A pouch in Or Nué technique

This post is also the documentation I wrote for this piece of embroidery.

A pouch in Or Nué technique

I decided to embroider this pouch because I wanted to show the orders in which I am a member of in a fitting way. I decided on Or Nué, because it was a technique that I hadn’t tried before. Or Nué has always seemed too complicated and hard to learn, but I wanted to try it. I decided to make a pouch because it would be a useful piece where one can showcase embroidery. The two sides of the pouch would give a perfect reason to make two different patterns on one piece. The most important reason is of course the fact that a pouch is not a big item and can be finished in a reasonable time, even when the technique used is time consuming.

The Panache pattern was pretty straight forward, I only used the prettiest heraldic feathers I could find. As the embroidery technique is fairly late period, I could take later period heraldry to take the feathers from. The Lindquistringe dragon is a bit more complicated. I took inspiration from the existing embroidered badge of the Order of the Dragon, now on display in the Bavarian National Museum in Munich, to make my own dragon pattern. 

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.

Face to face with the Royal Heirs

(Picture by me, 2012)

My friend Sir Thorvaldr, inspired by his beautiful consort Lady Tofa, won the Drachenwald crown tourney this last Autumn. They were in need of some spiffy garb for their time as Their Royal Highnesses and later after the 12th Night Coronation in January. I offered my embroidery services and Lady Alyna would do the sewing.

For the embroidery on the first set of garb we produced I was given free hands. I got to choose the pattern and colors myself. Their Hignesses have viking personas, so I got to do something I have had my eyes on for a while now: The Mammen embroideries.

I have based my work on the embroidery fragment found from a burial at Bjerringhøj, in Mammen parish, in northern Denmark, dated to the end of the 10th century (Hald, 1980, 102).

The original fragment and the pattern based on it drawn by Heather Rose Jones (Jones, 2005)

The original embroidery is in a staight line, so in order to fit it on a round tunic yoke, I had to change it a little by making the smaller faces on the pattern even smaller on one side of the pattern. For Tofa’s Apron dress embroidery I used some artist's freedom and asked Baroness Estrid to design a more female face to be embroidered instead of the very masculine original face.

I transfered the pattern on the tunic/apron dress fabric by first copying the pattern on a thin paper and sewing it on the fabric through the paper with small running stitches, after which I tore the paper off leaving only the sewn pattern on the fabric. This is obviously not the original method of doing it, but I have found it very practical to have the pattern durably sewn on the fabric, not only lightly sketched after the pricking and pouncing method, which works better with smooth surfaced linen or silk fabrics (Staniland, 1991, 31). I usually carry my embroidery work with me and work on it wherever I happen to be when I have time to stitch, so durability is essential.

Pattern on paper ready to be stitched and the pattern on fabric ready to be embroidered 

(Picture by me, 2012)

The original embroidery is done with wool thread on fine wool entirely with stem stitch (Hald, 1980, 104). My embroidery is also done with stem stitch like the original. I decided to make my embroidery with spun filament embroidery silk threads, because not only do I find them more beautiful, but I also happen to have them in stock. Silk was also found in other textile fragments and threads on the same burial site in Mammen as well as in other sites (Hald, 1980, 106). Hence, the material could have been used by the original artesans. 

I chose the colors according to what coloured threads I happened to have. I tried to keep the colors as close as possible to the shade of the wool threads in the original embroidery. Unfortunately, my selection of colors was quite limited, so some of the darker black embroidery is hard to see against the black and dark green wool of the tunic fabric.

Still not finished... (Picture by me 2012)

Because the embroideries had to be done in haste, I’m not totally satisfied with them. In the future I would use thinner thread, although the original embroideries were done with wool thread thicker than my silk. I’m not used to this style of embroidery, so the whole work was learning by doing.

When the embroideries were sewn on the garments by Lady Alyna, they looked much better than on their own, and I could be satisfied with my work.

Finished pieces! (Pictures by me 2012)

Sources:

• Hald, M. 1980, Ancient Danish Textiles From Bogs And Burials, A Comparative Study of Costume and Iron Age Textiles, Publications of the National Museum, Archaeological-Historical Series Vol. XXI.
• Staniland, K. 1991, Medieval Craftsmen - Embroiderers, British Museum Press, London, 4th Ed. 1997, ISBN 0-7141-2051-0

Picture of the original embroidery found on:

• Historical needlework resources - Mammen Finds, http://medieval.webcon.net.au/extant-mammen.html (last visited 24.12.2012).

Pattern drawing:

• Jones, H.R. 2005, Embroidery from the Tenth Century Viking Grave at Mammen Denmark, http://heatherrosejones.com/mammen/index.html (last visited 24.12.2012).

The Bling and Sparkle

In June I managed to get information about Gottfried’s upcoming Laurel elevation in October. I’m so happy that I had the time to make the gift I had planned for that eventuality. There is a portrait of Ottheinrich, Prince of Pfalz, painted by Barthel Beham in 1535. I knew that the gold embroidered collar that Ottheinrich is wearing in the portrait is one of Gottfried’s favourites. I wanted to embroider it for him.

