When you really don't feel it, don't go with it.

I tried a little bit of gold work with red check purl and a dark grey smooth purl wires, but I just didn't care for it, and it was REALLY fiddly. I also wasn't loving the rustic X work in red silk, so I snipped it all out. I now plan to simply outline the rectangular areas in red silk stem stitch. Sometimes simple is better.

Progress

I've been working on my first charity piece for a while now, and am just thinking I should add a post about it. The piece will be raffled off for funds to help a little boy and his family. Lucas Thor is a 5 year old boy with Chronic Granulomatous Disease. He has received a bone marrow transplant, has a G-tube for feeding and medication and was lucky enough to be in the movie Patriot's Day! His family is a large, blended group of awesome humans, all dedicated to helping Lucas.

For this piece, I couldn't think of a more appropriate subject than Mjölnir, Thor's hammer, for a boy whose middle name is Thor! 'm at the repetitive stage, doing the silver "nail heads" and the red cross-hatching. I don't love repetitive work, so it's slow progress. I added some polyester gold metallic filament to the lightning to give it some pizazz! All the other thread is silk. 

I'm still planning to outline the silver "nail heads" and the red cross-hatching with metal wires, so all the design lines will be covered up. If I can ever get through the nail heads and cross-hatching! The outer border lines will also be done with metal. This piece will be badass!!

The silver symbol in the middle which looks sort of like a Christian cross with upward bent sides is the Viking rune for protection.