Thistle Threads
Cabinet of Curiosities - History Course/Read Only - Open
$ 500.00
Thistle Threads
Cabinet of Curiosities - History Course/Read Only - Open
$ 500.00
Rolling admissions
This is a read-only version of the very popular Cabinet of Curiosities course. The course is 18-months and over 1000+ pages of information and photos. Read-only means that the instructions/history sections are downloadable but there are no kits for the course. New students accepted late.
This course is of interest to anyone who may already be taking a project class to work a embroidered casket (i.e. Harmony with Nature, Five Senses, or Four Seasons). It contains all the historical background to the period, stories on the cabinets, designs, bottles, inkwells, boxes, casket toys, discussions of beaded baskets and other topics related to the embroidered cabinets. It also includes over 1000 photos of historic pieces up close. The course provides extensive context to the embroidered boxes and related objects.
While the instructions for the small projects that were included in the original running of the course, the kits will not be provided. Students can gather materials and make any of the projects. But current supply chain issues makes it difficult for a kit offering with the course.
There are instructions for several mini-projects as well as a trinket box in the instructions and access to all the finishing videos for the different cabinet sizes/configurations.
The course also contains access to the extensive collection of motifs and pre-designed caskets. A person can use these to modify a casket in progress or design 17th century themed pictures. Templates for the outside of the caskets I had produced are part of the course, some handy woodworkers have fabricated boxes with simpler internal parts using these to match. No instructions on how to fabricate a box are included.
Periodically, a casket is returned to me by a student who has decided not to work it (a change in health is the most common reason). In those cases, I will post the box here available to be purchased with its finishing materials and course for those who want to design their own. I also maintain a list of those who have already taken the Cabinet of Curiosities course who are looking for a particular cabinet type and try to match people up (but no guarantees).
Please email me with further questions: tricia@alum.mit.edu
I currently have 160 spots left in my licensing agreements for historic photos to run this.
Related products
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Thistle Threads
Historic Sampler Design Course - June 1st, 2024
$ 300.00
Visit product page →Have you wanted to design or modify your own historic-looking samplers? Perhaps you want to make a family genealogy sampler in a particular style? Have an over the top 17th century band sampler in your head? Maybe you love the monochromatic Quaker, Vierlande or French samplers and want to design your own. Have a needle book idea you wanted to design? This 4-month online course will teach the fundamentals of how to design using source material.
The course will start on June 1st, 2024 with user names and passwords to the Thistle Threads online course site emailed in the morning. Each lesson will be released on the 1st of the month for download. At the end of the course, any video content will be provided as a private YouTube playlist for future reference.
Full pay by button above or if interested in installment payments by Paypal click blue link:
4-months Sampler Design Course ($75/month)
The course includes:
- Lectures in both pdf and video formats covering the theory of design, how to choose motifs, layout samplers, identify common design mistakes, balance motifs by color and weight.
- How to choose a theme for your sampler and use constraints when designing to help you make decisions and avoid decision paralysis
- A method to use cut and pasting of motifs on base graph paper to design if using a computer isn't your forte.
- Over 100 pdf pages of motifs from historic samplers of the following genres and organized into themes: American, English (1600-1900), Quaker, French, Scottish, German, Dutch, and a smattering of Spanish/Mexican and Scandinavian motifs. The majority of motifs are from samplers in private collection and were selected to be representative and of enough variety to allow for design creativity.
- The electronic files in both .chart and .oxs format for all the motifs with video based directions on how to import them into MacStitch (Mac), WinStitch (Windows) or MobiStitch (iPad) software by Ursa Software so you can build new samplers using them. These software platforms can be purchased separately directly from Ursa Software if desired (<$50)
- Examples from my own design work will be used to show how the designs were arrived at from themes, constraints, color work, mistakes, etc.
- Use of several Pinterest boards which give extensive examples showing (1) layouts types using historic samplers (2) samplers from the same teacher with ones that weren't designed well and those that improved upon them fixing problems (3) examples of good and bad use of whitespace, weighting and color balance
- A series of design challenges, starting small with monochromatic small samplers and building to a non-rectangular shape/3-dimensional shapes to practice each of the principals separately. These can be uploaded to the NING student site for discussion with the teacher/students to help get over problem areas if desired.
- How to layout the sampler to fit into spaces and produce the graph to fit after being stitched. One of the design challenges will be to produce a mini-sampler for an unusual shape.
- How to choose and balance color for your sampler
- Choosing stitches. The motifs are primarily cross stitch to simplify computer charting but we will go over how to recognize which alphabets/motifs can be changed to satin stitch, eyelet, four sided stitch, etc and how to balance the visual weight change as well as fill 17th century bands with unusual stitches. Stitches will not be taught but appropriate reference material will be cited.
