Sample shows soft string padding ready for cutwork over the top. It is an ideal type of padding for larger areas of Goldwork. Chipping and couched gold threads like Passing, Japanese thread, Rococco and Elizabethan Twist are all great goldwork techniques that can sit on top of felt padding. Starting with a small piece of felt and graduating up in size smoothly will ensure the padding is rounded rather than stepped. By layering up the pieces of felt, you can create various heights within padded areas.

Felt Paddingįelt padding is stitched down using a machine thread and small stab stitches. By varying the heights of padding it can also help achieve different textures and it encourages light play. Padding is also used to create depth and dimension in goldwork, for example you could raise the areas in the foreground of your design slightly higher than those in the background, drawing your eye to the dominant areas of the design.

Padding forms the foundations of your piece and if it is worked well, kept smooth and firm, it will enable you to create smooth and neat goldwork on top. Padding is an integral part of goldwork and although it is never shown, it is so important to get right and to be kept as neat as possible. There can be many variations on the techniques described below but this will hopefully give you a good understanding if you are new too goldwork. In this post I wanted to introduce you to some of the basic techniques that are most commonly used.

Goldwork encompasses a huge range of different techniques that are worked using a wide variety of metal threads.

The a to z of goldwork