Detroit Institute of Arts Sampler Exhibit

 Painted With Silk

The Art of Early American Embroidery

Dec 13, 2024~ June 15, 2025

If you are in the Detroit Michigan area, I hope you will take a moment to visit the Detroit Institute of Arts' current exhibit of early American samplers. It runs through June 15th 2025. The above photo is a link to their website~

Earlier this year, Megan DiRienzo asked me to make a set of Touchable Embroideries to

accompany the exhibit. The main reason was that they wanted people with sight impairments who may not be able to see the embroideries clearly to be able to have something they could touch instead. Many of you know that I have macular degeneration myself, so this was super special to me. 

If you are a stitcher,  you realize how much the sensation of touch is involved in our own appreciation of stitching, no matter how perfect our vision is.....as well as how soothing and relaxing the repetitive sound of the needle passing through the fabric is~ but those that don't may not, so it is super exciting to have something available for anyone to touch!

I worked two identical sets of embroideries so that they may be switched out halfway through the exhibit. 

The curator specifically asked for a house motif. I chose a low-count linen in a neutral tone as a ground fabric in hopes that the cream colour of the ground would not show dirt as quickly as a white one would, and a lower count so that the larger spaces in the weave would allow dirt to pass through instead of collecting on the surface.

The house is worked in DMC cotton thread. 

  You may recognize this weeping willow motif~ The Clarke family's 1795 memorial embroidery for Isabella Clarke, shown in the first photo, was my inspiration. It is worked in stem stitch with black perle cotton and really feels wonderful. It was my favorite to pet with my own fingers!

The stitch sampler, seen on the far right in the exhibit grouping above, demonstrates two stitches, satin stitch, and stem stitch. Each stitch is worked (from the top down) in silk, wool, and cotton thread so that the difference in the fibers can be appreciated. 

You can learn more about the exhibit on the Detroit Institute of Arts website~ just click the Isabella Clarke memorial pic to follow the link. 

So after how many years of being told...NO TOUCHING.....and myself telling other folks to NOT TOUCH...

Finally! WE GET TO TOUCH! 

**I hope they keep the samples afterward as a good example and illustration of the importance of not touching embroideries, as I fully expect them to get quite grubby!

November

  Back Burners

My sincere apologies for letting the blog sit for months now with nothing nice to read. I do get to my Instagram more, because it is quicker I guess, but that's no excuse. I have had more bad days than good, everything is a struggle for me, its been hard to juggle everything. More than just the blog has been put on the back burner...but hey, they're not off the stove entirely so I guess that is a good thing. 

 I have been getting little things done here and there, and this past week I came to the blog for something and saw it has been so long since I have posted(!!) and that's just unacceptable to me! 

One of my back burner to-do's was making an archival mount to store of the many 18th c quilted layette basket linings in the collection. I do have one still stitched into its original 18th c woven basket, but the others are long separated from theirs. This lining in particular was stored for years before I got it folded and by how sharply the folds were creased I suspect this was placed on the bottom of the stack and under much weight. Silk does not like to be folded. It really needs to be stored flat and not folded, but because it is a shaped construct, it does not just open up and lay flat. 

I took careful measures and made a basket /tray form from archival materials to store it, as seen above. Ideally, I will have triangular inserts that fit up against all sides that will fully support the silk ruffle as well. 

I am always looking for deals, and this past summer had a couple of happy finds. One was this table, 50 dollars in a junk shop I found while waiting for daughter to get out of school up in Pueblo..

I brought it home and refinished it. It's a great little table, better than anything you can get new these days. One of my favorite things about it is the hand made cove/ridge molding around the table edge, its wavy and wonderful. 

Can you believe these were not even 50 dollars?! Colonial shoes, thats what they were sold as, 49 bucks. Not in the greatest shape, but ya'll know how much I love shoes. Even the poorest condition pieces are valuable, as we can see construction details not seen in pristine ones. This is them out of the ENVELOPE they were mailed to me in (oh my golly I am never amazed at how people ship things)

 I was absolutely over the moon when I removed the olde paper stuffing and found the provenance of the shoes written on the footbed and interior of both latchetts of one of the shoes. Grandma may no longer be with us, but her wedding shoes are, and they cannot wait to help me uncover her story.

