Starting new

After a lengthy time finishing projects to get ahead of deadlines, I have reached the point where I can allow myself to start a new project. Several things come to mind, and there are a couple of ongoing projects that I'll keep working on in the background, but I've decided to start a new reliquary.  The reliquaries I make are purely for my own enjoyment.  I only rarely show them to others, and haven't worked on one for over a year.  The concept and technique that inspires them can be found in the book "Beginners Guide to Embroidered Boxes" by Janet Edmonds, but the patterns and designs are my own.

The first step is to gather supplies.  The base is always 
Duipionni silk, backed by felt.  Depending on the size of the design, there may also be a layer of interfacing.

Then I pick thread, both matching and contrasting.  Next is embellishments.  This can involve beads, cabochons, metallic threads, and anything else that takes my fancy.  This time I hope to include some polymer clay faces that I made awhile ago.  I'm thinking of covering them with metallic leaf, once I settle on the metallic I want to use.  I have made a rule for myself--only one metallic per piece.

Working from my stash I have put together four potential pieces.  The critical point turned out to be beads.  This is my bead stash, and you wouldn't think I would have trouble finding a bead to match every possible option, but I had great trouble finding beads to match a light fuchsia silk I bought today.  I may have to take that colour out of the running for now.

 So I have fuchsia and dark teal, silver/gunmetal grey, and lilac, all with the beads I have tentatively put with them.

Next are the metallics, mainly various hand threads.  Machine threads are the next step.  Right now, in my decision-making, I'm leaning toward the teal with silver, or the grey/gunmetal with silver.

I'll post my progress with this, but each piece takes about 3 months of intense work, so it won't be too soon!

I plan to link this with The Needle and Thread Network, and maybe Nina-Marie Sayre's Off the Wall Fridays.