Blaschka Glass – A History of Glass Models

Some of the most amazing glass objects were created at the turn of the last century, not this one. Specimens and models of flowers and sea creatures so realistic you can hardly believe they were made of glass. These pieces were made by Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, a father and son glass working team. Their work can be seen in the museums at Corning and Harvard as well as other places around the world. I stumbled on a video on You Tube that provides a history of Leopold and his son and their work. I highly recommend watching it if you love glass.

When Harvard saw the flowers and plant life that Leopold had created he was commissioned to create models of sea creatures for the Harvard Museum. I am certainly not doing their story justice so I highly recommend you learn more about the Blaschkas. I know it has made me appreciate the glass technology I am allowed to work with.

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One of the most common problems that cross stitchers at all skill levels have is that the cross stitch fabric can start fraying while you stitch.

Beginner cross stitchers might wonder why this happens and if there is something they are doing wrong to cause it.

The reason cross stitch fabric frays is because it is a woven fabric, and the nature of any kind of woven fabric (whether that’s cross stitch fabric, a torn up towel or a piece of fabric you’re going to sew) is that it wants to fray.

It’s not necessarily a huge deal if you cross stitch fabric starts fraying mid-project if you have left a lot of extra fabric around your stitching. But if there’s not much fabric to spare in order to be able to finish the project the way you want, you’ll want to do something to stop the fraying.

When I was growing up I remember my mom using masking tape for this purpose, but it turns out there are lots of different things that you can do to stop your cross stitch fabric from fraying.

Craft with Cartwright came up with 15 different things that you can try, which seems like a lot, but that just means you have lots of different things you can try.

If you don’t want to buy something, you can stitch along the edges. If you already have supplies like tape or glue, or access to pinking shears or a serger, there are lots of options you can try.

Some of these are more permanent than others, so it will depend a little bit on how you want to finish your cross stitch project as to which is the best choice for you. It’s a great idea to read through the whole list just so you can have them in the back of yoru mind the next time you start a project and think about how you would like to protect it.

You can find the whole list at Craft with Cartwright.

How do you like to stop fraying on your cross stitch projects? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

[Photo: Craft with Cartwright]

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