Do you do your own framing on your needlework projects? Admittedly, I rarely do. For small projects, I sometimes do (like the embroidered flowers and bird I framed in this tutorial on framing needlework). But on larger projects, and especially on special embroidery projects that required expensive materials and lots of time, I prefer to turn my work over to professional framers. So that’s what I did with the Goldwork Pomegranate, and this is what I got back from the framer:
Would you be surprised if I told you that many of the projects I embroider never get framed or finished?
I think part of this is the “curse” (I don’t really see it that way!) of blogging. To blog constantly about needlework requires one to be constantly engrossed in needlework, whether in projects or tutorials or reading and writing and finding interesting things to write about. So many projects are worked solely for the website, and they don’t necessarily get “finished.”
But the Goldwork Pomegranate was different! When I finished stitching it, I was itching to see it framed!
The style of framing has been seen before here on Needle ‘n Thread! A year and a half ago, I stitched this Golden Pomegranate project designed by Margaret Cobleigh for Inspirations Magazine and I loved the way the framing turned out. So when I was ready to frame my goldwork pomegranate, I wanted the same look.
On the previous framing job for the Golden Pomegranate, I had the piece triple matted, with a green next to the design, then gold, then red. For my current stylized pomegranate, I opted for a double mat, with spacers between the two mats. I always (always!) put glass over my needlework, despite what I’ve always been told by my dear old aunt about the necessity of framing needlework without glass. I don’t understand not using glass, as long as the glass isn’t crushing the stitches.
The gold mat on the piece is a plain mat, but the red mat, as you can see in the photo above, has a texture to it – it’s one of those “linen finish” mats. I love the color of red!
There are lots of glass choices available today, by the way. I generally choose museum quality glass. It cuts down on UV rays, and doesn’t really reflect glaring lights. It’s nice, it doesn’t cost very much more than plain glass, and it’s worth it on finer pieces of needlework. So this one has museum glass on it, and the frame itself is black shot with tiny hairline streaks of gold.
I’m not quite sure what I’m going to do with this piece, so right now, it’s sitting on the silver service….
… only because I like the reflection.
There’s a little nagging something down inside of me that says I better get the piece hung on the wall, or I’m going to end up giving it away! And actually, my sister’s birthday is coming up in June, and I know she would love to have this hanging in her house. But then there’s my Mom’s birthday in a couple weeks (but I think I’ll give her the Crewel Rooster on the Platter, as she’s a roostery kind of person.)
Why is it that I can never bring myself to keep my own embroidery? Do you have that problem? Can you please help me overcome it?!?
That’s the framed Goldwork Pomegranate, then! If you’re interested, you can follow the progress of the Goldwork Pomegranate project to see how this type of needlework is done.
