Japanese Embroidery

This is the last in the current Geisha Series of designs. Japanese, in fact any oriental, embroidery fascinates me and I have often duplicated many of their stitches in hand embroidery projects. My goal with this set is to incorporate as many of the hand embroidery techniques used in Japanese embroidery as machine embroidery will allow me to. The first design, the Wisteria, demonstrates the use of understatement, outlining and the use of straight stitches to give detail (the tree branch). The second floral bouquet uses a very often used *woven* stitch for the cattails. The third design uses couching, perhaps one of the most prevalent stitches used. Many of their embroideries are row upon row of couched metallic threads - gorgeous! The fourth design imitates the use of satin stitches for shading. Using ever lighter or darker shades, they lay layer upon layer of uneven satin stitches creating a very satiny surface and much depth to the embroidery. The remaining designs also use these techniques. The last three designs in the set are smaller medallions to use as accents or with some of the larger designs. You could also use them as a border - either repeating just one design or alternating them.