Coat of Arms embroidery

When I retired I started to spend a lot of time researching our family history and genealogy. That led me to identify our family crest. I had a small image but expanded the design in PhotoShop to have it embroidered profesionally. I sent in the design and received a machine embroidered coat of arms. It was rather disappointing. The image below shows part of the helmet and mantle. It looked felted and uneven.

After some research I found a family in "The Olde Worlde" who embroidered everything by hand, using real silks and gold and silver bullion. The price was actually a bit cheaper. I have cut out the same area of the hand-embroidered crest for comparison.

I then decided to develop this into a part-time small business. To design or develop family crests further graphically and have them hand-embroidered for new customers. Read on how I did that.