Or nué peacock feather: finished at last!
It’s finished at last! The last section was a bit of a slog, but it’s done.
Last time, I’d finished the disc at the top of the feather; the next stage was the last few fronds on the top:
Then it was just a straight run to the finish in the last remaining colour, the pale green on the background. And done!
A close up of the feather:
The best thing about or nué as a technique is the most difficult to show in photographs, at least for me: it has a lovely sparkle to it, from the gold thread showing through between the closely packed couching stitches. This is the only photo I’ve managed to take that comes close to showing that, but it looks much more effective in real life:
It really is a very attractive and effective embroidery technique, but a slow and if I’m honest rather tedious one – I’ve calculated that it took me 33 minutes per square centimetre, or 3 hours 33 minutes per square inch. Be warned!
Here’s both versions of the peacock feather, the or nué and the couching with colour one, together:
I just need to update the article, and then I can move onto something else.
It certainly looks lovely, even though I can’t appreciate it fully through the photos. Great job!
Wow! That is stunning. I can only imagine how it sparkles in real life. 🙂
I just love this feather. I have come across it on image searches but only now have read your blog posts On the making. Thank you so much for sharing your work.
I do have 2 questions. What is the size of the finished piece?
Why did you choose to couch through every hole on the background (wow!) instead of spacing the stitches? Is that a design choice or what you consider the correct way of doing Or Nué?