Druid banner - threads and couching

Time to start actual embroidery!

Now the design, or the part of it I'm starting with, anyway, is transferred to the front, I can embroider over the top of it.  I'm using Benton & Johnson coloured metallic threads, and for this section I'm using Marine Blue, which is a lovely variegated one.  I'm couching it (I'll explain what this is in a moment), and using Gutermann rayon machine embroidery thread no. 1134 for that:

Couching is where one thread, in this case the metallic one, is laid on the surface of the fabric, and stitched down with a second thread.

Contrasting colours can give a nice effect, but in this case I want the couching thread to be as little seen as possible, so I'm using a thread that's as close in colour as I could find, quite fine, and quite shiny, so it doesn't break the shine of the couched thread.

Here, you can see two strands of the metallic thread on the surface of the fabric, laid over the transferred design, and being stitched down with the finer thread.

I started with the outer circle:

After a bit of fiddling around with camera settings I've managed to get something that's reasonably close to the real colours, which is a relief, as with my earlier photos you really weren't getting an accurate impression of what it was like.  Now, hopefully, you should be follow work as it progresses much better.