Wednesday 23 April 2014

Apple Tree fire screen - the design

I'm going to make a fire screen based on the 'apple tree' design on my late 19th century wardrobe, which to remind you, looks like this:


I also mentioned last time that I'm intending to try a slightly different technique.  If any of you are fans of Game of Thrones (I am!) you'll have seen the fabulous work of costume embroiderer Michele Carragher - be sure to have a good look round her site as her work really is amazing.  As well as spectacular photos, Ms Carragher also generously provides a lot of detail on her site of how she produces her embroidery, and for this piece I'm going to be following the techniques she describes.

In some ways it's similar to how I've done things in the past - embroidering onto a fine fabric, cutting it out then applying the slip to a background fabric - but sufficiently different to be new and fun!

Firstly, I've drawn out the apple tree design, scanned it, and blown it up to approximately A3 size (the actual embroidery will be 22 cm x 38 cm, or around 8.5" x 15"):


I'm going to be stitching onto a gold organza, so to mark the design onto it I pinned the organza over the drawing, and drew over it with a dark yellow pencil:


Here it is without the drawing and pinned onto some scrap paper:


Usually at this point I say that it's just the photo and it's a lot clearer in real life - not in this instance!  It really is a bit faint, but that doesn't matter too much as I only need to be able to see it for a short while.  Why?  I'll tell you next time!

1 comment:

  1. Love your wardrobe and the design! Thanks for the link to Game of Thrones .... Got some inspiration for what I am working on now.

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