87. GOTHIC CHURCH WORK.
No doubt it is difficult to work upon velvet. The stuff is not very sympathetic, and the stitching has a way of sinking into the pile, and being, as it were, drowned in it. But the trailing spirals of split-stitch which play about the applied spots in many a mediæval altar cloth hold their own quite well enough to show that silk can be worked straight on to the velvet.
That gold may be equally well worked straight on to velvet may be seen in any Indian saddle cloth. Heavy work of this kind may be rather man's work than woman's; but that is not the point. The question is, how to get the best results; and the answer is, by working on the stuff.
It may be argued that in this way you cannot get very high relief; but the occasions for high relief are, at the best, rare. If you want actual modelling, as in the Spanish work referred to in a previous chapter, that must, of course, be worked separately, built up, as it were, upon the canvas and worked over. And there is no reason why it should not, for in no case does it appear to be stitching. In fact, it aims deliberately at the effect of chased and beaten metal.
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88. MODERN CHURCH WORK BY MISS SHREWSBURY.
Heavy appliqué of any kind affects, of course, not only the thickness but the flexibility of the material thus enriched—an important consideration if it is meant to hang in folds.