Sensu - Shippo Foundation (2)

Japanese Embroidery

Shippo Foundation (2)

Once a foundation is done, it needs to be secured so it won't snag. You don't want to ruin hours of work !
On the shippo foundation a holding lattice is stitched on the top of the cloud. It is the same technique i used in my phase 1 for the valerian flowers (which i didn't post about previously on this blog).

Usually, a holding lattice is used on a flat silk foundation as holding but also decoration. The lines are 5mm apart, 45° angle from the foundation, and the lines are 90° from each other, so its forms a square. 

When superimposed with shippo, the holding lattice isn't only for esthetic purpose but also a guideline for the shippos. Each line will have a small piece of paper in ellipse form stitched on the top. 

First, i need to twist a 2->1 thread in the same colour. This small thread is as thin as a couching thread. Then, my lines need to be 1,4 cm distance, so i used my 7mm grid.  

This picture is how i make sure i will get nice 45° lines. Now do you see what is genius here ? How the 7mm grid goes exactly in the middle of the squares on my triangle? Remember Pytagoras theroem ? A² + B²= C² 

This is exactly what we have here ! C =  0,7 mm, it's the size of the hypotenuse, the longest line between two corners of a square when the side of the squares are 0,5 cm.

(Yes, i majored in maths)

This little 7mm grid helped me a lot along with the triangle ! 

Once the cloud is covered with perpendicular lines, the next step is to tie them with couching thread. Usually, the ties are done at the intersection. But for shippo foundation holding lattice, the ties need to be done between the intersections, twice. Since the lines will be covered with the shippo almost not touching where the intersection are, tying it there would be visible. 

The ties need to pierce the couching thread so the foundation won't move. I've put them not exactly in the same place between all the intersection to make sure i could tie the most threads. 

Shippo foundation is now completed ! It took around 12 hours to do. I am very satisfied with my work. The worst part was clearly twisting the threads ! Holding lattice was fairly easy to do because i already had experience with yellow valerian flowers on phase 1. The most important thing is to make sure your lines are always 90° and evenly spaced. One on the line is 1 mm off but i will try to correct it when placing the shippo.

For the next part, i am working on the red cloud on the bottom left. I chose to work on this one because the purple is in flat slik, and since i'm going to travel with my frame next week for a monthly meeting with my group, i'm afraid i may ruin the foundation before it is secured with temporary holding. A snag on flat silk appears more than on twisted thread.