Since I have started my Raised Embroidery panel reproduction, the main problem to resolve was about what materials I should use to achieve a result that could be comparable to the historical ones.
I want to share and discuss here what I have found and where, so those who are interested can maybe save time and money.
SILK GIMPS:
those where made by wrapping a flat silk around a silk or cotton core and where widely used to outline tent stitch slips, to fill areas, stitched in knots, couched in a basket pattern or used to make the much raised needlelace parts.
To obtain this material I made a special order to Benton & Johnson, have choosed historical colours from Pipers silks range and sent them to Neil Halford for spinning - thank you Neil !
Gimps are mostly used for leafs, ground and trees, so the colour range is mainly on shades of greens and browns.
SILK WRAPPED PURLS:
those where made wrapping a fine silk thread on to a copper wire, than the covered wire was wound on to a rod.
They are now again available from Benton & Johnson in the range of colours you can "try" to see in picture or you can ask for a special order if you prefer your personal colourway, just contact Neil to order them....
Wrapped purls from B&J are much finer than those made by Golden Threads for Access Commodities as you can see in this image.
I'm sorry for the photo but the big fight between me and my camera is still not ended ; have tryied to get a decent image for about half hour but no luck ! The colours are really much nicer believe me ! this is just to give you an idea...
In part two of this topic I will talk about silk threads used in 17th C.English Raised Embroidery and about modern matching silks, also interesting historical facts that I have found in my researches...soon !
