Module 2 chapter 8

Module 2 Chapter 8

Purls or Bullion

After a long break due to family stuff and a move I’m at last back on track with my studies.



The challenge for this chapter was to use purchased Purls or hand made ones and then use them to attach to a fabric backing, using as many different variations as possible.

I started with the 2 green purchased purls in the left hand corner. These were quite easy to attach onto the hand dyed velvet that I’d chosen as a backing. I chose this for its opulent feel that I felt would enhance the richness of the purls.

I then got a bit more adventurous and wrapped some very fine embroidery wire around a chenille needle. I was very surprised how well this worked. These are the three samples above the green purls.

Next I tried some silver florist wire, this time wound around an even bigger plastic needle.These are sewn down above the wire samples.

To the left of the florist wire are the first of the samples that I tried wrapping wire around yarn, in this case Goldfinger crochet yarn.
Along the top of the sample I used an elastic gold braid wound with fine wire and then wound around a knitting needle, it’s been couched down with Madeira Glissengloss.

Underneath this in the centre is another purchased purl, this time a gold in very tightly wound metal, it behaved a lot differently to the the looser green purls.

To the right is a braid that has been covered in a metal mesh making it is slightly bendy but it didn’t hold a shape, so again I wound it with wire and then wrapped it around some scissor blades. I think it’s quite effective.

Underneath the orange braid is a wire wrapped Lamé thread which was the wrapped around a small needle.

The last sample is a very fine Madeira Glissen Gloss again wrapped in wire and wrapped around a needle.

This chapter turned out to be much more interesting than I first thought and I think it has definite possibilities for inclusion in a future project.

More posts will follow shortly as soon as I have time to publish.