A Master of Embroidery

One the reasons, I started this site was to celebrate excellence in workmanship.  I recently stumbled across a blog by Mary Corbet while looking for information on cloth of gold. She is a master of embroidery. She creates by hand ecclesiastical embroidery that is simply exquisite.

She has posted an example piece in six entries,  the first image shows the layout of the planned piece.  It is a great photo to give you an idea of the size of the work.

You can really see the details of the needlework in the next two images:

 

Close-up of the above image:

The detail work, the color blending is just amazing.  Just look at the finished piece.  From the side photo, you can see the gold thread work.

A detail of the finished piece.

Now here is the really amazing  part - it took her six weeks to create this masterpiece (380 hours).  This is a lot of time but I have taken a month just to paint a room.  It is really hard to imagine being that gifted at embroidery. Or that focused on a goal.

Think of it another way; if she had worked just two hours a day, in little over six months this is what  she would have to show for it.

My husband is always talking about how important it is to find what you are good at and to focus your efforts in that direction.  This is a great example of someone putting their time, talents and efforts to create something that is really amazing. Everyone has a talent but we are not all focused on making the best use of that talent.

So how are you going to spend that two hours a day? Time to get busy and create a masterpiece (or at least finish painting the living room).
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In case you are interested,  the entire project is shown in steps on Needle'n Thread.com

There is also a set of  photos of some incredible goldwork (gold thread) at the the same site.  Don't miss it, this work is unbelievable it is so perfect.