So I have a few antique Chinese embroidered fan leaves. Silk dragon, flowers etc, on probably habutai silk fabric.
With the granddaughters taking a fancy to them, they’re being framed as graduation presents, with what Wendy has christened ‘ghost sticks’ (engraved and cut vellum) to complete their appearance as fans (sticks disappeared long ago ).
This got me to wondering if I could reproduce the effect of the silk embroidery with a suitable iridescent/lustrous paper, and engraving the lines of the embroidery on it
Cutting out the design is straight forward, and creating the engraved lines of the embroidery in different directions is challenging, but not impossible, so I thought I’d post the first idea here, to see if anyone has done something similar.
The thought of buying a digitized(?) embroidery machine briefly crossed my mind, but then I have Goldfinger, so why !
Regards all,
John
I have no clue, so I’m definitely no help. Sorry about that. But I definitely want to see your finished product! Please show us!
You can definitely engrave lines into vellum, and as stitches are tiny short lines on the surface you should be able to recreate some of that, but if you want it to be visible as stitch lines you’ll need to leave unengraved vellum in between, rather than the embroidery where the goal is to get the stitches as close to each other as possible.
It won’t be easy, but I think it’d be possible! I definitely look forward to seeing what you do.
Could you post an example of what you’re trying to achieve - an image from the web perhaps?
I’ll have a go later today. Setting up the lighting might be a bit of a challenge !
Overnight thoughts have only produced the image of a head-height brick wall ahead of me, but a few more glimmers show through the cracks.
John
You might even want to try making the “stitches” a little bit crescent shaped to give a bit of Depth of field. You could even choose a center point and make everything crescent around that.
If this is not enough, you could gently add “twist” to the “threads”.
Anything worth doing, is worth overdoing 
I mean a web image of something similar… I’m having a hard time understanding what you want to achieve.
I have simulated “stitching” on brown paper…
Got it.
I think you’d be engraving away too much for them to hold together, but if perhaps if the paper was first bonded to a backing (like the red in your pic)?
Another option might be to use the pre-printed/finished heavy stock sheets they sell at craft stores. I had a sheet of highly reflective stuff, like an irridescent mirror. I only cut it, but I’d think the front could be engraved away using light power, stupid-high dpi…
I’d think those approaches would work.
Simillar thoughts.
I’m just off to Hobby Lobby, looking for ideas !
John
We expect a full report! 
Returned with roll of ‘four oh five’ Permanent Vinyl Holographic (‘Matte Holographic White’) which looks promising. Need to check it’s chlorine free, but has perfect appearance for this job.
Also a roll of Gift Wrap foil - too brilliant a mirror finish, but will experiment with, and ditto, a sample of what appears to be a soft polyester mesh, laminated to a thin film of holographic effect polyester.
John
PS anyone laser cut the first item, please let me know. (Just sent of an email to H.L. support with query)
I wouldn’t count on anything useful coming back from Hobby lobby. If you need to know, I think you’d have to track down the manufacturer.
You’re probably right.
The best choice so far appears to contain chlorine - it failed the copper wire test.
At least I now know that what I need is something with that white, pearl-like appearance.
“On with the motley”,
John
A bad sign when that is part of the name.
I might suggest looking for this:
https://legionpaper.com/pergamenata-pearl/
It cuts/engraves beautifully in a laser as it’s made of pure cellulose.
What an odd coincidence. I seem to be made of pure cellulite.
Ah come on, there’s at least 10% water! 