Turtles and Turkeys

The November workshop run by Warwickshire Stitchers was about a number of techniques that give texture to embroidery work and was run by Chloe Patience.

Techniques included beading, couching, turkey stitch and Amish stitching. Rather than create a sampler of every technique, i set about working on a design. A design that i have worked on before!

I purchased this piece of Aboriginal art work in Australia 10 years ago. We had been out to sea that day, and seen a turtle on our return journey.

I felt that it rather leant itself to being embroidered, and set about making a similar interpretation of the picture as one of many pieces of embroidery during the pandemic.

The two pieces have been dispayed side by side on my wall ever since.

Having seen many more sea turtles on a recent trip to Sri Lanka, i decide to devote another piece of embroidery to the creature using these textured techniques. In particular, using turkey stitch i would create thick seaweed fronds through which the turtle, embellished with beeding on the shell, would swim.

It’s taken ages to complete the turkey stitch work. Knowing what i wanted to achieve, i had to leave that part of the stitching until after the workshop, as i knew it would otherwise get in the way of the other techniques.

The turtle and areas beneath the seaweed are painted. The basic turtle shape and shell are outlined with couched jute, and then embellished with beads. The legs are made from plaited wool which is couched in place. Then comes the turkey work in a range of colours, mainly using 6 strand embroidery thread. There is some wool in amongst it, but that proved to be very hard to pull through the cotton base, so the majority is thread. A few french knots completed the aquatic scene.