Progress on St. Laurence after six days of stitching

As promised in last week's post, here's an update on St. Laurence. As we did not have many visitors due to the lovely sunny weather, I was able to put in quite a few stitches. This is what he looks like after 42 hours of stitching:

I've taken the picture at an angle as this conveys the shimmering of the gold threads best. Below is a picture of my work station with a printed copy of the medieval original.

I am not trying to make an exact copy of the original medieval piece. One of the things I didn't like for instance, was this blotched up area under his right arm:

It just doesn't seem right to me. And since I am in charge; I've changed it. (To not hurt Laurence's feelings, I consulted with him first. He's a big boy and quite alright). As you can see comparing the original picture above and the picture at the top of this post, I've decided to separate the lower arm/hand from the body. This not only eliminates the ugly triangular area (I'll work a continuation of the background there), but it also means that I can work the hand directly onto the linen. Laurence's other hand (holding the book) is worked over the gold threads. Quasi ignoring them. That's a daunting task coming up much too soon...