Jelling Wolves/Dogs

After I embroidered the Mammen face embroideries, I did embroidered decorations for ThorvaldR's and Tofa's coronation garb. The original idea was to have black dogs with grey details on Tofa's garb and grey wolves with black details on ThorvaldR's.

We decided to go with Jelling style and I took inspiration from the cup found in Jelling that gave the name to the art style. It can be dated to 958/59.

Here is a line drawing from the original cup:

I changed it a bit to fit the required shape and to make it more dog/wolf -like. I tried to make the dog's ears a tiny bit shorter and it's teeth smaller than the wolf's, but I'm not so sure that it will register, as the difference is only marginal. This is the result which was then transfered on the fabric by tracing it against the light from a window.

I embroidered the animals with spun silk thread on the silk fabric that was to be used to make the garb. I used stem stitch. First the dogs:

Then the Wolves:

And as I still had time, I simplified the dog a bit and mirrored it to form a decoration for Tofa's apron dress. The result:

I wish I had made the dogs bite each other's tails.

The garb was constructed and sewn by Lady Alyna. And here is the happy couple... errr... Their Majesties.

I'm in no mood to write more documentation details at the moment. If you want to know my sources, feel free to ask for them.