Evil Eye Mandala no. 4

There are 5 designs in this series. I thought three of them would be sufficient to demonstrate when I talk to WES Group about The Evil Eye in Embroidery, but after stitching those three, I ordered, so I thought, kits for the other two. When they arrived, I discovered I had made a mistake, and ordered one I already had. I have hopefully rectified my mistake, and in the meantime stitched the fourth design.

I began, as always, with the central black iris and worked it in satin stitch arcs that overlap to give a slightly raised effect. I used long and short stitch for the light blue oval rather than the recommended satin stitch, and, once again, I worked the section of long straight stitches (this time dark blue) in buttonhole stitch.

The white ring between the two blue colours is not embroidered. I was hesitant about this, but it does create a difference in texture, a dimension. 

This time the beads are mostly tiny opaque rose gold, with a smattering of the usual larger coloured ones. There is some unexplained thread of a similar goldy-brown colour, which I’m assuming was provided to attach the beads, but I wasn’t tempted. As before, I used my own nylon beading thread.

Also once again, I used an alternative to the metallic provided, this time a roll of gold I had come across on the Guild trading table, a softer thread with a fine cotton core.

This design  has an outer border of white. As before, thread for the predominant colour, in this case white, was almost exactly enough, while all other colours had excess. 

I mounted it in the display frame using the same fabric on the back as last time.

Again, I enjoyed stitching it. 

I don’t think the predominant white border works as well as black, but it provides an interesting, discussable contrast.