It’s been a while since I’ve received a subscription box from Cotton Clara. You can opt out of the box if you don’t want it, so it feels like a few months since a box landed on my doormat. I actually didn’t want the Goldwork heart brooch kit but I didn’t cancel in time!

Goldwork heart brooch

Goldwork is embroidery using metal threads. When I received my box I was surprised as it contained two pieces of felt, an embroidery hoop, some threads and two envelopes. Nothing really screamed goldwork at me!

However the envelopes contained red pearl purl and gold pearl purl, the other on contained red rough purl and gold bright check. I have never heard of these types of thread before.

The red pearl purl and gold pearl purl are used to outline the two hearts, the red rough purl and gold bright check used in small pieces for the infill.

The instructions are always easy to follow with this subscription box and I watched the YouTube videos as well, to make sure I knew what I was doing. I started off by creating a felt base, before outlining it with the red pearl purl.

I found the red pearl purl and gold pearl purl quite stiff to work with, and needed lots of little stitches to keep it in place. The red rough purl was used to create the heart, each piece cut to the right length with my old scissors.

Up to this point I was quite enjoying the new techniques I was learning. However I found the gold bright check hard to work with. I think I didn’t cut the pieces small enough so it looked quite chunky, they could definitely have been smaller. The idea is that metallic threads reflect light, so the more pieces the better.

If you don’t look too closely then I quite like the finished goldwork brooch, but if I made another one I would aim for smaller pieces of the gold bright check, perhaps placed at different angles to really reflect the light. I have a lot of red rough purl and gold bright check left over, so I will be keeping them in case I can think of another way to use them.

At least I have tried something new to me which is the main point.

So I would love to hear if you subscribed to this box or have tried another goldwork piece? The brooch project was designed by Hattie McGill who makes gorgeous pieces of goldwork and whitework too – check her out here.