An Amazing Casket Finish!

Rebecca Pearson has finished her uniquely designed and highly creative vision for a double casket.  I asked her if I could post the pictures to the community as I just thought it was so inspired.  You have to look for the magnificent butterflies in each arrangement like a modern Where's Waldo!  Each one is unique and so beautifully done. 

Her piece is worked on silk satin, which takes the difficulty level up as it isn't the most forgiving material and used wonderful silk shading on each of the petals and leaves of her stumpwork flowers.  An imaginative use of trims to highlight the vases and internal panels follows.  

I love the dimensional spray of flowers on the top.  Many of us have thought or worked something raised on the top but I have never thought of a spray of flowers like this and I love the idea.  

I wanted to excerpt part of what Rebecca said about her journey in making the casket as it is so much of what I wanted to happen when people choose to work their own pieces:

I have admired these cabinets for many years but never dreamed I would ever make one until you developed your class.  From the very start of the class, I was propelled into quite a journey of discovery.  The online classes were a journey through history as I learned who made these boxes and the historical significance of them.  It was a journey of luxurious fabrics and unique threads and trims of all colors and types that will always be a thrill to the serious needleworker.  Once I actually started to embroider the panels, it was a journey of sleepless nights wondering what the heck was I doing and why did I even think I could do this.  It was a journey into creativity as new ideas, ones that I never thought of at the start, kept developing along the way.  And lastly, I even amazed myself that I could actually see a discernible advancement of my technical skills by the end of this journey. 

Rebecca added something to the inside of her casket that was so touching and such a gift to the future.  She uniquely chose to embroider her full name, the date, location and the names of her husband and children - ensuring that future generations would absolutely be able to identify HER work in space and time unlike all the women whose creativity goes by anonymous.  But even more she decided to embroider the name of the course and teacher as well as a thought on the opposite door.  I was extremely honored and humbled to find myself inside her casket.  But as I have been spending months deep in the primary sources doing genealogy trying to identify the who and how of the 17th century makers - Rebecca just left an enormous message to the future.  Her casket is the equilivent of Hannah Smith's piece with its important letter inside - except that we still can't find Hannah anywhere.  I hope Rebecca will inspire many of our other casketeers to place more clues to their identity in their boxes as well.  

Congratulations Rebecca on the culmination of this journey with a piece that is now going to be a family treasure for generations.  

Rebecca Pearson's Double Casket - Front

Rebecca Pearson's Double Casket - Back

Rebecca Pearson's Double Casket - Left Side

Rebecca Pearson's Double Casket - Top

Rebecca Pearson's Double Casket - Inside

Rebecca Pearson's Double Casket - Inside with Sliding Panel Removed

Rebecca Pearson's Double Casket - Inside with Inscriptions

Rebecca Pearson's Double Casket - Right Side