Snake'-head fritillary...shh!

I know I haven't blogged in a little while, I apologise. I have been working on a pendant for my Mum's birthday of a Snake's-head fritillary. I have made two, one for her and one for the shop. However, my Mum has discovered Facebook so I can't share any links on there. Luckily she doesn't like Twitter, only reads blogs when I post mine on FB and has never even heard of Pinterest, so there I am safe.

The first problem I had was that I have never been lucky enough to see a wild Snake's-head fritillary, due to new farming techniques their numbers are declining. So I have had to rely on images from the web and my books for inspiration. Plantlife is a great source of information.

The first sketch

Scale it down a bit

I don't own a light box so I transfer the image onto the silk by waiting for a sunny moment then rushing to the patio doors and tracing it with an HB pencil, technical eh!?

Waiting for the threads

Next problem: most descriptions of the flower describe it as purple but to me they look red/pink with a hint of purple, what do you think? Off to Pipers silks to try and order the right colours. Next hurdle: the silk company had stopped making the colour I ordered so they had to send a similar thread. When the threads turned up they were far too pink so I have tried to use a little artistic license and combine a few colours.

Finished sewing

Creating a chequerboard effect on this scale is eye straining, each stitch is only about 1mm long. I use a combination of stem stitch and long and short stitches.

The finished piece:

To give you an idea of scale

On my trusty old wild flower book

And the back

The Snake’s-head fritillary was first recorded growing in the wild in 1736 although it is unclear if it was introduced by the Romans or is an indigenous flower that went unnoticed. It was once a widespread wild flower across middle and southern England, however, modern agricultural practises such as draining land to grow crops, have led to a sharp decline. In Wiltshire five fritillary meadows have been destroyed since 1992 and the flower has been lost completely in Northamptonshire and 16 other vice-counties.

Source: http://www.plantlife.org.uk/publications/our_vanishing_flora/?cat=56

The Snake’s-head fritillary is the county flower of Oxfordshire and every year at Ducklington church, Oxfordshire, they hold a ‘Fritillary Sunday’ when a nearby wildflower meadow is opened to the public.

Other recorded names include Chequered Lily, Dead Man’s Bell, Leper’s Bells and Oaksey Lily. Fritillary and Fritillaria come from a Latin origin meaning ‘dice-box’. An old country belief is that the wild fritillary followed the path of Romans, springing up wherever their footsteps had fallen.