Friday, February 28, 2014

The Survivor


"Divorced, beheaded, died.  Divorced, beheaded, survived."  This little chant helps tweak the memory as to the fates of Henry VIII's six wives.  Here we have the survivor:  Katherine Parr.

Katherine's mother, Maud, was a lady-in-waiting to Queen Catherine of Aragon when she gave birth to her daughter, so Henry's sixth wife was actually named for his first.  Katherine had been widowed twice by the time she married Henry, and after he died she married Thomas Seymour.  Her fourth husband was the brother of Jane Seymour, Henry's third wife, but Katherine died from complications of childbirth just like her late sister-in-law.  It sure was a small world in the Tudor court!

The inspiration for this adaptation is a portrait that hangs in London's National Portrait Gallery.  Katherine's French hood has been stitched with black Petite Very Velvet, Kreinik #12 tapestry braid #002 in a stem stitch, and white PVV and Wildflowers "Cinnabar" in tent stitches.  Her hair was worked with Burmilana and her face in DMC cotton floss.

1 comment:

BFromM said...

This has been lots of fun watching you make all these similar designs, but still make them all express a different personality, but going overboard on anything!

I can't wait to see them all together, once they are finished.