"The next step is materials; Sweta is having trouble tracking down just the right bits and pieces, and doesn't yet know where to find beetle wings."
Am I mis-remembering? It seems to have stuck in my mind that when you first were seized by this glorious madness for reproducing the Peacock Dress, and began talking about it here on LJ, that you were wondering about where to find a supply of those beetle wings and someone put you on to a source. I am sure I recall reading in your journal that you had experimented with the best means of trimming and shaping them.
Soooo.... Wouldn't that information, where to obtain them, how much per kilo, how much for shipping, be somewhere in your journal's archives? (*imagines a kilogram of those beetle wings...*)
I also clearly recall your mentioning that the wings are shed naturally by the beetles and can be collected from the forest floor, so it's not a question of slaughtering innocent insects for the sake of personal adornment.
(*imagines again a kilogram of those beetle wings...*)
"...it is just curious that she needs help finding them!"
Yes and no. When I first started attempting to do searches via Google (or other search engine), I had a terrible, frustrating, unproductive, unsuccessful time of it, time after time after time. Then one day, things seemed to fall into place and I was doing much better, much easier and more successful searches. One friend of mine, who makes his living in IT, amazes me when he can't do a reasonable search ("...because if virginiadear can do it, anybody should be able to do it", I can just hear him thinking this, and it's true I'm not very internet savvy) or when he's looking at a URL and murmuring, "H'mm... This is www-dot-entityname-dot-D-E--- I don't trust it, probably a scam and a bot because
( ... )
After spending almost 2 years working on getting the Eleonora fabric woven to include samples going back and forth and emails saying, "So you wanted X, right?" even when I had emails saying, "I want Y," I have absolutely no problem believing that she is having a difficult time finding parts for the embroidery
( ... )
I agree; since the pink color is on whole feathers, I think it has to be deliberate. There are beetle wings on ebay, and Noel knows sources for them. I can't wait to see this in person!
That sample looks amazing! And yeah, I agree with your logic. The random scattering makes me think there was SOME thought going on.
The only other guess I have, and it's far fetched -- could multiple people have worked on one section? Ie frame it up, we all sit around and each work a feather, my passing thread stash is diff from everyone else's. Again, far fetched!
I thought that too, and they do work in groups at long, narrow frames, but I can't imagine that each person would do exactly one feather then move somewhere else. Surely instead you'd end up with random sections in pink, like big red wine stains, I think?
No individual embroiderer would necessarily be moving after completing one feather: it could have been that the work "progressed" more or less predictably within each long frame, and at some point, supplies of passing thread had to be renewed. The crucial variable might be whether those workers at a given frame shared a common stock kept at that particular frame, or whether each man or woman was responsible for a quantity of gold and/or silver threads for the duration of that shift of work.
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The sample they sent is gorgeous.
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It is, I love it!
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Am I mis-remembering? It seems to have stuck in my mind that when you first were seized by this glorious madness for reproducing the Peacock Dress, and began talking about it here on LJ, that you were wondering about where to find a supply of those beetle wings and someone put you on to a source. I am sure I recall reading in your journal that you had experimented with the best means of trimming and shaping them.
Soooo.... Wouldn't that information, where to obtain them, how much per kilo, how much for shipping, be somewhere in your journal's archives?
(*imagines a kilogram of those beetle wings...*)
I also clearly recall your mentioning that the wings are shed naturally by the beetles and can be collected from the forest floor, so it's not a question of slaughtering innocent insects for the sake of personal adornment.
(*imagines again a kilogram of those beetle wings...*)
Reply
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Yes and no.
When I first started attempting to do searches via Google (or other search engine), I had a terrible, frustrating, unproductive, unsuccessful time of it, time after time after time.
Then one day, things seemed to fall into place and I was doing much better, much easier and more successful searches.
One friend of mine, who makes his living in IT, amazes me when he can't do a reasonable search ("...because if virginiadear can do it, anybody should be able to do it", I can just hear him thinking this, and it's true I'm not very internet savvy) or when he's looking at a URL and murmuring, "H'mm... This is www-dot-entityname-dot-D-E--- I don't trust it, probably a scam and a bot because ( ... )
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The sample is gorgeous!
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Glad you agree!
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The only other guess I have, and it's far fetched -- could multiple people have worked on one section? Ie frame it up, we all sit around and each work a feather, my passing thread stash is diff from everyone else's. Again, far fetched!
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