my finished miniature

Celtic Spirals

this is it - my entry for the k&s show in Dublin - as part of our group's "miniatures" project. the only "rules" we gave was the size - not larger than 6 x 6 inches (though that's handled flexible:)). materials, techniques etc. were a matter of choice.

mine measures this exactly, but only because I had to frame my embroidery. I do want to use this piece as part of a hand-made bag, but of course leaving it without a frame would have looked silly, as outside of the embroidery the white silk gauze would have been visible. so I added black silk (plus wadding and cardboard) as a provisional finish. I played around a bit with other colours, but fuchsia took away too much of the design and silver somehow had too much contrast. I don't know exactly how the bag will look afterwards, but it will certainly be more elegant than my usual "sacks" (which might mean that it'll go to a new owner once finished:)).

the technique is simple - half cross stitches, which meant that I didn't have to worry too much about iffy colour blends in the coloured part. the silk yarn is hand-dyed silk from Oliver Twists, the black yarn simple stranded cotton. I used just one thread, which worked fine, though I found out that the silk yarn is more suitable for this as it is far stronger than the cotton yarn, which frayed and fluffed easily.
the silk gauze is rather fine, 19 holes to the cm, which meant that good lighting was essential (I don't have a magnifier for embroidery). I would change part of the work if I did something similar again though: I made up my chart by using my cross stitch programme - but it would have made the work a lot easier if I had just put the black and white design under the gauze and marked it on the canvas! the silk gauze is quite tough and could easily be drawn on with a felt marker or even a pencil. this would have saved me a lot of counting, which isn't all that easy with those fine holes and black yarn! well, lessen learned and all that:))

now all that's left to do is type up the descriptions of the other participants and pack it all up safely - to send it out to the member of our group, who's going to the k&s show early to set up the display! and if I ever get the Connacht Textile Crafters blog up and running properly - you'll even see the rest of the entries:))