Susan Palmer's Exquisite Now

First, some history: My obsession with embroidery goes back to 2018 or so, when I first saw the Chinese court textiles exhibit at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art. The museum, in Eugene OR, has an extensive display of Chinese art that’s worth a visit or six.

The garments, intricately “painted” with fine silk threads, captivated me. Many robes dated back more than 100 years yet were vibrant with color. The individual threads seemed much finer than the embroidery thread I was familiar with.

A year or two later, I discovered that “thread painting” is a popular art form (craft form? maybe a bit of both) and I began to learn. I used the easily available DMC cotton embroidery floss, bought patterns from really skilled embroiderers — Trish Burr, among others — and have been enjoying going deeper into a new skill. Eventually, I started creating my own projects. But always with cotton floss.

Then I stumbled onto artist Helen Steven’s work. A British embroiderer, she works with Piper silks. It was clear to me she was using thread similar to the Chinese textiles silks that had so entranced me at the museum.

I purchased one of her instruction booklets, ordered some Piper silks and tried my first project.

This was a whole new experience in managing materials. Piper silks are almost hairlike filaments, so thin they will fall through a typical needle. But they’re lustrous and beautiful and once I accepted the dexterity challenges of working with something so fine, I kind of fell in love.

My first project on the left is a good beginner’s effort. Will I do more? Ah, well. A package just arrived in the mail from the UK Piper silk company. A stunning range of colors for me to play with. Each thread spool is about a half inch in diameter and 2 inches long and holds 87 yards of silk filament.

Not sure what’s next but I’m pretty sure it’ll be my own design.

If you want to be over-awed by Helen Steven’s work, either her website or her Facebook page might get you there.