Fyre Werks is Rainbow Gallery’s metallic ribbon. It’s 1/16″ wide. It works for all kinds of stitches on 18 mesh and for diagonal, tent, and cross stitches on 13 mesh. Like all flat (ribbon) threads, it’s outstanding as a top layer for stumpwork and fantastic for Bargello. I love that flat threads create layered and cross stitches that don’t stand as high, so they are more subtle on canvas.
Fyre Werks was one of Rainbow Gallery’s original threads and it came in two forms. Regular Fyre Werks is a slightly stiff metallic ribbon that’s comparable to Kreinik’s metallic ribbons. If you are comfortable working with metallic threads, you’ll like this. The other kind, Holographic Fyre Werks, has Mylar in it to make it more shiny. It is no longer made. It was extremely stiff and very hard to use.
Several years ago the company introduced Soft Sheen Fyre Werks. Made in Japan, it’s a 60/40 blend of metallic and nylon. In comparison, the company’s Entice is only 33% polyester (the metallic component) and Silk Lame is only 10% metallic polyester. This makes Soft Sheen almost as shiny as most metallics.
It comes on 10 yard cards. Because it’s wound on cards, consider flattening it with a hair iron, especially if you are using it for longer stitches.
Currently it comes in 87 colors. Rainbow also makes six pearl colors (pastels) and three flourescents that are also Soft Sheen.
According to their website it’s “Fyre Werks with less of a shine, more of a glint of metallic, rather than a very bright shine.” To be quite honest, when stitched it looks like a traditional metallic. It has far more metal in it than other metallic blend threads, enough that I regularly substitute Soft Sheen for traditional metallics because it is so easy to use.
Because it is soft, it bends and it easy to use for stitching. I can stitch with this thread as fast as I can with similar non-metallic threads. If you have avoided metallics in the past because they were stiff, as many stitchers do, try Soft Sheen, you’ll be pleasantly surprised. The color range of this thread is extensive enough that you should be able to find a color for your project.
Given what the company says about the thread, a natural worry is whether it will look metallic enough. Take a look at the Petei robot at the top of the article. I used a variety of different metallics in the piece. The violet was regular Fyre Werks, the green Kreinik metallic braid, and the silver Soft Sheen Fyre Werks. In the picture the darker silver looks less shiny, it’s Soft Sheen In reality I can see little difference in the three finishes. That brings us to the other strength of this thread: it plays well with others. You can use it along with other metallics, even high lustre ones, in a piece without losing the metallic texture. Because of its softness, it adds options to metallics that you did not have before.
Last year I had a chance to stitch a piece, the poppy pictured above, with both Fyre Werks and Soft Sheen Fyre Werks. The white was Fyre Werks, the pink used for the outline was Soft Sheen. I very clearly found that Soft Sheen was easier to pull through the canvas and created prettier stitches. The stiffness in Fyre Werks often made it feel as if the stitches would not sit tight against the canvas.
I love this thread and it has become one of the essential threads in my stash.
About Janet M Perry
Janet Perry is the Internet's leading authority on needlepoint. She designs, teaches and writes, getting raves from her fans for her innovative techniques, extensive knowledge and generous teaching style. A leading writer of stitch guides, she blogs here and lives on an island in the northeast corner of the SF Bay with her family
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