Old School

Ever wonder what kicked start my love for stitching peacock feathers? When it happened? Well this little piece was my very first piece I had ever stitched where the design was the feathers. I think I either made it in my second year or during the first few months of my last year? One thing I am certain of and remember was that it was inspired by an embroidery that was hanging up on one of the walls in the workrooms. I used to walk past it every day, an angel with the most magnificent peacock feather headdress. 


The colours were amazing for such an old piece of embroidery. Now if my brain doesn't fail me it was designed by Edward Burne-Jones who had close links to the Royal School of Needlework. (If any fellow apprentice can recognise the piece or recall the one I am thinking about it used to hang near the lunch/break room, quite a long piece? And partly stitched??) I wish I could find my original notes from when I made it but anyway, I loved it and this was the product of my love for it:


A pocket mirror and little drawstring bag. Stitched in vintage silk threads on silk fabric. It was a fiddly piece to construct, in order to get it round the glass mirror tile without making it too bulky.