was not so perfectly spaced as I'd like it to be. This thread is rather easy to damage and it was a challenge to fit it in some much too narrow spaces. Guess I don't like lessons where you don't know what's coming next: just no chances to correct something as you progress (simply because you don't know what and how will be done next).
Finally achieved something that I'll be happy with when this will be framed.

4. Glitter on wings made from the same thread as thorax. Lots of tiny cutting and applying again. What an I say? If you don't like beaded embroidery, probably you won't like this either. It's almost the same, but in addition here you have to cut your "beads" to correct size before applying them.

5. Flower on wings from 6 mm beads and such thread:

The thread is similar to that used for twists around beaded lines. Similar but softer and even more sensitive to over tensioning or other kind of mistakes.

Pearl Butterfly - lesson 3 completed

This is what I should be doing for next two weeks:

Done in 3.5 hours (total -- 16 hours). Waiting for final instructions which will be posted on March 10th.

What I had to do:

1) Butterfly body. It is made of soft cotton thread (a little bit waxed for better handling. Still hate waxing...)

2) To cover part of wings and body with a thing called "Whipped Plate".

You just take this metal thing, fold it and backstitch it.

3) Apply Swarovski pearl beads to the wings. This was really simple: you string the beads first and then couch them according to pattern.

Pearl Butterfly - lesson 2 completed

Second lesson completed. I'm waiting for the third one, which will be published only on February 24th. Current progress:

I feel working too quickly... This lesson took me 8 hours to complete. Total - 13 hours.

So in next two weeks I had to complete:

1. Draw parts of the wings:

I found out that Schneider Maxx 278 Paint Marker is really good for drawing on felt.

2. Couch inside wing edges:

3. To work inner section of the wings using single strand silk thread. I was happy there's no need to wax it :)

Pearl Butterfy - Lesson 1 completed

Everything looks rather easy at the moment. I'm waiting for next lesson (to be uploaded on February 10th). Butterfly at the moment looks like this:

Steps to complete:

1. Trace the design.
2. Cut wing shapes from felt:

For those striving for perfect symmetry - cutting should be performed very carefully. Felt and perfectly sharp end of wings does not work so good together.

3. Apply both layers of felt padding:

 4. Unpack first golwork thread. Well, if everybody calls this wire "thread", I'll call it also :)

5. Do the pearl purl edging, slowly passing thread around every 3 coils.
It appeared that wings are too sharp and too tiny in a few places - two coils barely fit. Well, it will be OK as for my first goldwork piece (to correct this I would need to re-cut and re-apply upper felt layer; won't do this :))

Time to complete:
- Preparing the pattern and felt padding: 2 hours 45 min.
- Edging: 2 hours 30 min.

Thing I don't like most: waxing the thread and removing excess wax. I've thought that waxing is needed only for natural threads (like linen etc.). Well, if theacher tells to wax polyerter, she must know something about it, so I'll do this. Still - I don't like it.

Pearl Butterfly

Something new to learn again. This time - Goldwork embroidery. I'm having online classes by Alison Cole. The embroidery kit has finally arrived. What's inside:

• fabrics
• needled
• silk, polyerster and cotton threads
• beads
• lots of tiny packages with metal threads. As instruction says "touch them as little as you can", I'll unpack them only when I'll need to use them. Will have more fun lots of times finding out "oh, it's looks like this" :)

Some day all of this should turn into butterfly.

And what about "Kitty Litter"? Well, still in progress. Slooooow progress.