Easy food, tricky art

So yesterday I made a dead simple dinner, what a white gloved English lady would peer at through her lorgnette and exclaim ah yes, sossidge 'n chips!

And very good, too. Sweet Italian sausage, yellow potatoes. I took my gloves off to dine.

Earlier, lunch was true gourmet food, a salad of fresh picked tomatoes and cucumber from next door. 

I don't like cucumber much, but this was so crisp, and the tomatoes so ripe, that with a dressing of malt vinegar, Dijon mustard, seasalt, it needed only an enthusiastic luncher, which I was.

Just as well I had all this good sustenance, because the current doll art is a bit complex.

About the hair. This is purl thread, known to goldwork stitchers. It's a fine wire curled into a tight spring. You can cut it and thread for stitching down, among other things, including couching.

This particular one was too fine to thread through, also I wanted to draw it up to stick out, so you don't want threads running through it. What I did do was the patience-demanding stitching down at intervals, leaving the ends free to pull.

Here's more about purl thread

Anyway those are the conventional ways of using it. I've done those in serious goldwork. But this is not serious! 

I've done it with real gold, not to be trifled with, but here I'm working with a cheap and cheerful version from an Indian market, brought back by a friend. Thank you, Girija! 

Anyway, thrills and spills, what with her not liking the first face and demanding a makeover, and the pesky purl  thread attaching itself to itself and causing no end of language in the workshop.

Here's a pictorial account

A definite air of triumph there.  Doll 1, Boud 0.

Onward!