Bubbles, Oh The Bubbles!

Please excuse all the wildness going on in my Blog. I shouldn't have gone "Live" so soon. Currently sorting out how to move my Blogs Lists to WP. 
Meanwhile, my regular list of Blogs is on the right and down a bit, as usual. Happy Reading!

Later : Ha! I've got posts from the blogs I read in date order, sorted by blog category, and showing each blog post title! I'm going to go do some Mirror Design now and fill out the WP link lists tomorrow. Why do I have a horrible feeling I'm spamming anyone on RSS Feeds with updates to this post?!


Now for the fun stuff.....

Mr Leopard was a learning piece, as I build up towards doing my major piece for the TT Stumpwork course. I wanted to put together design, colour and threads. Use flat threads with a tekobari. Use a slate frame. There's lots of things I did incorrectly. Don't get me wrong - I love the piece, and Mr L is proudly on display. But I did learn - and I thought I'd share the corrections with you.
These criticisms have come from Lesley Uren.

This is what the piece looked like when still on the slate frame :

Then when I cut it from the frame :

Uh oh! There are two reasons why you can get 'bubbling' between the motifs that I know of. Either the silk was not attached correctly to the muslin in the slate frame before embroidery commenced, or the silk fabric used is too thin. I later discovered my problem was that my silk was too thin. It's not the attachment - Lesley checked it. Lesley is a new mentor for me - more about her in a minute.

She told me to lace Mr Leopard onto a foamcore board covered with a layer of pellon (wool felt is an alternative - thanks Fran and Jan G. of the TT Stumpwork Course for that tip) using thick cotton thread. To lace the muslin and silk separately. I learnt how to lace a piece onto a backing from Ruth O'Leary.
I ended up with this :

.

But it didn't fix the bubbles as you can see from the photo of the finished piece :

Lesson Learnt. Heavy embroidery with a lot of raised work and dense stitching requires a reasonably heavy silk.

I trimmed the piece in velvet ribbon. Traditionally a dense narrow silver lace trim was used, as shown on this casket from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston



 but I was happy using velvet. I visited the National Gallery of Victoria with a group of TT course members (otherwise known as The Casketeers) and saw a casket there that had been trimmed in velvet. That was probably done at a later date as it's not something I've otherwise seen in images of extant 17thC stumpwork caskets. Thankyou Sue Jones of the TortoiseLoft blog for tips in attaching the velvet.

I'd also like to extend my thanks to the following in helping me to create Mr Leopard :

Susan D., a wonderful lady whom I met through the TT Stumpwork course and who resides here in Melbourne. We've met twice in real life now at Casketeers Meetings and I frequently bother her on the phone.

Lesley (the link is an extensive article about her - ....wow!) who helped me in learning how to dress the slate frame in particular.
Lesley was awarded an Order of Australia for Services to Education and Embroidery this past January and has taught embroidery for 50 years. As a new member of the Victorian Embroidery Guild, I am able (and honoured) to attend a Guidance Group each month at Lesley's home. A group of ladies stitch on their latest project in Lesley's main embroidery room and chat, followed by High Tea.

Fran, as always.

Next time, I'll talk about what I learnt, and what I'd do differently, with the actual stitching. Following that, the needlecase I made, and onwards to what I'm currently doing! (Design work for my Major Piece and a long and short stitch project)

Introducing Mr Leopard

 
Ok, this isn't the best lit photo, but I've left it so long before writing about Mr Leopard - and I've just discovered the batteries in my camera are flat. Here are some more photos which show portions of the piece, rather better lit, so you can meet him properly :

I did this piece as part of the Thistle Thread Stumpwork Casket course, but it isn't an official kit or design. I did my own design, wanting to put several simple techniques together. I hadn't done a slip before, for example.
I learnt the design techniques, and suitable motifs and colours to use as part of the course.
I did the piece on silk from Golden Hinde, with a calico (muslin) backing, laced onto a slate frame. Learning how to dress a slate frame was part of doing this piece. I think I've more or less gotten the hang of it.
Except I did it backwards with the depth of the horizontal bars facing forwards.

The slate frame was from Western Australia (Ashley Verner), details available on request. On the subject of slate frames, here's a link to RSN graduate, Sarah Homfrey's vid on dressing a slate frame which I found very helpful as well as Mary Corbet's tutorial.

The threads are a mixture of the AVAS Soie Ovale and Soie Paris (17thC colour palette range) supplied as part of the course. The bell flowers are in Soie Paris, the rest of the piece is in Soie Ovale (flat thread) or in Chinese flat thread.
The Chinese flat thread I used is described under the heading 
 Chinese filament silk from Suzhou 
in Fran's blog La Soffita Del Tempo Perduto
17th C.English Raised Embroidery reproductions: materials. Part 3 - SILK THREADS (revisited)

Today, I'll talk about how Mr Leopard was put together :

From the top down.....
* The clouds are done over 3 layers of wool felt, each layer larger than the one underneath. The top cloud was edged in gimp and the second, smaller cloud was edged in backstitch.
* I did the sun's background first. Then I drew it's face on tissue paper, tacked the paper over the stitched sun and stitched through it. Then I tore the paper off - voila, a face! Thankyou Susan Davis for the tip for this technique.
* The blue/cream hillock was done directly on the ground
* The green/yellow hillock was done on one layer of felt
* The flower was stitched directly over the top of the green/yellow hillock. I wasn't sure if the felt would 'pull through' and show tufts, or if the long and short stitches of the hillock would be disturbed by stitching the flower - but it all worked out just fine.
* Mr Leopard himself was done as a slip.

in a small separate hoop on 34 count Legacy Linen. His design is based on the leopard in the piece The Five Senses and the Four Elements, on page 78 of Twixt Art and Nature, (Metropolitan Museum 64.101.1315).
After stitching him, I cut the slip down to around 6 threads from the border of the stitching. This photo shows how close - I'd just placed him on top of the main piece. This photo also shows the layer of felt attached ready for the yellow/green hillock :

 I then stabilized it using PVA and adding a muslin backing. When dry, I cut to the edge of the stitching. Then I attached him to the main piece using tiny stitches and a single ply of flat silk thread, then edged him in gimp. I learnt this from reading Jane Stockton's blog, and it has worked just fine. She did have a box.net document but it appears to be dead. The information can be found by reading

http://laren.blogspot.com/search?q=glue

I love the piece and I've learnt lots. But there are several mistakes I've made. I'll talk about them next. Yes, major bubbles in the silk!

Later : Various Blogger blog people have received emails from me in lieu of comments on their blog in the last few months, as I've explained that Gmail isn't letting me comment on Blogger Blogs. It appears I can't comment on my own blog either! So thankyou Rachel and Sue for your lovely comments ...and to those who left comments on my last post ..... and if anyone knows which setting, on Earth, it is that I've set wrongly, please do let me know. I've spent hours on the problem.