New Buddy Icon: a traditional Tudor Rose

Phew, its very hot in England at the present time, and as a result I’m…um, sunburned!  Because of that I don’t feel quite able to make this into a big 3-in-1 post, so I’ll just say for now that Motif No.2 looked easier than it is and I’m going to have to work out some very crucial stuff, with plain cotton - I’m almost there, but I need to really understand what’s happening before I take it any further.   

However, whilst barbequing myself (lol) in the garden on Sunday, and taking the opportunity of peering closely at my Hawthorn blossom…

it struck me that what I need is a new contextual buddy icon.  I’ve decided to go with a traditional Tudor Rose.  With that I took out my Search Press paperback on Tudor Designs (£4.95) and made one of my little paper template thingies. 

I’ve based the way I’ve filled the shape on two influences.  One is an historical Tudor Rose made entirely of Bullion and pearl seed beads (5 inner petals) but I’ve changed it a bit and added more colours, and the outer petals are based on a bejewelled outfit worn by Henry VIII in a painting. 

Eventually I hope to cut the rose out and mount it as a slip (aka Appliqué) onto piece of green velvet or copper-brown ‘sateen’ (I’m not sure yet?) and extend the design with coiling stems and larger pearls as leaves etc.  Basically, I’ve seen some amazing slips/appliqué work in Jourdain’s ‘English Secular Embroidery’ and I would like to try some ideas out, especially as I’ve been bitten by the ‘bead-lust-bug’...   (I will talk about the beading on the buddy icon more next time.)  

Now as my sunburn is really painful, I decided to post all my pictures sequentially and without any accompanying text, because if you don’t mind, I’ll end off at this juncture and go and apply some more soothing camomile lotion!!  

     

As you can see, I’m losing some definition on the inside of the petals due to the red cotton ‘Raised Padded Buttonhole’ triangles being a bit too big.  Hopefully the next one will ‘conform’ better.  (I’ll explain how to make those raised triangles next time). 

cya!