Stumpwork Berries

Several years ago I took a class with Jan Kerton from Australia, who taught us the Embroidered Stumpwork Bag that I posted about previously. She actually taught us for two days, the first on the bag, and on the other day she taught us these lovely berries.

The fabric is silk dupioni, with embroidery in silk and cotton threads. And lots and lots of beads! So why does it look so wonky? I had it mounted on an oval box cover, but it was somewhat wrinkly and very dusty so I decided to take it apart and have it cleaned.

This close up show the beads in more detail. Don't you just love the blackberry on the left? I could almost pluck and eat it! And the little beads in the raspberry gives it so much sparkle. Notice the blueberries and the crab apples. They are made of beads with floss wrapped around them to give them their color. If you look hard on the right side of the lower blueberry you can see a slight stain.  Some day I will learn how to add arrows and circles to the photos. It is still fairly wrinkly from the adhesive I used to attach the fabric to the base. I won't do that again - next time I lace it with thread!

I keep a "Jan Kerton" plastic storage bin with all of the leftover threads, beads and fabric, and all the kits I haven't yet started, so was able to locate the same green thread used in the original project. It's a lovely Madeira silk floss and I had three 18-inch lengths left over.  I added a longish stem on the right, and pretty much managed to cover the little stain. Then I decided the design was unbalanced and added a small stem on the right hand side bottom.

I then added some batting to the underside of the stitching and laced the edges together with polyester thread.  It doesn't look too neat as I kept crossing sides to make sure it was tightly laced.

This is the finished top, mounted on the oval box. What do I keep in it? Stamps! I still use stamps here and there, and even have a few left over from my trip to Beating around the Bush in Australia last year. Stumpwork is much easier than you would think from looking at the photos of the finished products, and Jan's excellent instruction certainly helps take the fear out of it. Now to start some of those other kits I have piling up.