To Study A Truly Magnificent Gummed Silk Casket
at The Cotsen Textile Traces Study Center
Fine Antique Fashion 1620-1870
To Study A Truly Magnificent Gummed Silk Casket
at The Cotsen Textile Traces Study Center
New Skills Based 2024 Classes
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
Scenes of Country Life, or Rural Pursuits Casket Finished!
Its been a whirlwind the past three years. I am a bit surprised that I was able to get this casket done...but on the other hand, as usual, stitching helped me through it. I started the interior in 2021, and thought it was an easy mark of planing it to be finished by the end of 2022. Then I got sick...was already a nervous wreck when dr told me I had a coconut size liposarcoma that needed to come out not next month or sometime in the future...how about the day after tomorrow? So things changed, and I couldn't stitch on it for a while. You have no brain capacity for anything at that moment...at least I didn't. Slowly as I got better and realized I wasn't on the expressway to the other side, I started stitching on it again. At first, stitching gave me something to concentrate on so my mind wouldn't think about other things. Then, stitching gave my mind ease in reflecting and thinking about ...well...all the stuff I didn't want to think about.There is a mine of information just waiting to be discovered about the effects of the sounds of a needle and thread moving through a fabric. Perhaps it is that, combined with the repetitive motions of stitching, moving the arms up and down, that relaxes the spirit? I don't know, but whatever it is, I like it. I need it.
I love how this casket came out. It is my Scenes of Country Life or Rural Pursuits casket, and it is everything I love about my childhood and then some.
It is stitched on dutchess silk satin, entirely in flat filament silks. There are five cartouches with scenes in them that remind me of special memories. I am on the front sitting on the shore fishing(she also represents my Mother), and in another, milking a cow. Growing up there was many a day spent fishing. Sometimes we were fishing for our supper, so we sat there till we caught something to eat, rain or shine. I never liked going out in the boat to go fishing because one, I always had to pee, sometimes before we even got to the 'spot' to fish...and two, if I sat on shore, I could sit and play in the dirt while fishing. Maybe that's where I first learned to multitask? ha
I learned to milk a cow at a little dairy farm in the first grade. I loved the sound of the milk hitting the can, and seeing the steam rise up from it. Can't stand to drink milk, but milk the cow, yes!
The surround holds flowers I know well~ my Mom always had the most beautiful iris and tulips in the yard~ I love red tulips and would always pick her a bunch for Mother's Day. She was always so happy that I picked them for her, and looking back on it now, probably secretly a little sad I had picked them. The frieze holds flowers and fruits that are special to me~ the turkey here is a nod to the turkeys I had here on our own farm. The central flower is a sunflower, Pip's favorite. Of course, we didn't have borage in northeast Washington...that is an homage to 17th stitchers
If you like the look of the padded silk interior and would like to make your own, my new class Puffed Silkes~ 17th C Inspired Padded Silk Interiors is now open for enrollment~ you can click on the header for the Online Academy at the top of the page, or here to learn more about it.
A Farewell To The Year
Hark, friends, it strikes: the year's last hour:
A solemn sound to hear:
Come, fill the cup, and let us pour Our blessing on the parting year.
The years that were, the dim, the gray, Receive this night, with choral hymn,
A sister shade as lost as they, And soon to be as gray and dim.
Fill high: she brought us both of weal and woe, And nearer lies the land to which we go.
On, on, in one unwearied round~ Old Time pursues his way:
Groves bud and blossom, and the ground Expects in peace her yellow prey:
The oak's broad leaf, the rose's bloom, Together fall, together lie;
And undistinguished in the tomb, Howe'er they lived, are all that die.
Gold, beauty, knightly sword, and royal crown,
To the same sleep go shorn and withered down.
How short the rapid months appear Since round this board we met
To welcome in the infant year, Whose star hath now for ever set!
Alas, as round this board I look, I think on more than I behold,
For glossy curls in gladness shook That night, that now are damp and cold.
For us no more those lovely eyes shall shine, Peace to her slumbers! drown your tears in wine.
Thank Heaven, no seer unblest am I, Before the time to tell,
When moons as brief once more go by, For whom this cup again shall swell.
The hoary mower strides apace, Nor crops alone the ripened ear;
And we may miss the merriest face Among us, 'gainst another year.
Whoe'er survive, be kind as we have been, And think of friends that sleep beneath the green.
Nay, droop not: being is not breath; 'Tis fate that friends must part,
But God will bless in life, in death, The noble soul, the gentle heart.
So deeds be just and words be true, We need not shrink from Nature's rule;
The tomb, so dark to mortal view, Is Heaven's own blessed vestibule;
And solemn, but not sad, this cup should flow,
Through nearer lies the land to which we go.
Merry Christmas
Today I stitched on the final two little vellum rosettes on the top panel of my Scenes Of Country Life, or Rural Pursuits casket, so the embroidery is now complete. It was my goal to get it finished this year...well, last year really, that morphed into this year! I will take a few days off and enjoy Christmas and then glue the top, front, and front frieze panels onto the casket. Once that is finished, I can start making the trim, which I am really excited about~ it's gonna look fabulous!Happy Stitching & Merry Christmas!
Happy Thanksgiving!
I hope you all are having a wonderful holiday today! I have added six precious hand painted ornaments to the Etsy store this morning. I think she turned out beautifully!If you want to follow my stitching journies, I post daily on Instagram~ just search #diamondKFolkArt or check out my page~ rlkinnison1
Happy Stitching!
Choice & Precious Work