After researching historical stumpwork embroidery and doing some pretty floral samples, I had to undertake the more daunting task of creating a stumpwork figure.
Although I adore stumpwork, creating stumpwork figures is somewhat out of my comfort zone. I'm not really one for doing figures, whether it's stumpwork, other embroidery techniques, drawing, painting or anything else. It's just not where I feel confident. So the thought of having to produce a stumpwork figure that I felt really happy with did feel quite daunting.
Choosing a person to stitch
It was a free choice of person, we could choose absolutely anyone. An adult, child, someone we knew, someone famous or even a character from books or film - so much choice. I played around with a few different ideas, but I knew the figure needed to have some kind of context, I didn't just want a character floating on a piece of fabric for no reason.
I've always loved Art Nouveau paintings, so I started looking at some Alfons Mucha posters. They are so beautiful, and so I came up with the idea of recreating a figure in that style. I combined a few elements of some different posters, and this is the design I came up with.
I liked how the ladies had flowers over them, and the way their faces were often framed in a circle, so these were elements I included.
Stitching
The body of the person needs to be built up in different layers, so one of the trickiest parts is working out how to do this. You need to keep the layers within the final outline, and take into account the clothes that need to be added. Planning is definitely key here!
I used felt to pad out the body, made the hands with thread wrapped wire, before covering the body with her clothes. The face was worked separately and added after the body was finished. Hair was finally added.
Once the figure was completed, I added the floral elements and the gold circle around her head. This was the first time I'd used any goldwork on a piece other than one of my goldwork samples. Not something I can see myself doing a lot, but it definitely seemed the right thing to do for this piece.
And here she is...
my Art Nouveau lady with her flowers. I'm pretty pleased with how she turned out, not perfect, but I definitely learnt a lot from making her, and I would feel much more confident about doing another.
My next challenge was to research embroidery techniques from three different areas of the world. The first area I chose was the Middle East. You can read all about it here: Middle Eastern Embroidery - Oya Work (claireharveyembroidery.com)
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