So far, I have finished a strawberry (with tiny bullion knot seeds) and a daisy-type flower. I am already getting ideas for how I want to use this technique in my own work in the future. I absolutely LOVE how sculptural it is! I also am dying to try out some lily-of-the-valley blossoms, though I know this does not surprise anyone!
In our workshop Ms. Nguyen, showed us some examples of different casket toys that she has seen in private and museum collections. One of the strawberries shown had seeds in bullion knots (all others were seed stitch) and everyone was remarking how difficult that would be. I had to give it a shot! It was not easy for certain, but I loved the challenge of it!
I found it difficult for a couple different reasons:
- Using the Soie Ovale thread which is a filament silk (no twist) made it a little tricky, especially with my needle-hole-ridden finger tips which want to catch the silk.
- The size of the strawberry also caused it to be a bit fiddly. The strawberry is only 3/4" in length, so trying to hold it and get the correct tension on the bullion knot proved challenging.
- It was also my first attempt of doing bullion knots on an object. It just feels different than having a flat surface stretched on a frame.
Overall, I'm pretty happy with them. Some of the bullion knot seeds turned out better than others. I have a couple that the tension went a bit too bubbly. I love the effect of the bullion knots for the seeds though! They add a bit of texture and color. I am thinking of maybe trying the next strawberry with metallic bullion knot seeds. I think it would be interesting to see how the metallic looks and reacts on such a small scale.
Beautiful! I was going to say adorable but didn't know if that was the right word. But I love this!
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