Monday, June 13, 2011

Little Leo's Ready to Roar

Major Happy Dance time here with little Leo the stumpwork lion finally complete!  Here he is, looking quite pleased with himself on his sunny grassy hill...and ready for his closeup.



The big addition in this post is Leo's elegant wreath.  This was another one of the "so that's how they did it" moments. . .as I've seen lots of similar wreathes in historic pieces and tried to figure out exactly how they were constructed.

The process isn't terribly difficult, but it was time consuming.  Step one was wrapping silk or silk perle purl around pieces of parchment. . . folding the silk covered parchment into shape, and tacking the finished leaf-like shapes into the wreath outline.  The photos below show the wreath in process.



The last steps were scattering sequins around the flower outlines and adding a jaunty tuft to Leo's tail!  I'm still pondering whether he needs a little butterfly or flower to keep him company. . . or possibly just a sequin or two scattered around him.  But those details can wait. . . probably for quite a while. . . because there's still a lot of work to do on his companion, the little mermaid who has been waiting patiently while Leo took shape.

6 comments:

  1. He's just lovely. I think "amicable" when I look at him.

    Thanks for the bit of detail on making the wreaths.

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  2. He's really lovely, a noble and friendly-looking beast. Well done!

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  3. Bravo. He really is magnificant. I also thank you for the information about how the wreath is made.

    Do you know what you are going to do with him?

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  4. Out of this world !
    Well done...

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  5. I just found your blog. OH MY GOSH...Leo's just amazing! And all that work to wrap the parchment for the wreath...I'm in awe. Fantastic job.

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  6. I jumped to your blog from someone else's - the Leo piece is awesome - incredible work - Melody

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