Opus Anglicanum Split Stitch final analysis 


List of Abbreviated terms 
OA = Opus Anglicanum
Benji = goldwork dog
OP = Original Poster
ppl = You, the reader
The Thing = Pandemic

Ok so the Mermaid’s face has been saved.  It’s nowhere near finished, but she lives!

“She lives, she lives” as Charles Musgrove declares when he runs to tell his family the long-awaited news of sister, Louisa.
1995 Persuasion - Amanda Root Ciaran Hinds

Here is what I’ve been up to.
Following on from what I was saying before.
Let’s compare the next two images.  I say they are both the same stitch.
I’ll analyse why I think so in detail after the mermaid is given a new face.

Each example is stitched with flat, untwisted silk.

If you agree with me, then I would humbly suggest, this is not split stitch as we know it, but something completely different and a very precise way of working that comes to us via the Vikings.  For now I’ll just say....it’s also super-addictive!


Comments most welcome.

P.S. The Duchess, the film, is on iPlayer with wonderful Kiera Knightly.  One tissue is not enough!  ...the music is divine, the love theme especially, which is more than a love theme because it starts running to signify when her heart melts and the magic of her unique personality emerges.  Remember ppl, after she went to the fitting room in the sky, her husband suffered tremendous grief.
The Duchess - Trailer

I saw some of the costumes from the production in Brighton a few years ago.  It’s worth noting that certain costumes in period dramas are re-used multiple times.  The dress I saw was grey, it had some nice decorative work on the bodice, but at close inspection it was actually quite unfussy.  Well there you go, illusion and all that.