stitch dictionary sample whipped-spokes3.jpg turq and orange hoop Colourexp-disk-800.jpg orange stacked beads beaded-disk.jpg blue and purple beady fun Beadembroidery5.jpg filecover-final.jpg Encrusted Embroidery Encrusted embroidery is a contemporary embroidery technique where the fabric surface is encrusted with beads and stitches. You mainly see this style of embroidery worked in monotone creams, bone and white shades but this technique can be worked in any colour. Materials need for encrusted embroidery You can choose any sort of fabric to work this type of embroidery but you do have to think ahead a little. Think about the type of stitches you are attracted to and want to use. Do you like surface embroidery only? Or, do you like the contrast between a low relief flat areas of stitching and the highly textured areas? If you like flat areas in the design how are you going to create that? One option is to leave areas of the fabric empty of stitches. In some of my encrusted embroidery projects I leave a silhouette shape blank and free of stitches. I enjoy playing with negative shapes a lot so I have worked a few pieces like this over the years. The other thing you can do is use a technique like pulled thread to create a contrast between flat areas and textured areas of your piece. In pulled thread embroidery stitches are worked with the fabric under tension and as you work you tighten the stitch with a little tug. The tug pulls the warp and weft of the fabric into small holes. The holes create a pattern and texture. Another type of embroidery you can incorporate into this style is canvas stitches. These are stitches that are often used in Needlepoint but these stitches can be easily worked on even weave fabrics like linen. You can use Satin stitch and Padded Satin stitch as I did in my file cover which I blogged about here (https://pintangle.com/2010/11/16/work-in-progress-wednesday-a-file-cover-part-2/) There is no reason why you can't mix in other techniques and styles of embroidery. It is one of the fun aspects of this type of embroidery. If you like the surface embroidery stitches you can choose just about anything such as quilters cotton, cotton, linen etc. But if you think you might like to work some of the flat areas using pulled thread stitches you need to choose a linen or needlework fabric that is suitable for a pulled fabric technique. I choose linen in a lower count. Usually I choose 25 cnt Dublin Linen. How to choose Thread for encrusted embroidery My main two go to threads are cotton perle #5 and Cotton perle #8 but apart from those I suggest you try all sorts of threads. Experiment with thick, thin, metallic, ribbon, yarns, high gloss and shiny, or dull. Today we have a huge range of textured and novelty threads often found in knit and crochet yarns. These can be couched to the surface of your embroidery. If you use a large variety of threads it means that your stitches will look interesting. Each person will be attracted to a particular range of threads and each person will use those threads in their own individual manner. Using a variety of threads in a piece in your own individual way helps develop your style. So don't forget to have fun with threads! How to choose Beads for encrusted embroidery Choose a variety of beads look for a range of sizes. I aim for 4 or 5 sizes. Apart from different colours look for unusual shapes, different textures and materials. Look for matt and shiny too! With advances in technology we have beads and sequins coming on to the market that are printed so we now have the possibility of patterned beads too! Stitches to use in Encrusted embroidery Apart from couching to couch thick threads to your work any of the textured stitches are good to use in encrusted embroidery. There are the standard stitches like French knot, Bullion stitch and Whipped wheel but there are many more stitches that can add variety and interest to your piece. Take a look at the tutorials in my stitch dictionary part of the site. Try things like Buttonhole Bars, Buttonhole Wheels, and Buttonhole Wheel Cup is fun as you tuck beads into the cup. Colonial Knot can be used as an alternative to French knots if you don't like working them. Oyster stitches are great and Woven Detached Chain Stitch produce great textures. Stitches like Cast on Stitch and Drizzle stitch is loads of fun. Ghiordes Knot or Turkey Knot produces a fuzzy surface which can be a total contrast to bright beads. Needlewoven Picot can be worked in long strips and twisted then secured to your work. For light areas don't forget seed stitch and double seed stitch. For stitches to use in the flat or less busy areas of your piece I have already mentioned pulled thread embroidery stitches or you can pull many of the surface embroidery stitches too. For instance in the demonstration below I use Cretan stitch and pull it. In my file cover the bottom right hand corner is Satin stitch and padded satin stitch. (https://pintangle.com/2010/11/30/work-in-progress-wednesday-a-file-cover-done/) Filling