Stumpwork Assessment piece 2 - part 1 - Inspiration

As some of you know I am currently doing A beginners course in Stumpwork with Kay Dennis from the UK, I have almost now completed it with my last project to go. Once this is finished I can progress to the Masterclass course, can't wait. 
So here is Project 2:   A woodland walk - This project should include trees and an animal or animals, insect or insects and a bird or birds and should have a painted and stitched background.

Title: Rosey’s walk

Ideas and Inspiration:

My lovely faced 5 year old beagle named Rosey is the main inspiration of this piece.  We walk everyday along the paths running parallel to Ross River. On our many walks Rosey and I have discovered many birds, turtles, insects and people.  Occasionally Rosey will pull a little hard and I will let go of her lead, realising I am not there, she stops and with the lead hanging over her back and along the ground she patiently stops and waits for me, often looking at the scenes around her; this is where I got my main inspiration from.

Also along the river bank are some amazing trees and their magnificent overhanging branches.  Gumnut trees are scattered in amongst the gum, palm and fig trees. Some of the fig trees are massive; some trunks are more than 3 meters in circumference.

Many birds are scattered amongst the shoreline, Herrins, Pelicans, finches of various varieties, Kingfishers and Kookaburras, just to name a few.

Kookaburras are often seen waiting on the fallen tree branches for some prey to come along for them to snap up and eat. As in this photograph this one was waiting patiently by the river, a dragonfly was near him on another branch, unfortunately you can’t see it in this photograph. 







 The gumnuts are scattered frequently amongst the other trees and so this gave me the idea of having gumnuts, blossoms and leaves overhanging in my embroidery.

A recent copy of the Embroidery and Cross stitch magazine has gumnuts on its cover. The photo below shows some real gumnuts, blossoms and leaves that I picked up on our walk.

For the insects I will add a spider hanging from the gumnuts and a dragonfly landing on the log, just before he’s eaten by the kookaburra.

So with all that in mind; I put pencil to paper and here is my sketch of what I have in mind for my ‘Woodlands Walk’ which I have renamed to ‘Rosey’s Walk’.

My image has Rosey waiting for me, watching a kookaburra sitting on a log, waiting to catch either the spider of the dragonfly. Continuing with Gumnuts, blossoms and leaves hanging above with the path beneath Rosey’s feet and trees in the background.

My elements would be as follows:

Rosey would be of white kid leather with parts coloured in tan, or made of tan and white felt, haven't totally decided yet. Her lead and collar of blue cord.

The gumnuts will be made of a brown bead wrapped with floss and with buttonhole stitch at the base to form the opening of the gumnut.  The blossoms are of floss also, these would be made like pom poms puffed up, the floss would be stiffened using stiffener fluid and water, and the tips painted with yellow acrylic paint.  Leaves would be made of material with chain stitch securing a thread of floss to give it some body, then cut out. All of these elements will be added to wire supports and placed on the background.

The log for the Kookaburra to sit on would be made of floss and heavy threads wrapped over wires of different thicknesses and balsa.

The kookaburra and Dragonfly will have a padded bodies and detached wings and tail. The spider would be made of two beads and his web of grey or silver floss, so it would stand out from the background.

The background, dyed and shadow dried with leaves, the path and trees would all be painted or hand stitched.

If you want to follow my journey on making this piece, watch this space.

Part 1 - Ideas and inspiration

Part 2 - Making and preparing the background fabric.

Part 3 - Making Gumnuts, blossoms, leaves, log and branches.

Part 4 - Attaching elements to background

Part 5 - Rosey, Kookaburra and insects

Part 6 - Attaching Rosey, Kookaburra and insects

Part 7 - Finishing Touches

TTFN
Arlene