Anglo-Saxon Brooch Progress

I,m stitching all the guide lines and thinking about the colours that were used in Anglo-Saxon glass and enamel .... the things that were added in the making of the glass , such as iron, manganese , magical cobolt for that gorgeous blue , lead , copper , tin ,antimony .
I want to try and get those beautiful colours .

 Snuggled up on my bed with my hot water bottle and my little friend , listening to Enya , while outside the storm rages .

Actually the storm (Brian) didn't hit us too hard here in Mullion , but brushed past us , still it was wild out . We took a drive to see the waves from a safe distance . Here looking over Poldhu and across to Gunwalloe .

           The tide was going out actually , here looking over Mullion Harbour .

        I used three shades of this green  421 422 and 424 Appleton's crewel wool .

                                         ...and took out my new red scissors !

I suppose  you could say that I,m doing padded satin stich here , but the lines are so thin . I did long stitches for the under stitches  but I,m not really making this padded or raised .

That was all quite tedious , so next I,m going to reward myself with a delightful bit . Those zoomorphic doves .....at least that is what I think they are ....
                         ....... What  do you think ?
 ..The sun just came out and the wind has gone ..blue sky ...we're off to church .
Have a lovely Sunday all !

Anglo - Saxon Brooch from St Augustine's Abbey Canterbury

We escaped the wrath of Hurricane Ophelia and enjoyed a couple of days up in Tewkesbury . I packed up a bit of 10th century embroidery to relax with in the evening .
 I am stitching the beautiful Anglo-Saxon brooch which is in the museum at St Augustine's Abbey in Canterbury . I found the picture of it on the St Louis Community College website , an education site , who in turn got it from the St Augustine's Abbey museum . If I am not allowed to use this pic , let me know and I will remove it .

This Anglo - Saxon brooch has glass inlays , at first sight I saw it as being bold primary colours of blue , white , red , green and yellow....and pull these colours from my mighty hoard of wool ...but as I look closer I see many more subtle shades within it and end up with many more little bundles of crewel wool in my basket .

I begin by stem and crewel stitching , a mixture of both , around all of the design lines....I,m not all that happy about this dark brown....it might not work..but let's see how it goes .
 I try to always begin and finish on the front , so it is kept tidy with no knots or bumps on the reverse . ...if you can do this , then that is brilliant...keep on perfecting it !
......but as a beginner ,  I always did tie a knot and make a terrible mess on the back and if thats where you're at and you are having fun , then I say , you should just carry on having  fun  ! Knots , tangled threads, loops and all !
Dont worry about it !
 Dont block your beautiful imagination and fun ..the reverse wont be seen by anyone when you,ve finished it . I know there will be people who will disagree with me , but I think you should let your creative imagination flow and you can learn to perfect it later on , especially if you are a very young person .

      Here I am snipping the thread that I have woven through the stitches on the front .
                                   I cant wait to start throwing in some colours .

           Here is the reverse , not too bad , but there are a lot more stitches to come .
 I,m home in Cornwall again now ....they had a lot of rain here in Mullion , but the wind wasn't too bad . We didn't have any trees down and my greenhouse is still standing . Everyone is telling me how awesome the waves were !  I love to see the sea when it's wild  ! (from a safe distance)
   However ..there's more stormy weather coming in on Saturday ....and it is feeling colder now too ....sigh... haul in another basket full of split logs for the fire .
 I had my flu jab ....ouch !   It's Australian Flu this time ... it's going to be really bad they say .