Embroidered Belt Piece

Having grown up spending my summers in the blast zone of Mount St. Helens in Washington State, I was often amazed by the beauty of the returning life to the formerly devastated area teaching me just how resilient nature really is. The ash enriched soil gave rise to the sweetest black berries and most beautiful wildflowers. It had seemed to me a Neverland full of wonder. Those days have passed but I find the memory of the landscape sneaking its way into my inspiration drawings and designs for my embroidery.

For this project, I tried to capture the twining berries, wild roses and crawling insects of the Mount St. Helens area. I drew out the design and then transferred it into silk organza and added felt padding to areas that I wanted to have more dimension. I then used a Tambour hook to sew on the sequins, black/red beads, the caterpillar and lighter green leaves stitching. Materials used: Silk organza, raffia, beads, sequins, hand dyed silk ribbon, Soie Ovale, Floche a Broder, felt, embroidery floss.