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Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Quillwork - chapt 7

When I had briefly glanced at this chapter initially I thought quilling had been done by inserting the flattened porcupine quills under the back stitches first made.  When I came to read up about it I found of course that the quills are sewn in and folded as the back stitches are made.  This allows the zig zag patterning to be closer and overlap.
I had great fun studying various U-tube videos (as you do of course) on quillwork covering the traditional zig zag patterning, edging of stitched leatherwork, and linework, and decided to make some samples by the traditional method of backstitching by hand as the quills are laid.

7.1: Quillwork with various materials
Photo 7.1 shows various strip materials on permanganate dyed cotton -
(top row) discarded cleaning cloths, swimming pool salt bag (like tyvek)
(2nd row) swede leather, embroidered homespun
(3rd row) clear acetate, dried teabag seams
(bottom row) shaped band using swede leather strips

7.2: detail of quillwork samples

References:

NativeTech: Native American Technology and Art www.nativetech.org/quill
Lacota Quillwork - art and legend www.stjo.org/

2 comments:

Max the Lobster said...

Wow you have been busy Helen, speeding away.

sharon young said...

Hi Helen, your quilling samples are lovely, I remember doing this module myself, it was nice one to do.
Thank you so much for dropping by my blog and leaving your lovely comment, I am pleased with the piece and it's quite peaceful to wake up to in the morning watching it slowly spin in the slight draught from the window.