同學作品分享—Jacobean Crewelwork羊毛線刺繡

好久沒有分享同學的作品啦～剛好在Rugby教室上課的期間，遇到了事前規劃做得很完善的同學—Helen Miller，所以經過她的同意之後，就來跟大家分享一下囉！（看到她的事前準備，簡直是讓我佩服得五體投地呢！）

Helen在開始RSN的證照課程之前並沒有任何相關經驗，所以先報名參加了刺繡基本介紹的一日課程和羊毛線刺繡的兩日課程。

另外，她也去RSN上了兩天的刺繡設計課程，內容主要是設計、色彩、繪製、布料和怎麼把設計圖轉印到布面上，也包括了針法和色彩的規劃。而老師還建議，可以把設計圖影印多份之後去嘗試各種不同的創意變化。

所以，Helen在這些前置作業中，可以去思考針法的方向、色彩的平衡，以及結合後可能呈現出來的效果。她也會在圓形繡框上試著繡一些設計稿裡的部分區域當作樣品，一方面可以練習針法並且了解不同針法呈現出來的樣子，一方面老師也可以透過樣品“看見”並理解Helen的想法，更方便給出建議和指正。由於她身為左撇子，這樣的方式就特別有幫助。

曾有一位老師說，愈滿意享受自己作品的色彩，就愈能快樂沈浸在刺繡的過程中。Helen十分認同，而且很開心自己能多嘗試不同的色彩變化組合。不過真正要操作在作品上時，她還是覺得非常具有挑戰性，並且常常拆了又繡，但至少有持續在進步中呢！

以下附上Helen Miller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 didn’t have a lot of sewing experience so before starting the RSN certificate course I went on the introduction to embroidery day class and two day classes for Jacobean embroidery.

I also went on a RSN course called Design and Stitch which was 2 days. There was no sewing on this course. It covered how to develop a design for embroidery, looking at colour, drawing, different fabrics and how to transfer a design onto fabric. This course also covered stitch plans, order of work plans and colour plans. The tutor suggested having plenty of copies of a design so you could try out different ideas.

Drawing and colouring copies of my design made me think about stitch direction, colour balance and how stitch combinations might look. I also made a sampler; painting parts of my design on a piece of material and stitching the ideas from my plans. A more experienced embroiderer would not need to do so much as this as they would already know what would work well. I used the plans and sampler to practise stitches, see what different stitches looked like and to understand the stitch direction for the shapes in my design. The tutors can look at my plans and sampler and ‘see’ my thinking and make further suggestions. The tutors can also see what stitching mistakes I am making and guide me on how to improve; this is particularly useful for me as I am left-handed.

As one of the tutors explained you will be happier stitching if you are happy with your colours. I have found this to be the case and I am glad I tried different colour combinations on my plans. Stitching my actual design is still challenging and I have had to unpick stitches and rework several times but I think my work is improving – I hope!