Cabinet of Curiosities

Welcome to Thistle Threads, I am currently running a popular online course called 'Cabinet of Curiosities'.

The course teaches the fundamental information needed to design, embroider and cover a wooden cabinet to make a replica of a 17th century casket.  For those who have ever seen a picture of an embroidered cabinet or been lucky enough to see one in person, these items delight and enchant and are quite desirous for needleworkers.  

Due to popular demand, there will be a last encore of the course starting Fall 2016 and registrations for spots are starting in May 2016.   

17th century embroidered cabinet, one of
32 caskets examined in detail in over 1000
photographs in the course.

• The course is 18-months and includes three phases:
• learning about the meaning and design of the 17th century embroideries seen on caskets so you can design your own
• trying out embroidery techniques on five small projects that include a small trinket box
• learning how to finish and apply the embroideries to a box.  A small trinket box is provided to learn on with reproduction finishing materials.

Four of the five projects used in the
class to teach common embroidered
cabinet techniques

• Two kits are sent during the class.  They include four full 32-color thread lines (Soie Ovale, Soie Paris, Silk Gimp and Silk Wrapped Purl) that were reproduced in a color line that matches the back of 17th century embroidery.  That is over 125 tubes of silk fiber!  Other contents include the fabrics and finishing materials for the five projects and the trinket box with reproduction hardware.

• Some students use the designs I offer in the class, others design their own based on the motifs and design instruction, and others use a contemporary muse to make something their own.  A casket will take a long time to embroider - it needs to be what you want to hand down generations, not the teacher's vision.

The double casket form, one of three offered to students of
the class at a discount

• The course is designed to allow the student to chose to make their own wooden form or purchase one of the boxes or mirrors that I offer.  No matter what, a reproduction embroidered cabinet is an expensive project.  The course allows great flexibility for students to spread that cost over years, use materials in their own stash and choose techniques that save time or resources.  As a teacher, my goal is to enable the student to make their own opus within their own budget constraints.  For that reason the special hardware needed is also sold separately so a different box design than offered can be made.

• Cabinets and hardware costs are extra and the range of cabinets and mirrors as well as hardware to allow the DIY student are shown on my shop.

The Trinket Box project done with the class kits.  Full stitching
instructions for this piece is just part of the course

• If you want to learn more, there is much more information at the Thistle Threads website.  A description of how the Online University works, comments from current students, two presentations about the course, as well as a registration page with those little details called the fine print! For this last course, you can choose to pay in full with the shipping supplement for your region rolled in or monthly for 18-months, again with first class shipping rolled into the course cost.  Please go through all the above links before emailing me and asking me to rewrite all of the information in a private email, there are dozens of pages of information and pictures to explain more stored on the links. 

• The course is designed to be a stand alone allowing gorgeous cabinets to be made, but there is a part II for those students who want to delve into stumpwork and explore dozens of needlelace stitches in further study. 

There are 250 spaces in the course left.  I will not be renewing my licensing agreements for the course and will be wrapping it up because of the future retirement of the cabinet maker.  Cabinets will be made until December 2020.  The artisans are all in the twilight of their careers and since embroiderers often take years for their projects; it is my responsibility to be sure materials are available for those students I take on.

This course is specifically for those students who want to stretch and produce something a bit unique - either taking the provided designs and stitching it in techniques of their comfort zone or who want to stretch themselves.  If you have always wanted a double casket with tons of little drawers, this course is for you.  If you are looking for a 'kit' course, I will be launching a stumpwork casket on the short flat casket in 2017 as a project class - you reproduce the teacher example but the number will be limited as I have to pre-manufacture all the threads.

If you would like to see a few examples that students have worked in class, look at these examples.  You will see pieces mounted on my wooden forms, those made by husbands with my hardware and the incredible diversity of the makers in the course.  Some of whom had never tried anything other than cross stitch before:

Janice Gail's Double Casket
Edith and John Brewer's Casket
Jeri Zoubek's Stumpwork Casket progress
Kate and Jack Hewitt's Casket
Janet Brandt's Casket Panels in progress