Embroidery Definitions — definitions of embroidery techniques, stitches and needlework terms from Apparel Search
Stumpwork is a style of embroidery where the stitched figures are raised from the surface of the work to form a three-dimensional effect. Stitches can be worked around pieces of wire to create individual forms such as leaves, insect wings or flower petals, which are then applied to the main body of work by piercing the background fabric with the wires and securing them tightly. Other shapes are created using padding under the stitches, usually felt layers sewn one upon another in increasingly smaller sizes and then covered with embroidery stitches.
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Stumpwork is a style of embroidery where the stitched figures are raised from the surface of the work to form a 3-dimensional effect. Stitches can be worked around pieces of wire 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. This method is frequently used to create tree trunks, the bases of flowers, and human forms. Berries and other fruits, insects and animal bodies can be created using beads covered in thread and applied to the background fabric.
Historically, this form of embroidery was used to decorate a variety of household goods including caskets used to store jewelry. Many fine examples of this work can be seen in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London England. Motifs at that time included garden scenes which involved the creation of 3-d trees, animals and people in fabulous costumes including hair and hats.
Popular motifs today include still lifes of flowers, fruit and insects. Popular designers include Jane Nicholas who authored several books on the subject.
A modern day sub category 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 STUMPWORKS 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.
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The above article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/stumpwork). 9/5/06 |
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Stumpwork treats the ground fabric as a stage rather than a canvas. A wired petal can bend away from the cloth, an insect wing can stand at an angle and cast a real shadow, and a padded figure sits in genuine relief — effects no stitch, however textured, can produce while it remains in the plane of the fabric. The two construction methods divide the repertoire by physics: anything that must flex, overhang or move is built detached on wire and planted into the ground; anything that is essentially a mound — a trunk, a hillock, a body — is padded in place with graduated felt and skinned over with stitches. Beads covered in thread add a third vocabulary for berries, fruit and insect bodies, small hard forms that padding cannot make as crisply.
The historical showcase for stumpwork was the embroidered casket — a box for jewelry and valuables whose panels carried complete garden scenes in relief, worked by skilled hands as a demonstration of accomplishment as much as decoration. The Victoria and Albert Museum holds many fine examples. Popular motifs today are quieter — still lifes of flowers, fruit and insects — but the technique's demands are unchanged, and designers such as Jane Nicholas, who authored several books on the subject, have codified its modern practice. Puff embroidery borrows only the silhouette of the idea: foam under machine stitching gives a cap logo its dome, a production shortcut that trades stumpwork's detached, wired intricacy for speed — the definition is candid that the intricate design characteristics of true stumpwork are not obtainable that way.
Stumpwork fails when everything is raised: relief reads only against flatness, so designers reserve wired and padded forms for the focal elements — a flower head, a figure, a butterfly — and keep backgrounds and foliage flatter, in surface stitches. The ground must also be strong enough to carry planted wires and padded weight without sagging. Planning a stumpwork piece is therefore partly engineering: which elements detach, where their wires enter the ground, and how the flat stitching will disguise those entry points are decided before the first petal is worked.
Two ways. Detached forms such as leaves, insect wings and flower petals are stitched around pieces of wire, cut out, and applied by piercing the background fabric with the wires and securing them tightly. Padded forms are built on the ground itself from felt layers sewn one upon another in increasingly smaller sizes, then covered with a layer of embroidery stitches — the method used for tree trunks, flower bases and human forms.
Historically it decorated a variety of household goods, including caskets used to store jewelry, many fine examples of which can be seen in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Motifs of the time were garden scenes with three-dimensional trees, animals and people in fabulous costumes, including hair and hats.
Puff embroidery is a modern production subcategory on automated machines: a layer of foam rubber larger than the intended shape is placed on the material, embroidered over so needle penetrations cut the foam around the shape, and the excess foam is weeded away, leaving foam trapped under the stitches for a raised effect. It is seen on baseball caps, sweatshirts and jackets for logos and mascots, but lacks the intricate design obtainable with true stumpwork.