Druid banner - lettering: outlining OBOD

The gold kid letters look fine by themselves, but I think they would look better more sharply delineated.  To achieve this, I've outlined them in the same dark green passing thread I used for the spirals on the lower half of the trilithon.

Close up on a pip, you may be able to see that as before I've used two lengths of the passing thread, couched closely around the edge of the gold kid piece:

And the letters outlined too:

If you compare to how they looked in the previous post, you can see that they appear much stronger now.

The text around the top next - there's rather more of that, so it's going to take a bit longer to do.

Druid banner - lettering: OBOD

With all the letters cut out, I can start attaching them to the fabric.

If you can remember back at the start when I ironed the transfer onto the linen used to line the top fabric, the design came out back to front, such as the letters 'OBOD' (in a Gaelic font) here:

I also said this didn't matter; the reason why not is that when I stitch over the design to mark it onto the front of the piece, it comes out the right way round:

That's a bit faint, but hopefully you can see that the letters are the mirror image of how they appear on the back.

As well as the letters, there are also a series of 'pips' around the edge, between the two sets of text.  Here are most of them, stitched on:

I'm using a proper leather needle for this; it passes through the kid much easier than a regular needle, and is far less likely to cause splitting.

And now, 'OBOD':

I think it looks good!  It could look better though, with something added...

Druid banner - lettering

The only work left to do on the banner now is lettering around the edge.  Above the circular design are the Gaelic words 'An Tigh Geata', which means 'The Joyous Gatehouse'.  Below it is 'OBOD', the acronym of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, who have commissioned the banner, and in between are a few pips, to connect them up visually.

The lettering is going to be in gold kid leather.  I first traced the letters on the design, making as economical as use of space as I could:

I then stuck these tracings to the kid: they're stuck to the back with 505 fabric spray glue, with the tracings right side down:

I then cut them out very carefully, and peeled the tracing paper off the backs of the letters, and off a pile of offcuts:

I'm sure that will all come in very handy for something or other one day!

Here are the cut out letters:

Back to front on the back of the kid means that they're the right way round on the front.

Next, time to start attaching them to the banner.

Druid banner - the entire central design finished

A major landmark for the banner today, with the entire central design finished.  Last time, I'd completed the goldwork detailing for one leg of the appliqué trilithon; here's the other one:

That shows the perspective effect much better, with everything coming from the centre of the circle.

The detail on the top section completes it:

So, and with apologies for the photo, here's the completed thing:

That's still not all work completed though.  What's next?

Druid banner - goldwork detail

The spirals are all done on the applique trilithon, but that's not the finish.  You may have thought that they looked a slightly odd shape, not really rectangular - this is because they're not 'flat', but have a perspective effect, centred on the centre of the spiral design, where all the gold 'rays' are coming from too.

So, to make this more obvious, some detail needs to be added.  I'm doing this in goldwork, using the same threads as for the rays.

First, I outlined the edge of the first 'leg' of the trilithon:

As with the rays, this uses four strands of the gold thread, couched in two lots of two.

I then added a vertical line in gold, to highlight the perspective:

It makes a big difference, doesn't it!

It should make an even bigger one once the other leg and the top are done - they're next.

Druid banner - all the spirals finished

This is a big step in the banner's progress - I've finished all of the spirals!

There weren't that many left to do, comparatively speaking, but it still makes a big difference to the piece.  The remaining spirals were in green, as mentioned last time, and over the bottom half of the appliqué "trilithon" motif.

Here's the left leg of the trilithon completed:

And the right leg:

And that's the lot!

Well, it's all the spirals done, not all the design completed, and not even all the central area.  So what do I have left to do on it?  Find out next time!

Druid banner - starting the green spirals

Not far to go with the spirals now, with just the green ones on the appliqué to do. As with the blue, this is a darker colour and solid, not variegated: Fir Tree Green metallic passing thread couched with Gutermann Sulky 1051:

As usual, I've transferred the design from the back to the front with small running stitches:

This won't take as long to couch as the blue spirals for the obvious reason that there are a lot fewer of them, so hopefully you'll see them finished soon.