Colour In Flight - Mischievous Magpies. Original Hand Embroidery

The Magpie, with it’s rowdy character and laughing call is instantly recognisable and can be seen in both urban and countryside gardens. Their distinctive black and white colouring and beautiful iridescent tail and wing feathers were the inspiration for this embroidered artwork. 

This original hand embroidery comes from the Colour In Flight collection; a study of the colour and movement of birds whilst in flight.

Mischievous Magpies is a mixed media artwork created using fabric paints, inktense pencils and silk shading hand embroidery in stranded cotton threads on a background of white cotton fabric. 

Silk shading, sometimes known as 'painting with the needle' was used to replicate the glossy texture of the feathers by blending together seven shades of stranded cotton threads, each one inserted into an individual needle and used simultaneously. Each stitch was carefully considered to create the direction and movement of the feathers and to capture the character of these colourful birds.

The embroidery has been stretched and mounted around acid free board and given a backing of bottle green cotton fabric and comes displayed within a classic wooden frame, ready to hang up. The embroidered artwork measures 42cm x 29.8cm and the frame measures 48.7 cm x 36.5 cm.