I have been a bit quiet this week, as far as blogging goes anyway. But the needle has been stitching away as ever, and I just finished the Black Henbane flower yesterday, so here is part 2!

When I left you last week I had completed the 3 petals using detached wire slips techniques. So here is number 4;

And here is the fifth and final one. In some ways this was the easy bit over, now plunging the wires into the black ground fabric one by one, to construct the flower head.

As each petal is pushed through the fabric, I bend the silver wire back against the fabric and couch them down to  secure, then trim. It’s quite tricky making sure the petals lie in the positions you want them to.

All petals in place. Now I just filled in any gaps with purple silk french knots, and finished off with white glass beads to represent the stamen heads.

All the way up until the end I wasn’t sure how this would turn out in terms of how like the Henbane it would look, but I have to say I am pleased and think it will make a really stunning brooch, the poisonous petals spilling out of the frame.

What do you think?

P.S If you haven’t heard, you can now buy postcard prints of my work from the Mother Eagle website. There are 4 themed packs of 3 to choose from – check them out here!