Phase 1: Stamens and Knots

The last few days I've been tackling the stamens and knots on my plum blossoms. The stamens were easy enough. The knots, on the other hand ... well, we'll come to those.

First up were the stamens. Tonie told me plum blossoms always have an uneven number of stamens — usually 15 or 17  of varying lengths. (Cherry blossoms get exactly 16 and all the same length.) So I used my circle tool again and half a strand of flat silk (dark pink for the light pink flowers and bright gold for the dark pink flowers):

I decided to go with 15 stamens partly because it worked out to three per petal and I liked the symmetry, but also because I felt it would be harder to fit an extra one in than to leave one out. I varied the lengths, and even though some of the stamens ended up partly slipping in between the foundation stitches of the petals and hiding slightly, I think they turned out all right:

As with cherry blossom stamens, I did a little cross over the center to hold them in place. It's a little tricky to see all of the stamens in this photo, but once I put the knots in, they stood out a bit more.

Now, about those knots ... those took some practice. I did a medium-soft undertwist and a regular overtwist using 2.5 silk threads to match the color of the stamens. I did an S-twist this time (undertwisting up the left hand first and then overtwisting up the right) instead of a Z-twist. I think they're done that way because of the way the knot is formed — to keep the thread from untwisting. But before doing any knots on the actual piece, I practiced on the end cloth — a lot:

Alas, my knots were woefully inconsistent. I did dozens more than this, but this is enough to give you the idea that I was having some trouble. Part of the problem was that I was trying to make my knots look like the photo that came with my phase 1 materials:

They almost look like little circles, with a hole in the center. (I think that hole is actually just a dimple, but it took me a while to come to that conclusion.) Eventually I gave up practicing knots on the end cloth and just attempted them on an actual blossom:

I sent this picture to both Mary Alice and Tonie asking them what they thought. Mary Alice indicated they were fine for a phase 1 piece (which is probably true). Tonie didn't actually answer my question, but instead sent photos, a video, and a detailed description of how to make knots, which gave me the vague impression that they were not up to her usual standards. 😂

Soooo, I persisted. I watched the video closely (multiple times), read her instructions, and did my best to follow them in making my own knots. They did at least come out a little more consistently this time. The video isn't mine to share, but I can share my own photos to demonstrate what I did. The first step was to make a counter-clockwise circle with the thread and insert the needle under the starting point to create a loop:


Then I took the needle over the circle of thread and pushed it down into the fabric very close to the starting point but not exactly on it:


With that done, I inserted my right thumb and forefinger into the loop to hold it apart:


Full disclosure: I couldn't always get the loop over my fingers one handed. Sometimes I had to put it there with my left hand. I don't know if I lack dexterity or something, but I just couldn't always achieve it. It was easier when I started a blossom because the thread was longer and easier to grab. Once the thread got shorter, it became more difficult to get my fingers in the loop.

Anyway, after that, I pulled the needle from below with my left hand, keeping the loop at the top apart in a sort of triangle to slowly work the knot down to the surface of the fabric:


There was usually a bit more tension on the thread than appears in the photo above, but I had to let go of the needle from below in order to take the picture. When I was actually making my knots on the plum blossoms, though, I kept tension on the thread. Once the loop got too small for my fingers, I used my tekobari:


Again, there's not much tension in this picture because I wanted to take the photo without disturbing the knot. But this was actually pretty taut while I was working the circle smaller and smaller down to the base. At the end, the tekobari lay flat on the fabric, and I gave a decent tug to tighten things up:


Then I slid the tekobari out and gave a very gentle tug to close the thread up, but not hard enough to make the knot pull too tightly in on itself. Here's my finished knot:


I think it looks pretty damn good. And it has a little dimple in the center, which is apparently what you're supposed to have. (Tonie eventually explained that to me, which is how I figured out that the picture that came with the fabric was a little deceptive.) So using this technique, I finished the other plum blossoms:


Occasionally, when I did a knot, I pulled a little too hard when I started it and my previous knot ended up a bit too small and tight. But I really tried hard to avoid that, and on the whole, I think they look pretty good — much more consistent than my first practice knots.

Unfortunately, my first plum blossom then looked quite inconsistent compared to these ones — the knots were much looser and more varied on that first one. So this morning, after sleeping on it and deciding the inconsistency bothered me too much, I carefully snipped out all the knots on that first flower and redid them:


I think these look better — neater, not so loose, and more even. And it was worth the extra effort because now the stamens and knots look pretty consistent across all the plum blossoms on the stalk:


Isn't it beautiful!? The stamens and knots really add an extra something special to the flowers and make the bamboo stalk feel complete, which of course it is now.

The last thing I need to do is the skyline, which is technically already in progress, but I'll save the details about that for my next post. I can't believe how close I am to finishing this!


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