Japanese Inspired Embroideries

Two of my embroideries, more experimental ones this time, both based on Japanese themes.

The sumo wrestler above was based on an actual photo of a wrestler.

This one was based on a combination of  the map of the islands of Japan (but rearranged) and the Japanese rock and sand gardens. The rocks are raised work covered in green wool couching - because most of Japan is covered in heavily forested mountains. The raked sand is couched cord. I made my own cord by running a cord fast through the sewing machine with the machine set to a zig-zag stitch. By using a lot of different, but similar threads one after the other, in both bobbin and top-thread, a very interesting cord can be made. This does, however, use up a lot! of thread.