同學作品分享—Advanced Silk Shading進階絲線繡

這週再來分享另一個同學Paris Morthorpe的作品。Paris超級nice的，之前有些問題請教她的時候，她都很樂於給我建議，也會不時給我鼓勵。（超感動的說！）

我對她的Advanced Silk Shading進階絲線繡印象很深刻，雖然我還不是很專業，不過我覺得人像會比動物更難用絲線繡呈現，而且她選擇的是絲線繡裡固定垂直方向的針法，這有別於依照動物毛海的方向來決定針法去向的技術。

Paris是天主教徒，而Virgin Mary是她的守護聖者。【註一】之所以在進階絲線繡這個類別選擇人像而不是動物，是因為她看過一些人像的作品得到啟發而想要嘗試。另外，她認為這可以讓自己的技術更上一層樓。

保持垂直方向的針法，乍看之下好像比較容易，其實這種技法在顏色的轉換上是更有難度的，尤其是布料皺摺的光影部分。雖然布料皺摺的呈現十分具挑戰性，但若操作恰當則效果會非常棒。

臉、手和腳也必須維持垂直方向的針法，但由於區域比較小，繡起來需要技巧，尤其是臉部的陰影變化更是高難度的技術。另外，她使用金屬繡線來凸顯光環的質地，而頭髮則選擇依照髮絲的方向來操作針法。

Paris很喜歡這個作品的挑戰性，也希望未來還能多嘗試這類型的刺繡。她也提到，刺繡領域裡還有很多人像範例的靈感來源，包括了聖人和Bayeux tapestry（貝葉掛毯【註二】）裡的人像。

以下附上Paris Morthorpe的原文喔！（我不是專業翻譯，前面只是盡可能把她信件裡的意思表達出來這樣ＸＤ）

I will try to recall the making of Mary. As you probably know, she's the Virgin Mary. I am Catholic and she is my Patron Saint. I decided to work the figure instead of the animal because I'd seen the silk shaded figures and had been inspired to give it a try. This is a technique that I would aspire to be better at with more work.

The technique for silk shaded figures involves vertical stitches only, all stitches must be straight up and down. This might sound simple but it gets complicated when colors change abruptly, especially within folds of fabric that have lots of shading color variations. Giving those fabric folds their color definition is very challenging but can be so beautiful if done well.

Realistic hands, face and feet are also required of this technique. This becomes very tricky considering that it's all stitched in a very small space. The face is particularly difficult given the small area along with major color variations of the features.

I was allowed some artistic license with the halo which I highlighted with some gold thread. The hair is also allowed to free flow on the direction of growth.

I loved this challenge and hope to do more of this type of stitching. There are many examples of human figures in embroidery so lots of inspiration including saints and the figures in the Bayeux tapestry.

註一：天主教徒領洗時，受洗者會領受一個聖人的名字（即聖名），一般認為該聖名之聖人會保佑領受了自己聖名的人。（這是查Wikipedia得到的資訊，如果有錯誤請告訴我喔！雖然我不是天主教徒，但非常樂於了解更多。）

註二：這是很知名的一件作品，長度達70公尺，所以號稱是英國版的清明上河圖這樣。有興趣的朋友可以搜尋更多詳細的資訊，這裡就不多做敘述啦！（真要介紹得花一篇文章的篇福吧！）