Stitch Techniques

This is a stitch sample of the pentagram featuring the five alchemy symbols each branch represents in witchcraft. I began by drawing out the pentagram shape on a piece of silk fabric. I placed the fabric in an embroidery hoop and backsticked the outline with black thread. My stitches aren't perfectly straight due to the initial sketch untidy. Next time I will draw out the intial design with a ruler to ensure the lines are perfectly straight. I selected the colours of the alchemy symbols depending on what each branch represents. The fire branch is orange, water is blue, earth is brown with a small amount of white and air is vice versa. I think this is a good way to identify the meanings of each branch. I found silk was quite easy to work with however I think the design would've looked more interesting with more stitching techniques. I am going to create some other symbol samples using calico as I feel this fabric will be esier to work with than silk. I found if I pulled the stitches through to tightly it would strain the fibres of fabric creating unwanted pulls around the stitches.

I've created a variety of different embroidery technqiues in the shape of Wiccan symbols to develop my skills. I've worked on stitches I've had experience using before such as , running, cross and satin stitch as well as new stitches such as the chain and heavy chain stitch.

The satin stitch I created in the form of the triquera. I initially satin stiched without the running stitch as an outline but I found it wasn't tidy. The running stitch meant I was able to stay in the lines and keep a neat shape. I struggled to get used to the chain stitch so kept it simple by doing some singular practises. To develop this technique I'll feature it in an embroidery sample.

The wheel of the year symbol I created using the cross and split stitch. I found both these stitches fairly easy but the cross stitches wern't identical to one another. To make the stitches more tidy I could use cross stitch fabric to ensure they are identical.

The Ankh symbol I created using the heavy chain stitch. This is my favourite stitch technique out of all these samples. I need more practise curving this stitch as I pulled the needle through the wrong way.

The weaving stitch was simple yet effective. I feel this stich however would look better with thicker pieces of thread.

I found using calico much easier to work with than silk as its a heavier fabric. Silk is much smoother and delicate, meaning the fibres of the fabric were easily strained where as this wasn't at all an issue with calico.