Right Diagonals

In Japanese embroidery, one of the basic techniques for filling a shape is called diagonal layer.

Diagonal layer uses right diagonal stitches from upper right to bottom left.

With two strands of flat, filament silk I proceeded to stitch the legs of the sake box from the upper right to bottom left just like the textbook said.

I'm a little rusty at laying flat silk since I've been laying goldwork for months and months.

When I finished, I thought it looked pretty good, not great.  My silk tension was uneven which didn't worry me too much since the area will be covered by more superimposed goldwork.  That should mask some of my problems which is one reason why I stitched the legs as a bit of a warm-up...

Making progress, I thought, until my teacher buzzed in and told me that the orientation of the stitch is not to myself, the stitcher, but to the top of the piece.  In other words, my right diagonals were actually left diagonals and I had stitched them incorrectly.

So...



Out they came and I re-stitched them properly from top right to bottom left...

When I think about it, that makes more sense anyway.  If all right diagonals were stitched relative to the position of the stitcher, then they would be in many different directions all over the piece.  The correct way means that stitches will all be orientated to the top of the embroidery piece and that would be a unifying effect that makes a ton more sense.

I told you I was rusty.

Doing my best to stitch two hours per day now so there should be many more Japanese embroidery updates in the future if I'm doing my work.

Many of you asked about Mrs. Rose...I'm happy to report that she is patiently sitting in her chair with her prayer book saying her rosary while she waits for her rose bower to grow.   I've been making her leaves but Japanese embroidery and Christmas presents have risen in the queue ahead of her I'm afraid.  She'll be back on deck after the holidays.

Back to the frame with me...