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Thistle Threads
Harmony with Nature Casket Online Class - Jan 1st, 2024
$ 3,520.00 - $ 3,683.00
Visit product page →A new online course started Jan 1st, 2024. Late registrations taken
There are only 24 spots available out of 250.
Paying in full is also a ~5% discount from installment plans.
There are two ways to pay. Either in full or on a 18-month payment plan using PayPal. The links in blue below are for payment plans and take you to a PayPal page to complete the order. Shipping is included, so please choose your correct region. If your preferred email or shipping address is not the same as entered for PayPal, please email me with the correct info. Husbands have a tendency to unsubscribe your class emails.
The installment plans have changed to have a total of seven shipments vs 2-3 shipments when paying in full. That is why there is a discount for paying in full.
18-months USA Shipping ($205.33/month)
18-months Canada Shipping ($210.33/month)
18-months Rest of World Shipping ($215.85/month)
- The course will be an 'all-in-one' course with over 230 packages of silk and metal threads, silk purls, stumpwork glass eyes, stumpwork wire, stumpwork fruit forms, linen fabric, slate frame, casket box and lid inserts, and finishing materials (silk lining, lining papers, gilt edge papers, gilt woven edging ribbons (2 types), hardware, silk ribbon, mirror, glue, etc) for the entire project including 560 pages of instructions that are printed from pdf pages online, 7 stitch animations and 9 hours of detailed finishing videos (21 videos).
- The course only assumes the most basic of knowledge - threading a needle, doing a basic satin stitch. Full instructions for couching, needlelace, using the thread types, framing up your linen, tracing pattern, etc. are included. The stitching is divided about 50% couching down unusual threads, 25% satin stitch/french knots, and 25% needlelace. The emphasis is on using the unusual threads custom made for the project, learning the needlelace and doing the finishing - things that are new to the typical stitcher. I have posted a blog with comments about taking the course from previous students for their perspective.
- Casket is: 11.5" wide x 8" deep x 6" high with feet
- It is designed to be worked over a 24-month period. There are only 24 out of 250 spots for this course left and it is not planned on being run again after the spots are gone as some threads will not be available and the cabinet maker is retiring next year and these are all the boxes I will get. 100 people have already taken the project with several of the caskets finished and looking lovely! (see a finished student casket here)
- The course starts on January 1st with user names/passwords for the online materials sent that day. Shipments of the threads/fabrics will avoid Christmas to reduce the impact of Christmas issues at post offices, theft on porches, and customs back-ups for international students.
- There will be between 2-3 shipments for the course if paid in full. The installment payment shipments will be 7 shipments. The linen, slate frame and half the threads will be shipped first. (For installment payments, this first shipment is divided into 5 boxes vs 1 box). A second shipment will include the box and more threads. The third shipment will be the finishing papers, glues, tapes, etc. Box sizes are different and not all items can be shipped in one box. The shipments are timed to correspond with payment milestones.
- The instructions are released one lesson a month online. All previous lessons remain open after a new lesson is released. An email is sent on the 1st each month to remind you to log in.
- You stitch at your own pace. There is an online forum (NING) which all students past and present in Thistle Threads courses use as a discussion and Q&A forum. Pictures can be posted.
- Orders paid in full will have access to all lessons and materials shipped earlier, taking into account issues with near-holiday shipping. Materials are only shipped after students have been given fair warning with an email so they can be on the look-out for boxes and give notice of vacation holds.
- US shipping is priority mail. Overseas shipping is first class mail except for the wooden box which will come priority mail. Customs duties are the responsibilities of the student. I can not ship marked 'gift' or 'educational materials'.
- Please do not email me with requests for box only, patterns-only, box building instructions, or to reprice the class without items you already have. The answer is no. Why is the answer no?
If you are interested in taking the course or finding out more, email me at tricia@alum.mit.edu
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Thistle Threads
Stumpwork - Part II Cabinet of Curiosities - June 1st, 2024
$ 750.00
Visit product page →This course is running again with 50 spots starting on June 1st, 2024
For installment payments by Paypal, click the appropriate blue link:
$85.64/month for 9-months USA Shipping
$88.76/month for 9-months Canada Shipping
$90.43/month for 9-months Rest of World Shipping
This 18-month online course is a stand alone course, but complimentary to the Cabinet of Curiosities. It is intended to be a comprehensive investigation of stumpwork techniques of the 17th century. It includes:
- 20 sets of detailed instructions for detached needlelace stitches, showing how to work them in multiple thread types
- Animations for each of the stitches to aid in working
- 18-lessons in the application of low and high relief embroidery, needlelace and how to attack the typical motifs found in 17th century stumpwork. There are highly detailed sets of instructions to demystify filling animals with needlelace in multiple colors, making wired detached pieces, faces, three-dimensional shoes and other complex topics never seen in instructional materials.
