Pergamano or Parchment Craft

Today I started playing with the pergamano book I received through a great website www.paperbackswap.com.  I've gotten a lot of great books through the site.  You simply list the books you want to give up and the ones you want.  When you send a book out you get a credit towards a book you want.  I lost my copy of Parchment Craft years ago and was happy to find it on the site.

So now that I have an excuse to play with the pergamano tools again.  The tools are needles in a handle and embossing tools.  Today I copied a simple pattern to vellum and practiced on it.  The basics of the craft is to outline an image with white or gold ink using a old fashion pen.  I cheat and use a white gel pen.  Next you place the image right side down and use the embossing tools on the image and it causes the work to pop up on the rightside.  It also causes the vellum paper to become white where it has been embossed.  Then you use the needle tools to create patterns and in some cases punch areas away.  It is like doing white work embroidery only with paper.

Embossed pattern.

Unfortunately the embossing tool went through the vellum in some spots.     Embossing is done by placing the paper on a soft mat.  But even with the mat and thick vellum it is easy to punch through the paper.

The work can be colored on the backside for more interest.

Right side after coloring in the image.

I enjoy the challenge of pergamano and I think I will look for some white work embroidery patterns and see what I can come up with.  This might make a cute ATC.