Oak Leaf Wreath
I began thinking about a wreath of oak leaves for a lovely old circular mirror I own some time a good few years ago now. You may recall I’m intending, once of these days, to do a “Golden Fleece” panel, and apparently the Fleece was hung up in a sacred oak grove. I don’t have Jason and Medea clear in my head yet, but I can do a separate oak leaf wreath regardless, after all.
Over the summer we had a friend come to visit, and since he’s fond of walking, we went on a (very long) day trip to Sherwood Forest. I sketched some oaks, tried to work out how to record the shape of an oak grove (I’m going to have to go back and try again), and saw a busy little Wood Mouse who is now destined for Placidus.
I was also reminded of my mirror frame idea, so I’ve decided to make a start on some more needlelace experiments. I’ve put a double layer of cotton sheeting on some bar frames and drawn oak leaves on it. They’re quite rough, and I’m not sure they’re quite the right size in comparison with the mirror, but I do think they’re close.
I hoped that I would be able to hold the frame and work comfortably, and indeed for the simple couched outline, it was easy enough.
Once I started on the needlelace, it became very awkward and uncomfortable and I kept getting extra knots I didn’t want.
I have a feeling I need to find a different approach…
In other news – my blog is in the top few in embroidery for the UK on Feedspot, which is an RSS Reader that lets you subscribe to blogs, news sites, and any website you want to keep up with.
The leaf shapes are very natural and look good. I wonder if tacking the fabric to lightweight card would be rigid enough to hold in the hand? Firm enough to prevent the base pulling out of shape or pickering, but leaving each leaf flexible enough for easy buttonholing in the hand. Just a thought.
The leaf shapes are very natural and look good. I wonder if tacking the fabric to lightweight card would be rigid enough to hold in the hand? Firm enough to prevent the base pulling out of shape or puckering, but leaving each leaf flexible enough for easy buttonholing in the hand. Just a thought.
I saw some interesting leaves of the Black Oak in Porto. They have sharper ends than the English oak leaf.
This looks to be an interesting project. I tackled something similar quite a few years back,,, a rectangular frame-design of various leaves along with two moths, all done in different blackwork stitches. I envisioned it framing an elongated octagonal mirror but three decades later it’s still flat in my portfolio – I love it but the framing as I had planned it seems too daunting!
The Backstitched outline shows the shape of the oak leaves clearly. Once you start filling in a leaf with knobbly embroidery, the shape becomes less obvious…
I am sure you will find the right solution to your uncomfortable stitching posture.