Portrait of Ottheinrich, Prince of Pfalz, Barthel Beham, 1535

Portrait of Ottheinrich, Prince of Pfalz, Barthel Beham, 1535, detail

I studied the portrait in detail, to figure out what kind of embroidery it was. I also took a look at other late period German portraits with embroidered collars. I will write about them later. The gold is obviously couched, but there is clearly a pattern on it, that is a part of the gold surface. I looked at other existing embroideries and decided, that if one would paint a raised (3D) gold embroidery, it would propably look like the pattern in the portrait. 

Raised gold embroidery on a chasuble, Italy 1500, in the collection of Bavarian National Museum on Munich.

(Picture by me, 2010)

So, I drafted a little simplified version of the collar pattern. I had to put it into two pieces to be able to fit it in my embroidery frame. Therefore there is a seam at the neck, but I didn’t think that was a big problem.

I had the gold thread ready, because I was working on another gold embroidery using the same thread. It is gold coloured metal strip wound on a cotton core (since I couldn’t afford the real gold on silk core). Now I know that the thread is a little too thick for this, but it works well enough. Next time I would take much thinner thread. I ordered freshwater pearls and gilded sequins to be added later.

The first task was to make the padded surface, which I stitched on the linen fabric with linen sewing thread.

Linen padding on linen ground.

(Picture by me, 2012)

Then started the most time consuming part of this work, couching in the gold. I had not done raised gold work before and learned quickly, that it is very important to keep the tension on the gold thread constant, not too loose and not too tight, othervice you’ll either get bumps on the surface or loose the crispiness of the edges of the raised pattern. The gold is surface couched in yellow filament silk. I timed how long does it take to make one row of the gold: approximately 15-25 minutes.

 Gold embroidery in progress.

(Picture by me, 2012)

Gold embroidery done.

(Picture by me, 2012)

After the gold was done, I was already on the safe side. I had feared that I wouldn’t finish this piece in time, but in the end I had about three weeks left when I finished it. Sewing on the sequins and pearls was fairly fast job. Then I had to sew the two pieces together and add the gold cord to finish the edges and on top of the seam. The cord is made from the same gold thread by only twisting two threads together while sewing them on. After that I could add the sequins and a pearl on the neck over the seam to make it a continous pattern.

Now was the time for the last finishing touches. I added a piece of linen to cover the back of the embroidery and made two buttons by sewing 5 pearls tightly into a cluster. The buttons were sewn on the collar and the loops were made of the same gold thread twisted into a cord.

Tadah! All of 111 hours of work in one piece:

(Picture by me, 2012) 

(Picture by me, 2012)

The three weeks I had before giving the collar to it’s recipient were spent in a haze. I had to go back to this piece to just touch it from time to time. It’s my baby! I hope to see it soon used on a shirt, which Gottfried will have to make himself.

What I learned from this project: 

- It can be done, it just takes time. 

- Embroidering a raised pattern isn’t as hard as it looks like, but I need to practice more of it. 

- It’s good to keep track of how much time you have put into a piece of work. 

- Finishing touches really make a huge difference. 

And finally, I learned that it is possible not to want to give away something. This is the first time in my embroiderer life, that I have had it hard to give away something. At least I know that my baby got a good home and I have the possibility to see it every once in a while.

Golden Roses

I embroidered some leaves. That means I embroidered 12 names of the beautiful Roses of Drachenwald so that other people can sew these leaves on the Order of the Rose wall hanging.

Here they are still all in one:

Here are some of them in detail:

Katheryne's Pouch

I had the opportunity to give this present to Katheryne in person, when she visited the Garden of Earthly Delights event. That is the best part of this - giving the final product away and making someone happy. It was nice to have an excuse to give her something. ;)

Here is first a picture of the second finished embroidery (as always, click to have a closer look.):

A detail, I'm very happy about the way the pelican turned out. Unfortunately the shine of the white silk doesn't show well in pictures:

The finished thing, both sides:

Embroidered with silk on linen, split stitch and laid work. The upper part of the pouch as well as it's lining are silk. The cord is also made with silk. I run out of silk thread, so I could not make nicer finger loop braiding cords. Some tassels would have been nice as well, but it'll do without them. The size of the pouch is about 15x22cm

Let's put the gear on reverse.

I had a discussion with a friend of mine about the reverse sides of embroideries. He was upset, that people were looking at the backsides of embroideries to determine the quality of work. His oppinion is, that one should not judge the backside, because surviving period embroideries usually have a very messy backside. I would like to discuss this.

What we can see, when we look at the backside of an embroidery? Sometimes it is "messy" with threads going here and there and knots sprinkled all over. Sometimes it is almost as neat as the right side of the work and no knots anywhere. Which one is better? And is it at all relevant?

The reverse side can tell a lot about the embroidery. How are the stitches really made? Is the work done systematically or has the embroiderer jumped from one corner to another? Is there excessive use of thread where no-one can see it (waste of money!)?

