The Garden, Casket Toys Part I

 Lucky Me!

Check The Embroiderer's Story this morning.  My Casket Toys have won the grand prize, A New Casket for me to embroider!

One of the toys I entered is this garden scene. Here is a little bit about how it came about and what is made from.

The garden fits in the top tray of the casket.

 

But it began as a swing for the casket dolls to play on. The seat of the swing was a mother of pearl thread winder. 

 

I didn't like the base of the swing, too bulky, so I took everything apart.

 

The green trellis of the garden has a wire base covered in silk buttonhole stitches.

 

The base of the trellis is a series of brown silk stitched trunks wrapped in green silk purl.

 

The intersections of the trellis are wrapped with short lengths of various colored silk wrapped purl.

 

This is the inner layer of the garden. These trunks were then wrapped with gilt bullion.

 The river side tent is lacet, knotted gimp and gilt flattened coil.

More tomorrow.

The Cover Up

 

My casket is almost complete.

 

It sits in my studio in front of south and west facing windows, with lots and lots of sun.

 

And of course there is always dust, lots and lots of dust in a textile studio.

 

So I went shopping for a custom sized plexiglass cover that offers UV protection.

I chose Display Case Art Inc. and I am delighted with my new cover. 

 

They offer 99.9 percent U.V. filtering protection acrylic as a material you can use for your box.

Just what I need. 

More Knotted Gimp

 

Same technique and embroidery as the previous post. 

Knotted Gimp

 

Using 2 colors of gimp I made overhand knots about every 1/4 to 1/2".

 

Then the length was couched in place.

 

This is Time's collar, lots of texture but still pretty much 2D.

I will use this technique with gimp again. 

Today's My Lucky Day!

 Today is my lucky day. First Tricia at The Embroiderer's Story had this to say about the design process and my work.

Thank You Tricia!

This embroidery first appears on this blog in 2011.

 

And now the same figures are on the lid of my casket.

And a big thank you to Mary at Needle 'n Thread

for sending her readers to my blog for a visit. 

And then my dear friend Amy at Thread in Hand chimed in. 

Thank you, thank you and thank you! 

Casket Lid Finish!

 

The top embroidered panel of the casket is now complete!!!!! 

 

I stitched the needlelace border to match the light blue color of the surrounding panels transitioning to the darkest blue to go with the night sky.

I am very happy with how the corners match and blend. 

 

It was fun to put the mock-up next to the casket.

Progress has been made.

Now to finish the back of the casket. 

Planning A Trip

 

Inside my casket you get a glimpse of my sampler. 

 

And here is a view of the entire piece.

 

Down at the very bottom of the sampler I mention maps, guides and history.

All of those details make planning a trip so much easier. 

 

So I am happy to say that I have begun the maps for The World of Possibilities and here is a detail of the first one.

It is a portion of the village.