Gold but Not Metallic – Needlepoint Problem

Updated November 9, 2022.
The worst needlepoint I ever made was when I tried to make a background entirely in metallic. The background completely overwhelmed the focal point.

Lesson learned I’ve avoided metallics for backgrounds ever since.

But metal, especially gold, can be found in many cultures. There are gold backgrounds in Japanese screens, illuminated manuscripts, and Russian icons.

Try to translate it, including the metal, to needlepoint, and, all too often, you end up with a mess.

Hence my needlepoint problem. I want the feel of all this metal without it overwhelming my design.

To accomplish this you need to think about thread, color, and stitch. Let’s look at each one.

Thread

Virtually all metallic threads in needlepoint attract attention to themselves. They are, most of the time, very shiny. They also have a texture that is rougher than the smooth look of gold leaf (used in all my inspiration sources).

It is very hard to get this same smooth look in metallic threads.

Instead switch to threads, such as silk or metallic blends, that have some light in them, but combine this with a smoother texture.

The end result is that there is a glow but it doesn’t call attention to itself. This is emphasized if you use more matte threads in the focal point, as I did in the rose, pictured above.

Color

Gold comes in many colors. The inspiration pieces are dark, dull gold (manuscript) or the bright shiny gold of gold leaf.

For your background color, seek colors that are similar to these. For gold leaf, use light, more saturated golds. They should not be as bright as the color of gold leaf but lighter and more subdued. This makes a good background.

For darker golds, pick something in a medium shade in what’s often called “old gold.” To make this color work be sure there are strong contrasts in intensity and value with the focal point. That area should be lighter or darker than the background and significantly brighter.

Stitch

It’s often hard when stitching needlepoint to step back from all the wonderful stitches to pick stitches with little texture. But that’s what you have to do here. You want you stitch to look smooth, to have either no texture or a small, granular one.

Although long lines of couched stitches would be the smoothest of all, often that’s too much work. Instead, look to variations of Tent Stitch. Many of these create stripes or checks of some kind. If you want to avoid that, use Four-way Continental as I did here.

If your background is already colored gold, you could use T Stitch or Skip Tent instead.

Conclusion

Following the guidelines, it’s easy to give your stitching the feel of being set against metals, without the problems of all metallic backgrounds.