Peacock Ginger Jar Class

One Saturday I taught the first of the classes on Melissa Shirley’s peacock ginger jar.  I stitched this piece back in January.  I just loved it!  One of my favorite pieces that I’ve ever stitched.

 

peacockfinished

 

peacock2

There’s been a lot of talk of stretchy flair or “ensnared flair” as Becki here likes to call it.  It’s a really simple technique where you tack down the stretched flair around the border of the area you are covering.  You use 1 strand of a matching floss or Splendor to tack down.  Flair will stretch an amazing width.  It’s like pantyhose.  Wait . . .what are those?  I’l  try to make a video of that and put that on the YouTube channel.

 

peacock3

This is a close up of the “scrollwork.”  It is a angled satin stitch padded with Frosty Rays.  You fan out the satin stitches in order to create  a smooth appearance.

 

peacock4

The bottom of the jar is a combination of laid stitches, Van Dyke, Satin stitch and beads.

peacock5

The border is a Herringbone stitch.  The background is a Chinese Rice variation done with Ribbon Floss.

 

peacock6

peacockfinished

peacockflair

Close up of stretched Flair with beads on top

peacockhead

The peacock was a little challenging to bring out his features.  The painted canvas is a little hard to distinguish his head and neck.  So, I employed the same technique as the scrollwork.  I padded the area that I determined was his neck and head, in order to make it stand out from the body.  I tent stitched the body and Satin stitched the head and neck.

peacockplume

Ahh, and then there’s the plume.  To me, this was the show stopper of the piece.  The challenge was that this is not a real animal peacock.  It is a painted peacock on a jar. So, I didn’t want it to be furry and fluffy.  That would be weird.  So, I used 6 different fibers to create this long and short variation stitch.  There’s Silk Lame Braid, Painters Threads Overdye Ribbon Floss, Waterlilies, and tiny beads.

peacocksquare

The corners are done in a Norwich stitch with a bead placed in the center.  I have always wanted to use this stitch!

Our second class is in a few weeks.  I can’t wait to see my students’ progress.  Two ladies were in the classroom and two on video chat on Skype.  How fun!  We have more canvases on their way.  Let us know if we can send a kit your way.

203-210-5107    enrichedstitch@gmail.com

2 comments

  1. Judy Ellis says:

    This ginger jar is awesome. Do you still have the canvas and is it kitted with a stitch guide? Am very inyerested so please lmk…thanks in advance!

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