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Stumpwork or raised work is a style of
embroidery
Embroidery is the craft of decorating fabric or other materials using a needle to apply thread or yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as pearls, beads, quills, and sequins. In modern days, embroidery is usually seen on c ...
in which the stitched figures are raised from the surface of the work to form a 3-dimensional effect.
History
The term stumpwork is used to describe a style of raised
embroidery
Embroidery is the craft of decorating fabric or other materials using a needle to apply thread or yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as pearls, beads, quills, and sequins. In modern days, embroidery is usually seen on c ...
which was popular in
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
between 1650 and 1700. Before this period the use of such raised embroidery techniques was mostly confined to ecclesiastical garments. In the seventeenth century this
embroidery
Embroidery is the craft of decorating fabric or other materials using a needle to apply thread or yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as pearls, beads, quills, and sequins. In modern days, embroidery is usually seen on c ...
technique was simply called raised or embossed work. It has been called stumpwork only since around the end of the nineteenth century.
[Nicholas, Jane. Stumpwork Embroidery. Sally Milner Publishing, 1995,p.1.]
Sewing
Sewing is the craft of fastening or attaching objects using stitches made with a sewing needle and thread. Sewing is one of the oldest of the textile arts, arising in the Paleolithic era. Before the invention of spinning yarn or weaving fabr ...
skills were essential for women in past times and the seventeenth century was no exception. Girls were taught to sew from an early age. Most women used these skills to make clothing and household linen items for their families. In wealthy households, where time and money were available and more luxurious materials could be accessed, the skills were also used for
embroidery
Embroidery is the craft of decorating fabric or other materials using a needle to apply thread or yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as pearls, beads, quills, and sequins. In modern days, embroidery is usually seen on c ...
. During this period the final most difficult task for the student of
embroidery
Embroidery is the craft of decorating fabric or other materials using a needle to apply thread or yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as pearls, beads, quills, and sequins. In modern days, embroidery is usually seen on c ...
was the making of an elaborate
casket or box depicting scenes using raised embroidery.
[Embroidered Casket, Victoria and Albert Museum in London](_blank)
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Traditionally stumpwork depicted a scene which might contain a castle, stag, lion, birds, butterflies, fruit, flowers, and several figures sometimes positioned beneath a canopy. The kings and queens of the Stuart period were often depicted as were biblical or mythical stories.
Technique and materials
Stitches can be worked around pieces of wire
Overhead power cabling. The conductor consists of seven strands of steel (centre, high tensile strength), surrounded by four outer layers of aluminium (high conductivity). Sample diameter 40 mm
A wire is a flexible strand of metal.
Wire is c ...
to create individual forms such as leaves, insect wings or flower petals. This form is then applied to the main body of work by piercing the background fabric with the wires and securing tightly. Other shapes can be created using padding under the stitches, usually in the form of felt layers sewn one upon the other in increasingly smaller sizes. The felt is then covered with a layer of embroidery stitches.
A wide variety of materials was used in these works including silver and gold thread, fine gimp cord, silk thread, chenille thread, wool, ribbon, wire, seed pearls, semi-precious stones, glass beads, coral, sea shells, mother-of-pearl, leather, feathers, vellum
Vellum is prepared animal skin or membrane, typically used as writing material. Parchment is another term for this material, from which vellum is sometimes distinguished, when it is made from calfskin, as opposed to that made from other anima ...
, boxwood, ivory and wax.[Nicholas, Jane. Stumpwork Embroidery. Sally Milner Publishing, 1995,p.4.]
Upon completion of the embroidery for a seventeenth century casket project the work was sent to a carpenter to be mounted and assembled. A fine example of a casket from the period is held by the Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...
in London.
Modern stumpwork
Raised embroidery or stumpwork has continued to be popular with embroiderers into modern times. In the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, it was used to embellish women's clothing. Today skilled embroiderers carry on the craft in places across the globe using it to adorn objects in ever more creative ways.
A modern-day subcategory of this art form used primarily in production embroidery on automated embroidery machines is referred to as puff embroidery. The process involves putting down, typically, a layer of foam rubber larger than the intended shape on top of the target material to be decorated. The shape is then embroidered on top of the foam rubber in such a way that the needle penetrations cut the foam rubber around the periphery of the shape. When the embroidery is finished the excess foam rubber is weeded (pulled away or cleaned off) from the design area, leaving the underlying foam rubber shape trapped under the embroidery stitches, resulting in a stumpwork effect.
Puff embroidery generally lacks the intricate design characteristics obtainable with true stumpwork techniques and is primarily seen on leisure wear, such as baseball caps, sweatshirts and jackets. Many times, the designs are used to portray company logos or team mascots.
References
External links
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{{embroidery
Embroidery