RSN Crewelwork Course - Glimpse of my work

There has been so much going on and so much to write about that I haven't posted anything about what I've been working on. So today I'm going to remedy that. The design I'm using is very similar to my original design with some slight shifts.The element that was the most problematic was the trunk of the tree. When I began to stitch, I had decided to use brown shades of thread rather than the golden brown I was using in the rest of the piece.

Using the brown tones (below) might have worked in another piece, but here it looked too realistic. Jacobean crewelwork isn't meant to look realistic: it's meant to look fanciful. As I mentioned before, the elements in Jacobean design are often out of proportion to one another and the colors are usually not realistic.The long and short shading of two leaves is one of the parts of the design I'm most pleased with. Nicola Jarvis, my teacher, has helped me further refine my technique and the results are not too bad...in fact, I'm over the moon with the improvement in my long and short shading!The acorns are worked with padded satin stitch which is couched with contrasting colors with French knot caps. Each of the stems coming from the branch to the acorns is a different color, worked in stem stitch.The center design is a flower with different sections. The stitches are meant to compliment one another. The burden stitch on the bottom two sections echo the block shading on the top. The vertical lines of the wrapped spokes is supported by the  directional shape of the tete de bouef stitches below.One of my favorite elements is this pomegranate. The shaded chain stitch looks rich and lush and the golden brown glows in the light. The green near to the center adds a note of freshness and the battlemented couching in the center looks rich and elegant.Here's the entire piece partially finished. I have two days (and evenings!) to finish the whole thing and then it's time to mount it for assessment. I think I have loads of homework to do! This course is called an "intensive course" and it is! Although I have homework, it's fun homework and, doing this course intensively, I'm absorbing the knowledge and skills easily.Time to get back to work!