The thread junkie in me has been bubbling about with excitement, and the only thing for it is to share with you some new thread colors!
I’m always excited when I see new colors of my favorite threads appearing on the market. When a line of hand embroidery threads expands, it’s a good sign! Two of Au Ver a Soie’s threads are currently enjoying a nice expansion of colors – Soie de Paris and Soie Ovale.
These are some of the new colors of Soie de Paris coming out. Soie de Paris is a twisted filament silk. It has a beautiful sheen, and is a fine thread, great for detail work. It stitches up wonderfully in long and short stitch and satin stitch. It’s the silk I used for this Tudor-style rose, and I’m thinking about using it for another project this year, too. I love stitching with this thread!
It’s thrilling to see the addition of more browns and neutrals to the collection! Are you thinking, “Brown? Why is Brown exciting?” Brown, you see, is such an under-appreciated thread color. Without it, though, both depth and realism that would be missing from works of hand embroidery! No, no, we can’t do without browns and neutrals, and the more the merrier, I say!
The new woad-ish blues are gorgeous, too, and so perfectly “stepped” for shading. I believe there are more coming out, and I can’t wait to see all of them lined up together happily!
Soie Ovale is a flat filament silk. Flat silks have little or no twist and a hyper-sheen. They are the sheeniest of silks! (No, not a word – but it works!)
You’ll notice that the expanded colors correspond with those of Soie de Paris, and again, all the new colors haven’t rolled out yet, so I’m sure we’ll see a few more added to the collection soon. I can’t wait! There’s rumor of some greens coming out that sound quite delectable!
When a thread line fills out with more colors and shades, the stitching possibilities expand exponentially! And that’s why I’m so excited about these – and eagerly awaiting the unveiling of future colors, too.
I am signed up for the Cabinet of Curiousities project, and these do indeed look like the colors Tricia has been previewing for us.
We’ve not seen them this close up, though. Those flat silks look amazing!
If anyone is interested in learning more about the Cabinet of Curiousities project, I recommend Tricia’s blog, the Embroiderer’s Story (http://thistle-threads.com/blog/). Her excitment about this project is contagious. I can’t wait for this class to start.
Carol S.
They are so gorgeous. I waited too long to get in on the casket project…the $$ came in too late for me to join the class. I really hope she opens it up to more students. It looks to be such an incredible adventure that right now I can only watch online…:(
People on the wait list for Tricia’s course were emailed on the 6th April about spaces. And she hasn’t yet sent anything to say it’s full. It might be worth contacting her to see.
I sent in my subscription as soon as I heard there were more spaces. Count me as someone else beyond excited to start this course.
I’m SO looking forward to getting the new *complete* ranges of Soie Ovale and Soie Paris in 3 months time, as part of the Thistle Thread Casket course. So, SO looking forward to it!
I am also taking the Cabinet of Curiosities course. I am really excited about it and am looking forward to getting the threads. The sheen on them is beautiful.
Wow, wow, wow. I had not seen or heard of the Cabinet of Curiosities until this blog.What a treasure. I envy the folks that had signed up for the course. Hopefully they will share with us their path to completion.
Doreen fronm Maine
Oh, I am particularly excited by the silks and their new colors, because now I can use the silks without shredding them with my dry, chapped hands and fingers. Why the change? I, the Skeptic, tried the sugar and olive oil mix and… it WORKS! My hands are responding and softening. Tra la, tra la, tra la! Now, then… where’s my order form…. 🙂
G’day there Mary,
Those rich browns are luscious. Love all those colours but especially the browns, earthy, autumn girl that I am.
Continue to enjoy your posts as ever, mean so much to me. Thank you.
Cheers, Kath.
Before I got to the bottom of the post, I was thinking they looked like the colors from the Thistle Threads casket project. I’m not taking part, but have been following it’s progress(I need to catch up though), and can highly recommend going back to read about it from the start. And about the jacket they did a couple of years ago also – gorgeous!
I love the new colors.
SOOooo gorgeous – I’ve never used silk thread. Is there a recommended project to start off with? I don’t want to “mess up” anything too ambitious. How do you get started with this? I can’t wait to try it! : )
ooooooh – swoon!!! I know you’re not supposed to covet things, but I’m having a hard time at the moment. Beautiful colours!
Wow – these are luxurious – love the colors and the sheen. I can see why they stitch up wonderfully.
I’m not sure where to say thank you to Ellemir, who responded to my comment about not being able to get into the cabinet class. I followed her tip, found the missing e-mail of the 6th, and I’m so happy to say I was able to join up in what promises to be an incredible stitching adventure! Thanks to your post Mary, I was finally able to connect on this project and I am absolutely giddy with excitement…Oh! the plans, the ideas the concepts…looking forward to using some of these gorgeous colors on MY box! Thank you Mary and Ellemir.
That’s very exciting, Elisabeth! I’m glad to hear you got in! ~MC
I’m delighted to hear you got a place too. It sounds like you are just as excited as I am and there are only a few days to the start.
Maybe we’ll encounter each other again during the course. I wonder if you are having the same fascinating problem I am, narrowing down all the possibilities to one concept for the cabinet. If it’s this hard now I am on tenterhooks wondering what the course will bring in terms of ideas.
I followed Mary’s link and read every page, becoming more and more enthralled until I got to the last page and got bumped back to earth with an almighty bang. The first thing was the price – now before you all start shouting I am sure it is reasonable, just out of my range. The second was that the course was full, even if I could scrimp and save the $$$. And then, I’m not sure I’m even competent enough to do something like this, but boy, does it look wonderful.
I hope all you lucky people who managed to get in enjoy it, and learn lots so you can do classes for people like me who missed out.
And Mary, I agree wholeheartedly with you about browns and neutrals. Last year I had my first solo exhibition and the ‘main’ piece was a small table screen with 3 leaves, each meant to represent abstractly the bark of eucalyptus trees, and naturally the colours were all creamy beigy light browny neutrals. I can’t wait for more since tree bark is one of my favourite inspirations.