Recreating the Past-Part 2-Victorian Ornaments

I have always been fond of history and what it has to offer. At times, I feel we are always in a round circle recreating history in our attempt to do a better job. Pretty heavy thinking so I will refrain from going any further into it, LOL. My previous blog of visiting my friend Richard’s house and seeing some of the vintage objects helped me a lot in coming up with ideas for an ornament swap that a dear friend Jeannie Miller is running on behalf of the AEC Yahoo Embroidery List. I have  had a long while to create my ornaments and send them in. As is with everything I like to create something that is different and also relates somewhat to history.

All I had to do was to come up with ideas for four ornaments decorated with either beads, ribbons, etc….anything decorated. Immediately I had set about stitching out four large Kanta Lace 8 ornaments. Searching high and low for the perfect beads, I had found them about a month ago. Yet, something just was not speaking to me and I kept on making more and more of freestanding lace ornaments until my tree is about to drop from them.  Then, it hit me. Create Victorian Christmas ornaments.

Stitching out the large Kanta Lace 8 design in gold metallic thread, I brought out all sorts of beads, ribbons etc. My first reaction had been to have beads hanging down from each of the holes on the sides. No, that really did not work and I abandoned that idea. The gold thread has a lot of richness to it and the beads looked like they were an after thought and really did not belong. You really do not want to know how many ornaments I stitched out. I think if I had to start counting probably, everyone who is participating in the swap could have had one!

I needed fresh ideas so I called a friend who has nothing to do with machine embroidery but is definitely a fan of vintage ornaments. “Find the most largest pieces of beads you can find and hook them altogether at the bottom”, she said. Just for the sake of looking at it to see what effect it would give, I did and was I ever so surprised. Suddenly the ornament started to speak to me and I went running to find the widest gold/cream ribbon that I could find. I had one that matched perfectly so I made a loose bow at the top and stood back. That was it! The look of Victorian Ornament was created.

I really did not want to send all ornaments looking the same so I had to come up with some more ideas of what to do. One of my biggest stash is freestanding lace pieces that were actually test pieces or were stitched to create something and I lost interest etc etc. Going through the pile I discovered a white Kanta Lace 3 motif which actually was left over from a wedding dress that I had done some years ago.

Finding some maroon velvet I cut out two pieces of heart shape and stitched the lace piece between them. Hand stitching down the lace and then attaching white beads, I was pleased with the effect. Some years ago, I had admired the large ornaments at Nieman Marcus. The large ornaments on Richard’s Christmas tree sort of gave me that look and so here was my ornament number 2.

The ornament looked a bit empty and I debated whether to hand sew some of the opaque pearls onto the velvet itself. Actually I did but then took them off. They distracted too much from the lace and looked like again as an after thought.

By now, time was really running short and I knew that although I could stitch out another Kanta Lace 3 panel yet by the time it dried and I stitched all the beads I would be pushing myself. So I went to my drawing board to come up with another idea.

I had really liked creating the velvet heart and wanted to maintain it as my template. I did find lots of little bits and pieces of gold freestanding laces etc that I thought I could put together like a collage. It looked busy.

So I went onto embroidery. Why not embroider something with metallic threads on the velvet and then decorate with Swaroski crystals. The embroidery part was a breeze but placing the crystals using the wand was a major disaster. The wand tip would touch the velvet and I would have a little round burn mark. You can imagine where that ornament is hanging now!

The metallics I had used for embroidery, btw the embroidery that I chose was a simple design from Farsi III collection…anyway the metallics had a bronze look to them. So I searched in my stash for bronze or gold beads that had a bronze touch to them. Surprise, surprise, I found some. I also found some small freestanding lace roses that I had made but never used.

Using some mod podge and glitter I painted a bit on the roses to give them a sparkly look. Then I found some bronze imitation fern and some other little bits and pieces of artificial floral decorations. Attaching these items to the heart was not an easy task. I finally took my hot glue gun and used it to attach. Instead of tying a ribbon at the top for the ornament handle, I used small seed beads to create the handle. The same beads were used throughout embellishing the ornament. Standing back…I had a Victorian Ornament.

For my fourth one, I went ahead and created another like the first one and overnight them off. Next time I will be better prepared…I scorned myself.