All these need is a little love to bring them back to life. 

One more happy under 50.00 find of the year...this one just 33.00 on eBay

 A precious boys wool tunic late 1830s to very early 1840s I thought...and upon unwrapping it when it came, not one but two provenance notes along with a museum loan document it being worn in 1840 in New York.

I love the neoclassical design of the applied braid on the front. 

I would have loved to have the matching trousers that there most definitely once was, but hey, beggars can't be picky. I'll take it how it is, with gratitude!

FREE SHIPPING SPECIAL

 Heirloom Ornament Kit Special Offer 

~August 2024~

I am cleaning out making room for new class kits and am offering FREE  Priority Insured SHIPPING within the continental USA on the above ornament kits~ depending on the zone you are located in, this could be close to 28.90 savings per kit! 

Many of the limited edition ornament kits have sold out, I have just 2 remaining of the Ort King, 4 of Winter Queen, 5 Flemish Coffer, and 9 Skarlet Ladye (my personal favorite it looks AMAZING against the green of a Christmas tree). 

Everything you need to make one ornament(silk ground, silk, and REAL metal threads, seed pearls etc) along with full step-by-step colour printed instructions are included in each kit~ full spools of silks are included so you will have plenty of leftovers to add to your stash! Basics like embroidery frames, scissors, pencils, and that sort of basic tools most folks already have are not included~ if you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask. 

This offer is only good through the email~ if you are interested, email me at rlkinnison@yahoo.com and I can send a Paypal invoice to your email. 

2017 Winter Queen~ 350.00

2019 Ort King~ 260.00

2021 Flemish Coffer~ 385.00

2022 Skarlet Ladye~ 325.00

All Overseas orders will receive a 30.00 USD discount on shipping 

Flemish Coffer Ornament Kits

 Back in Stock

I have a limited number of Femish Coffer Ornament kits back in stock~ if you are interested they can be found on my ETSY shop, just click the link in the sidebar!

Diamond K Folk Art Online Academy

 Puffed Silkes~ 17th Century Inspired Padded Silk Interiors

Class begins 1 April!

Class Login information was sent last week in the emails, so if you are new to the Online Academy, you should have your particulars in hand. If not, there are links in the body of the email, so check your spam box. If it's still not there, email me and I can resend it. I have had students email me with their excitement to start, and let me say, I am just as excited. I cannot wait to see what ya'll create!

If you are interested, please click the tab for the Online Academy at the top of the page here to learn more about the class. This is a 3 month long course that I keep adding to, because hello~ I want your interiors to look FABULOUS!!!! Not just a casket interior~ but any box interior. The photo above is just an example of what you will be able to accomplish. The box on the left is the box I started out with, and the result is on the right. Some of the bonus lessons include how to make custom compartments, the 17th c technique for integral hinges on interior doors, and making velvet-lined ring compartments.

Class is work at your own pace.

Class starts on Monday~ but you don't have to! You can download and start when you are ready. (Though there is so much eye candy and inspiration in the history lesson one cannot help but get super jazzed about all the possibilities!!!!!!!)

Will this mean I will only be available to you to help you during course time?

Absolutely NOT. I know who is in class. If you download your lessons and get started a month from now~ or a year from now, it makes no difference to me.  I am here to help guide you through your process as long as I am still living!

Course material is written and downloadable in full lesson pdf's, with supplemental videos. I myself have Viasat internet and am not able to stream, so I try to keep videos short and to the point.

This course does not include instructions on how to make an octagon configuration interior.

Octagon interiors will be covered in my upcoming class~ Through The Looking Glafs~ 17th Century Inspired Mirrored Interiors

A Road Trip to Wa D.C

 To Study A Truly Magnificent Gummed Silk Casket

at The Cotsen Textile Traces Study Center

I was thrilled earlier this year when a post popped up on my Facebook page about a micro exhibit at the George Washington University Museum in Washington D.C. that included this casket. The last location I had known of it was when it was sold at a Christie's auction in 2001. 

