 |
|
E-909 Sequin Embroidery MARLA MALLETT Embroidery with sequins was especially popular in France from the late 18th century on, but was used in other places as well. The same technique was used by Ottoman Turkish embroiderers, for example. Here's how Charles Germain de Saint-Aubin described the process in 1770: "The worker threads a very fine needle with waxed silk...After taking a small stitch to secure the thread in the fabric, he threads this needle with a small section of frisure and then a paillette. (See drawing below.) He slipt them down the length of the thread until they are close to the fabric. He next sticks his needle into the fabric, pulls it with the other hand, and brings it up through the material at once, at a distance of half a paillette. The worker then threads a second paillette plus a small section of frisure. He slips them down to the surface of the fabric as he did the first time. He inserts his needle into the hole of the first paillette and pulls it through the fabric, thus covering half of the first paillette with half of the second one. |
||
|
||
| The second stitch of frisure
must appear to join the first one, making one continuous line. One can
sometimes improve on this line by correcting it with the point of the
scissors or that of a large pin....Bouillon can replace frisure
in this work; the choice is arbitrary. The small sections of frisure
or bouillon must be cut a little longer than the space between
two paillettes so that when the stitch is pulled tight, one can
only see a single gold thread which connects and makes a bar across the paillette...
Some people first attach the paillettes with silk, then recover
them with frisure; this double operation greatly secures the work
and makes it more durable." In some portions of the embroidery photographed above, the effect has been enhanced by using two needles and two threads, so that a twined appearance is achieved with the frisure. Saint-Aubin defines frisure as a "wire of matte gold rolled around a large needle to form a tiny tube that the Embroiderers cut into pieces two or three lines in length. To use these bits of gold, one must thread them on silk thread as with bouillon; the resulting trim is a little more solid than bouillon. It is made in several thicknesses." He defines bouillon as a "small strip of metal which has been rolled around and around a long needle and which forms a tube about twelve inches long. These tubes are cut into small bits, two or three lines long, to be used threaded on silk, as with frisure." He describes paillettes (sequins) as "small rings of gold flattened with a planishing hammer. There is a small hole in the middle of the disc through which a threaded needle can pass to sew on the paillette. Paillettes come in various sizes...and in various shapes." |
