The Censing Angel - Church of St Peter and St Paul - Cattistock - Dorset

This was one of the first things I stitched using silk thread .
 The Censing Angel from the William Morris and Sir Edward  Burne-Jones  stained glass window  c.1882.The Church of St Peter and St  Paul Cattistock in Dorset .  I so love Pre-Raphaelite paintings and was just inspired to have a go at embroidering this .
 My mother had given me a small collection of reels of the most beautiful  Japanese silk ....so fine but slippery and very difficult to work with ...I used it for the Angel's silken robe . I then embroidered the floral pattern over it .

 I used DMC cotton for the background and some tiny seed beads for the stars .
I,m uncomfortable with using beads in my embroidery . Maybe I should  have worked French knots .

               Some glittery gold thread for the thurible or incense burner .
 

My next piece of silk embroidery is going to take some time to do , I wont be putting it on here for a long while yet ...I prefer to go slowly . This is not a piece that I can easily carry around in my work bag .

 I love to embroider Angels . When I embroidered my medieval Steeple Aston Cope Angel..time travelling back to C.1320 .. I used DMC embroidery cotton for no other reason than I have so much of it , having been much obsessed with cross stitch at the time !
  I prefer surface hand embroidery now and mostly with crewel wool .
 Anyway ... so now I,m dabbling with silk again .....and I also have another crewel project in mind ..well ... I have to have something to work on , that I can take out with me in my bag !  It is very calming for me .
 Well , Winter has returned here in Mullion , although we did enjoy an ice cream down at the  Poldhu beach cafe this afternoon , we were all wrapped up . The sun was shining but there was a cold easterly breeze blowing ....we might have a touch more snow this week  . I,ve been dashing around the garden wrapping up my more tender plants ..and carrying in more logs for the fire ..not good for hands that want to stitch silk !  Keep warm all !