So here’s another re-do. When I did the first Heart pendant, my mum in her infinite wisdom said ‘because it is a ‘wet’ organ, you ought to try using shinier threads like rayon or something’. Stitching knowledge, she has.

So like a good student I picked some nice subtly variegated, hand dyed fine silk for the muscle, and stuck to cotton again for the arteries and veins. I also tried doing ‘proper’ silk shading this time:

You can see I’ve done guiding lines, and although the size of the piece is challenging, I did manage to get different stitch lengths up and down for the technique. Comparing to the first version, the heart does look a lot smoother, and the gorgeousness of the thread really comes out – I counted about 7 different shades, which adds dimension.

Indeed, it does look wetter. To finish I added the little veins in a darker burgundy cotton, and outlined, and french knots. I think I’d like to try again using just silk for the whole thing.

Tomorrow I will share a new design with you I am completely in love with.

p.s. I know the W.I.P photos I’ve been posting are a bit rubbish. They are quick and dirty on a camera phone. But don’t worry, when they are finally mounted up to their jewellery frames I will do a proper shoot and you can see them in full technicolor glory.