Contemporary Shisha by hand

I had fun finding contemporary things that could be embroidered onto fabric like shisha mirrors - not always shiny or reflective but at least they were roundish, well at least they were at the start.

7.1

7.1 The top row shows individual aluminium blisters (from a strip pack of medicinal tablets) held by buttonhole stitch in gold perle.
The middle row shows the bottom rounds of egg boxes as shisha, held by crossed stitches of gold purl with interlacing in the centre.
The bottom row uses the little stickers found on kiwi fruit in place of mirrors under gold lurex twisted and stitched across mimicking the stamped pattern on the background.

7.2

7.2 uses the same stamp on the background.  On the far right the diagonal row has cast bark circles as shisha.  This was my attempt at linking things back to my research theme of vegetation and trees.  There is a huge eucalypt in our garden that has little lumps and indentations all over the trunk. When the bark is cast off every year these little circular bark pieces drop off like counters.  Here they are attached by interlacing jute string.
The other 2 diagonal rows have shisha 'parcels' of copper shim and copper mesh held down by short sections of gold wire purls couched down at each end.

7.3

7.3 The background pattern here was created by rolling of the roller after it had inked the stamp.  The circuit pieces came from an old digital camera and I have held them down with 24 gauge brass wire.  Not exactly round or sparkly but definitely contemporary!

7.4

7.4  I thought about the Indian relevance in these contemporary samples and used small images of Indian henna painted hands in place of shisha in the relief rubbing patterns.  Each hand is held down by a crosshatch of gold lurex thread to create square outlines copying the checkerboard pattern in the henna design.  The squares theme is repeated in the stamping on the background, the square pieces of brass mesh and the square embroidery around the shisha mirrors in the centre of each motif.  One mirror has the square edged in buttonhole stitch, and the other has the buttonhole stitch in the opposite configuration.

7.5

7.5  OK, these 'shisha' can't exactly be called round but they are shiny - pieces of CD, the country songs of which I am now saved from - I think they've gone to a better place!
The left motif using the shape of my stamp again, have the pieces outlined by chain stitch then held in place by the pink floss interlaced through those stitches.
On the right, loosely based on another motif from the original embroidery, the pieces were held by green herringbone stitches interlaced.  The spaces between these pieces have been laced further with pink floss.  I like the fractured look to the piece and where the foil has peeled away from the CD perspex.