Strawberry Cap (and friends)

I have been wanting an original metal cap for a strawberry emory or pin cushion for a while now, years. I want to be able to look at the cap itself and how it is attached. It turns out getting one to study is easier said than done. They start a little over a hundred and go up from there. So, when I saw a withered away strawberry with its cap up for sale for the cost of a pizza, I knew it had to be mine.

I got the ping that it arrived mid-day. Then anxiously awaited the last bell to go get my mail. I opened its bag and box and tissue to find….. It came with friends!

I am delighted with both my withered strawberry and its two little friends.

The strawberry cap is exceptionally light, as silver can be. It is marked sterling. The leaves of the cap are slightly bent, either from use or storage. This makes sense considering how pliable silver can be. The silk has disintegrated to just one direction of threads, either the warp or the weft. Tiny threads dot the silk as seeds. These alternate as they circle the berry. An intact cord is looped through the ring atop the cap. It has a hint of red, suggesting it may have once been red or covered in red threads. A silky tassle dangles from the opposite end. It is nearly the size of the berry itself, and likely handmade. This berry has no trace of its prior filling, unless the speckling of emory in the tissue came from this rather than the others.

The two strawberry friends are tiny but weighty. I estimate each to be a half inch tall. The are densely filled with emory. The red one appears to be a twill weave silk with prominent diagonal lines. I need to take a longer look at the cut and grain to be sure. The thread seeds are a single thread of green. The cap is neatly stitched with green silk. The white strawberry has a little more wear. It may be a blend of fibers. The thread seeds for this berry have a slight goldn hue as does the cap. Neither strawberries appear to have obvious needle holes.

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on May 13, 2021 at 5:40 pm Comments (3)

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3 CommentsLeave a comment

On May 13, 2021 at 8:19 pm Marie McNamara said:

I think this is really great to see. Have been acquiring repro items to simulate a top and velvet berry, but it’s so hard to find anything accurate. Nice!! Thank you for sharing!
On May 13, 2021 at 9:01 pm Judy Jett said:

So, after close examination will you be making some of the excellent reproductions like you made a few years back and I missed out on one of those.
On May 13, 2021 at 9:53 pm Geri Royer said:

Very cool. I love that white one.