I have been looking for it to pop up ever since, and finally, I know where it went! It was purchased at Christie's by Lloyd Cotsen(president of Neutrogena Corporation), who traveled the world collecting textiles and embroideries with the goal of making them available for public study & education. When he passed away in 2017, he bequeathed his collection to the George Washington University Textile Museum. They in turn created the Cotsen Textile Traces Study Center within the museum, to house only the pieces of his collection. 

I had a long history with this casket before I ever met it in person. I have a few pics from the 2001 auction along with a 1929 image of it with the garden displayed at the top of the pillars that I studied heavily when I was researching & testing my gummed silk techniques. There is only so much one can glean from a photo though, and honestly, I was not confident I would ever see it publicly again. 

I made an appointment to study it in person and it was not disappointing in the slightest. We made some new discoveries, like finding writing on the bottom of it....and I could finally see all of its elements up close. It was a super fantabulous study session and I am happy to say that it will not be the last time we are together~ Watch for some fun things happening with this casket & the Cotsen Textile Traces Study Center in the future!

This casket is unique because the interior is one large mirrored cavity whose sole purpose is to house a wonderous, over-the-top, three-dimensional flower garden made of gummed silk. 

I have studied the Victoria & Albert Museum's casket T.23-1928 in person(above), which is another garden casket, but as you will note, it is more formal~refined and dainty...what I think of when someone says an 'English Garden'. This garden includes pressed paper, wax & gummed silk among other things.

 The Queen's Casket at Windsor with the shepherdess on top is three-dimensional, but all of its elements are needlelace and not gummed silk, so I do not place it in the same category as the garden caskets.

The Cotsen garden casket, as I refer to it, (T-1084a-b) is a wild naturalistic garden situated on a removable ground pad of thick green plush velvet stitch. Each and every flower or fruit the eye can see has been made of gummed silk. Forms of wood and wooden beads have been used as the bases for the fruits, there are some silk-wrapped purls used for foliage, and the center stamens of the honeysuckle are exquisitely fashioned from real feathers.

Though now (hopefully temporarily) stuck in place, the bottommost wooden tray slides out from its fitted slot and can sit atop the pillars. The garden can then be placed on top of the tray and be displayed with the lid open and front fully shut, as seen in the 1929 photo.

There are so many different flowers, I took a zillion photos and after two hours was still seeing new things I had missed seeing before. One can easily just get happily lost in this piece. When the mirrors were new, the garden would be reflected back from every angle and it would have looked like it could go on and on forever!

There is a pear tree in the center, and strawberries along this edge of the garden. The seeds are a bullion stitch over the gummed silk covered form. 

Each flower has been carefully recreated from gummed silk~ with the thickness of the sheets varied for the size of the flower. My favorite though is by far the honeysuckle shown above. The centers are the most tiny, delicate little feathers.  I think it's time to take my gummed silk skills a step further into the third dimension....keep a watch on this space!

.

Diamond K Folk Art Online Academy

 New Skills Based 2024 Classes

I have several new classes planned for this year at the Online Academy, most are skills-based classes that will help you take your embroidery to an entirely new level.  My goal this year is to offer my students the tools to make their embroidery projects spectacular. While I love project classes, and will indeed have some of those too, a skill-building class can be applied to the thing or what of your own choosing. You can mold the class to fit your particular project now and in the future!

The first class that is open for enrollment now is 

Puffed Silkes~ 17th Century Inspired Padded Silk Interiors

I will show you how to make a custom padded interior to fit whatever receptacle you have on hand, whether it's an old cigar box or fancy casket. No matter how elaborate the embroidery on the outside of a box is, there is always a gasp of excitement when it is opened to reveal an interior just as beautiful(or perhaps even more so) as the outside.

There are a couple of bonus lessons that will include how to make partitions for custom cavities like the ones I made in the casket above for the tiny Penhaligons scent bottles, 

and another on transforming the inside of a drawer into a 17th c style ring holder.

If you are interested in learning my techniques for finishing a padded interior, you can click the link above to learn more about it!

Upcoming 2024 Skills Classes~

*Through The Looking Glass~ 17th Century Inspired Mirrored Interiors

*Windows To The Past~ Frames & Cartouches in 17th C Embroidery & How To Make Them