This embroidered panel was inspired by two beautiful hand-coloured engravings - one depicting the life cycle of the Large Emerald Moth, Geometra papilionaria, and the other showing the Blackberry, Rubus fructicosus - published in the eighteenth century in Amsterdam by Jan Christiaan Sepp.
Worked on cream silk dupion in stumpwork and surface embroidery, this design features a garland of blackberry flowers, with detached petals and buds, surface and embroidered leaves, and raised berries, in various stages of ripeness, worked in French knots and beads. Nestled within the foliage are the stages of the life cycle of the Large Emerald Moth - beaded eggs, a looper caterpillar, a pupa worked in padded bronze snakeskin, and a moth with raised detached wings.
Kit Contents
This embroidery kit contains all materials required to work this project:
- Cream silk dupion, quilter's muslin, tracing paper, red and purple cotton fabrics, organza, pearl organdie, felt, fusible web, carbon paper, bronze leather, beads, wires and a Size 1 Milliners needle.
- Threads – Soie d'Alger Silks, Cifonda Art Silks, DMC Stranded Cottons, assorted metallic, rayon, nylon and chenille threads.
Equipment Required
You will need the following equipment:
- 10” embroidery hoop, slate frame or stretcher bars
- 5" embroidery hoop
- 4" embroidery hoops
- Needles:
- Crewel/Embroidery sizes 9 and 10
- Straw/Milliners size 9
- Sharps sizes 10 and 12
- Tapestry size 26 or 28
- Chenille size 18
- Sharp Yarn Darners sizes 14 - 18
- Small sharp-pointed embroidery scissors
- Fine blunt-nosed tweezers to shape wire
- Small wire cutters or old scissors