Books!!!

 Well, I did bash a few dust bunnies and I did decide what I'm going to work on for the next few days, but then the mail came.

Umpty-leven years ago, when I went to EGA and ANG national seminars, I took a lot of Goldwork classes from Michele Roberts and enjoyed them immensely. Then I sort of wandered off into other things and Goldwork went dormant. Last year, when I took the Tudor Embroidery Class from Cynthia Jackson, my interest was rekindled, to the point I'm signed up for an almost year-long class, a deep dive into Goldwork, that will start in September.

I have a couple of Goldwork books in my stitching library--I love Alison Cole's Masterclass book especially--but you can never have too many books on a subject. (I am the child of a librarian, after all.) So I decided to beef up my collection.

I stumbled across Lizzie Pye's "Goldwork Embroidery" on sale. You can't turn down a book that's on sale.

It has excellent information on materials and tools and incredible photography of the things you need:

There is even a list of metal and metallic threads from shiniest to least shiny--that's helpful if you want to create a certain effect, or need to have contrast.

And there are step-by-step directions for six projects, from beginner to challenging. And when I say step-by-step, I mean step-by-step.

Materials list, design to trace--then clear photographs showing exactly where and how to work the stitches to produce a beautiful creation. I could happily work my way through them all.

And then there was the second book, Tanya Bentham's Opus Anglicanum.

I've been following Tanya on Facebook and reading her blog for several years, mainly because she has a wicked sense of humor. I didn't think I'd ever actually work a piece in this style--I had pretty much figured I was happiest in the 17th century--but then, as I said earlier, Cynthia Jackson dragged me into Tudor embroidery--and Tanya may have just pushed me back even farther.

She, too, has information on threads and ground fabrics and techniques:

The information on techniques includes photos of what things look like if you do them the wrong way. Sometimes that's more helpful than seeing them done the right way . . . 

She also offers tips, and interesting bits of historical information--for example, in one project, the horse is . . . um . . . anatomically correct--because the king riding said horse would appear wimpy if he rode one that wasn't . . . um . . . fully equipped.  Who knew?

Tanya has a great line about those of us who amass threads. In talking about the colors to use in Medieval embroidery, she mentions that those embroiderers used a limited palette with high contrast between shades, and she says: 

"Buy all the colours if you must (and, let's face it, we want all the colours because they are shiny and pretty and the possession of a complete set of something makes our little monkey brains happy) but please use them on different projects."

Is that not true?

She also provides directions for a whole bunch of projects--step-by-step again--

There are even directions for alternate methods of working certain aspects of a design.

So, my dilemma today is this: should I start the finishing frenzy I had planned--and really need to do--or do I start collecting materials for new Goldwork and Opus Anglicanum projects?