stitches are another obvious choice such as Back Stitch Trellis You can also use stitches that create patterns. I often say in my stitch directions that a line of stitches can be used row upon row to fill an area. These are stitches like Herringbone or Cretan stitch that when you work line after line of them they make a pattern. These can all be used as a filling stitch and cover an area quite quickly. How to work an encrusted embroidery piece As a demonstration of this technique I am sharing the steps I took to make this fabric postcard. With this fabric postcard I used a Dublin 25 cnt linen. Mentally divide your piece into areas of high texture contrasted with areas of low flat stitches. If you have a heavily encrusted area of beading and stitches you need some areas that are quieter to act as a foil. In this example I divided the fabric postcard into 3 bands. I wanted the middle band to be heavily textured and the top and bottom band to be quieter. My quiet areas would be pulled thread embroidery. Define the edge of your piece. The first thing I did was create a small boundary. I do this because otherwise my eye takes in the whole hoop and the design expands as I stitch. So I create a line of stitching. In this case it is cross stitches but on other projects I have used a line of tacking or basting stitches to act as my boundary. Any stitch or technique that will act as a boundary and contain the project is fine. Next I worked an area of low relief stitching on a cotton perle #8. If you look closely at the top of the fabric postcard you will see pulled Cretan stitch. It is Cretan stitch that has been tugged to 'pull' each arm of the stitch. If you need a reminder on how to work Cretan stitch you can find a tutorial here. I chose Cretan stitch because I felt it would look like a net and I was aiming for a beach theme. The next thing I did was to stitch in place a few points of interest. These are the large things that will draw the eye. In this case it is the 2 pieces of sliced shell and some Suffolk puffs or Yo-Yos made of chiffon. For another example you can see how I have used Suffolk puffs in another project here (https://pintangle.com/2021/11/18/stacked-beads/) Next I had a few hours of fun tucking textured stitches and beads in and around the middle band across the fabric postcard. I mainly used a mix of Buttonhole Wheels, Buttonhole Wheel Cup, Bullion Knot, French Knot, Cast on Stitch, and Whipped Wheel stitch. I used mix of threads some thick some thin, some bright and some dull. Apart from the sliced shells the beads are half round wood beads, broken shell, shell heishi beads, wood seed beads, glass seed beads and plastic 4mm round beads. Tips and things to think about when doing encrusted embroidery If you are wanting to try this style of stitching my tips are to think about density and how close your stitches are. You can pack them tightly together to create interesting textures or space them further apart and let the background fabric show through to create a lighter more airy feeling. You can layer stitches on top of another to build up rich and intricate surfaces. When layering stitches think about the thickness of your thread. For instance working a thin thread over a thick thread can be interesting. The other interesting contrast is working a thread with a high sheen or a metallic thread under a more plain thread like wool. I actively encourage every stitcher I meet to be adventurous with threads. Don’t be afraid to use and incorporate different threads into your design. Changing scale of your stitches will add visual interest to your work. If stitches are all the same size it can visually flattens the area. This is a really enjoyable type of embroidery to do so relax and have fun! If you want to see other instances of this style of working take a look at my Summer Seaside an Encrusted Embroidery wall Panel https://pintangle.com/2021/10/07/summer-seaside-an-encrusted-embroidery-wall-panel/ More beady fun https://pintangle.com/2022/01/13/more-bead-embroidery-fun/ Beady things on the hoop! https://pintangle.com/2021/12/08/beady-things-on-the-hoop/ Fresh off the hoop https://pintangle.com/2021/04/22/fresh-off-the-hoop-3/ Stacked beads and Hidden Lace https://pintangle.com/2021/11/18/stacked-beads/ From Studio Journal Design to Embroidery posts in the series are. From Studio Journal Design to Embroidery: A file cover part 1 https://www.pintangle.com/2010/11/09/work-in-progress-wednesday-a-file-cover-part-1/ From Studio Journal Design to Embroidery: A file cover part 2 https://www.pintangle.com/2010/11/16/work-in-progress-wednesday-a-file-cover-part-2/ From Studio Journal Design to Embroidery: A file cover part 3 https://www.pintangle.com/2010/11/23/work-in-progress-wednesday-a-file-cover-part-3/ From Studio Journal Design to Embroidery: A File cover part 4 https://pintangle.com/2010/11/30/work-in-progress-wednesday-a-file-cover-done/ Links in Post Fresh off the hoop https://pintangle.com/2021/04/22/fresh-off-the-hoop-3/