Beaded Stumpwork Angel Continued....

Those Wings!

   I will admit my favorite part of the angel was making her wings. To make them look like they were made of real feathers, I made each feather element up individually.  Stumpwork is a fun game, if you have the patience for it. One literally can spend months making up all the tiny pieces of the puzzle....little piles of things everywhere...and not until the very end when you put them all together do you get to see what it will look like!

  Tiny little sugar beads as I call them, because they are literally some smaller than a grain of sugar...are strung onto wire. I left a little tail and then bent it into a little ring and that is what I stitched down onto the vellum

  Starting from the furthest most points of her wings, and working fwd, each was laid on one at a time, following my penciled pattern

   After I got her wing feathers attached, I stitched the skirting of her gown to the vellum on three sides only, leaving the hem free

  Last on was her hair, I think total in length this is about 13" of strung beads

  Once she was complete, the final step was to carefully cut the excess vellum away being careful to not cut into the stitching of the beadwork

 Her wrap was laid on, and now she is ready to go onto the background with the other elements~ the clouds and sun and the banner she will hold with my name and date on it. I made up the rainbow, but it just didnt look right and made everything too crowded, so I decided not to use it.  The only thing left now is the beautiful wreath that will surround the center panel