Royal Oak by Caela Conn Tyler

"Royal Oak" emerged from a pictorial sampler the designer used for a drawing exercise in Dolores Andrew’s class, "Art for Needleartists," at NAN Assembly 2003. The photograph was of oak leaves lying on a rock dotted with lichen. The photographer had used a filter on the camera lens so that the autumn oak leaves contained brilliant red-orange hues rather than the more typical bronze color.

The gray rock is depicted through the use of pewter canvas, gray tulle, and twisted silk and silk/wool threads. The gray tulle encapsulates snippets of sheer ribbon in gray, bronze, and terra cotta that suggest the roughness and mottled hues of the lichen-spotted rock. This technique paved the way for various exposed canvas stitches, all of which offer some kind of "cross hatching" that supports the illusion of rough texture.

The oak leaves stand out against the rock through the use of brilliant colors, an alternating Scotch stitch that enhances the play of light on the threads, and the inclusion of silk floss and metallics. One leaf is detached from the background, slightly beyond the perimeter of the design, giving the impression that it is in the final process of floating to the ground, not quite at rest on the rock.

It has been extremely rewarding to participate in a class such as Dolores’ and subsequently carry an exercise or idea to fruition.