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The exhibition, in an upper room, was amazing. There were many examples of this ancient art worked by members of the guild. There was a wide range of art work from more traditional pieces to those with a more contemporary look. Some pieces were worked purely in gold and silver and others used colourful embroidery threads as well as the metal threads.
The metal threads came in a variety of styles some flat, some wavy and all were couched down within the designs. You were able to see that some threads were twisted to create a different effect. Although the metal threads were of a similar colour, depending on their style, the direction they were laid down and the amount of couching used, cleverly created the shades and nuances of the image. Where couching with coloured threads was used over the metal threads, it created different effects such as the speckling on a frog’s legs. Other metal colours, such as bronze and copper, were in evidence too.
Some pieces used more embroidery threads, and materials from leather to silk as infill in the design, with the gold or silver used as outlines or stalks in the design. Embroidery stitches were more in evidence in these colourful designs alongside the couching stitches used to anchor threads down.
Three pieces of Chinese goldwork from the first part of the twentieth century were on display and they looked as vibrant as if they had just been created. They showed little signs of age apart from some minor repairs to the couching.
This lovely exhibition, with a wide variety of pieces, delighted everyone’s taste.