- Historical information and photos to support all the lessons showing how these motifs were filled in various creative ways
- A 18-month optional project to make a stumpwork mirror. The motifs can be worked separately or the entire project by the study by purchasing the materials from the materials list. Full instructions for the entire project.
- Templates to design stumpwork mirror frames, four fully designed mirror frames and several large designs if the student wanted to go forth and do a complicated project
- Weblinks to supporting visual and historical material
The class kit will include linen and threads to enable the student to practice all the needlelace stitches. There will be samples of thread types (purls, gimps, facette, rococo, lacet, stumpwork forms, etc) to allow the student to experiment with them before embarking on a project they envision. The kit will be shipped in 1-2 parts.
The instructional material fills about three 3" binders and it is recommended that the students keep the material filed on their computer or iPad if they prefer.
Each lesson is released on the 1st of the month with an email to the student to remind them to log into the student teaching portal to download the materials. Animations can be watched on the portal at any time during the course and used over and over. Once a lesson is open, it stays open until the end of the class. A three-month period after the course is given to finish downloading. A link to an animation playlist hidden on YouTube is given to the students at the end to refer back to in the future for use in working stitches.
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Thistle Threads
17th Century Whitework Samplers - June 1st, 2024
$ 697.50 - $ 747.00
Visit product page →This course is running again with 50 spots starting on June 1st, 2024.
Paying by Installment - click the blue link for PayPal subscription:
18-months at $38.75/month with USA Shipping
18-months at $40/month with Canada Shipping
18-months at $41.50/month with Rest of World Shipping
This 18-month course is going to take a very deep dive into the whitework/cutwork found on English band samplers of the 17th century. While we are attracted to the large geometry patterns, often called reticella, there are several other techniques which are characteristic and found on most samplers of the period in concert with these complex bands. Over 1/2 of the course will be devoted to the reticella techniques.
The course is a mix of learning techniques, projects and designing your own whitework band sampler. You are being given enough materials to work one to three small pieces of linen with trial stitches so you can feel confident with techniques and material choices. Then there are two sampler projects, each with one band of reticella to explore a mixed colored counted work band sampler with the cutwork. One is based on a sampler from the Winterthur Museum collection and the second is inspired from a favorite piece of mine in the collection of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. This piece is a unique example of colored silk threads being used for reticella and I think it is a unique project that combines ease of sight because of the colored threads but also technical challenges to hide the color changes and thus it provides a master class in this reticella technique on the whole.
The third project is a punta-in-aria length of lace. A fourth project can be worked, a band sampler of your own design based on all the materials we will be looking at, provided patterns, and the real 16th-17th century pattern books. In order to do this, the course is taking on the unique challenge that presented the 17th century teacher/embroiderer - the geometry and math of this type of work. When looking at band samplers, we will find that often the pattern didn’t quite fit the chosen width of the sampler the person had chosen to make and that had consequences that had to be filled in or not. It could make for awkward spots in an otherwise stunning piece. I wanted to solve that and answer the questions of how to scale the patterns, how wide to work the bands, over what count and if you were working all these bands with disparate scales of withdrawn threads, how to make them all fit exactly in the boundaries of the sampler without excess room left over in the band.
The course will include detailed photographs of at least five samplers to illustrate techniques. This will be augmented by Pintrest boards to go with the course as both a general reference and specific references in the course text to illustrate points.
Each technique will be accompanied by many patterns which can be cut and arranged and used directly as patterns for your personal sampler. I will also be giving guidance on how to convert many of the patterns found in the 16th-17th century pattern books to the correct scale so you can use them as well as how to look at a pattern and determine the best stitch choices and progression of working the pattern.
Choices of materials is a big part of this course. You have three linen counts that the course has been designed to use. A 30ct, 40ct, and a 53/55ct linen have been provided with enough of each to be used for two projects - the one I intended and your choice of which for the personal sampler. So the ambitious will have extra linen for other projects of this type or can repurpose it. Both silk and linen threads will be used for the samplers matching the thread to the original pieces.
The kits will include all three linens mentioned, silk threads, linen threads, needles, and special blue contact paper.
The course requires a basic understanding of counted work including running stitch, satin stitch, cross stitch and a willingness to explore other counted stitches such as alternating backstitch and Montenegrin stitch. Full instructions for these stitches is included as well as diagrams specific for the motifs to enable a student to turn corners and make diagonals with these initially more challenging counted stitches.