But is a messy backside a flaw? If the right side is beautiful, why should we be concerned about the backside when we know that medieval people were not? Of cource, if there is too much material on the backside of the work, it can make a difference on how the embroidery appears on the finished piece.

It all comes down to one question: Which is more important factor, authenticity or craftmanship? If authenticity is more important, we should indeed try to make the backsides of our embroideries messy! If craftmanship is considered to be the more important factor, we should also take a look at the backside to give us more information of the actual work process.

Is a neat backside better? In my oppinion it doesn't matter. I try to keep the backsides of my embroideries neat, but that is just the way I like it. And judging the work by it's backside? The judging criteria include many things. The quality of the work is only one of them. And the backside of an embroidery is only one little piece of the thing called the quality of work.

So by all means take a look at the backside of an embroidery, if it is not covered. But do not judge a work by the appearance of it's backside!

A preview for you

Here is a peek of what I'm doing at the moment. I had a very lazy summer, but now I'm working again. I'm embroidering a heraldic pouch. It'll be a present again, this time for Mistress/Mistress Katheryn Hebenstreitz. The first side is finished, and it bears her device. On the other side will be a pelican in piety surrounded with a laurel wreath. I decided to use my old style on this, because I wanted to have a work to calm my mood and make me happy. (Embroidery Zen...) Silk on linen, split stitch and laid work, 15x15cm.

What do you think? Should the stems be a little thicker?

Die Schultüte, the old German tradition

My daughter will go to school tomorrow. First day, first class. She is very excited, as you may well imagine. When we moved to Germany, I learned about an old German tradition of a big bag, cone shaped, that one gives to a child on their first school day - die Schultüte. It was traditionally filled with candy and toys to make the school taste sweet. Nowadays there is more school things and toys than candy, but the tradition lives well and good. So this immigrant mom made one for her own child. They are used only one day, so these bags are usually made of cardboard and paper. What do I do? Shall I cut and paste a DIY kit which are sold everywhere? Nope! I bought a brown cardboard cone, and embroidered a cover for it! Here are the pattern and the finished Schultüte.

Serious business, this photographing thing. (Picture taken with an empty schultüte, she'll get the filled one in the morning.)

I boldly ripped the pictures from free colouring page pictures that I found from the net. As the fabric I used an old baby bed linen, that gave me a ready made nice border on the open edge. The weave of the fabric was too tight for embroidery, so I had to fight to get the needle through with every stitch. Annoying. I used split stitch and running stitch with some old fake silk threads that I had once bought from a flea market. The unicorn and the fairy's tiaras are embroidered with fake gold surface couched with white sewing thread. Every fairy princess has her own colouring.

Proud Mama Vol II

My 5-years-old daughter finished her embroidery, which she started last November. Isn't it fine? :-D Embroidered on cotton with cotton and polyester threads and glas beads.

The other side. Surprizingly neat.

I'm such a proud mama at the moment. I need to first iron this and then frame it.

A present to my dear friend: A Sweete bag

I haven't posted much for a while, because I have more than one project on the making, and not many of them are ready. But this is. I wanted to give a present to a dear friend. So I spied what color her new Tudor garb will be, and made a sweete bag to match it. This is my inspiration picture:

Then my version of it. A little bit simpler, and the materials are not the same. This is emroidered on silk with fake gold, glas beads and silk thread. The same embroidery is on both sides of the bag.

A close-up of the emroidery:

And the side seam is covered with the same "gold" thread:

I'm very satisfied at the result. I had done beads only once before, and this was my first attempt on Elizabethan gold embroidery. I liked working on this one, and I'll propably do more of the same style later. It took me all together one week to make this.

Drachenwald Archery Champion embroidery

This was also a commission from Her Majesty Eleanora von Ratzeburg, Queen of Drachenwald, like the dancing champion badges I made before. This will be attached on a tabbard.

Embroidered on linen with cotton using split stitch.

The pencil is there to show you the scale of the work.

A detail.

I want to stop using cotton now. And I found a good source for silks, so I'll be using my stock pile of cottons to embroider less important things.

Old work: The Tablero game board

I was asked to post about this, so here I go. This is my first SCA embroidery, and about fourth embroidery in my life, if one does not count that monstrosity from fifth grade at elementary school. I have a vague memory of making this around 1999.

It was a dark and stormy night, like always, when I got a sudden idea of after a couple of mundane cross stitch embroideries to try a stitch I had seen pictures of years ago. I grabbed a piece of cloth and some thread that I had and started stitching. I don't remember how long it took to make this. I tried many different stitches out of my head, no sources or anything, and added pieces of fabric to it as I went stitching. After it was finished, I tried to write a documentation for it, with mixed results.

Cotton on linen, at least 8 different stitches, mainly satin stitch and bokhara couching. 32x32cm

The whole game board with dice. My husband made the dice from rose wood.

A close up near the centre.

A detail from one of the corners. There are seams under the light brown embroidery.

The back side. Quite neat, if I say so myself. There is not a single knot in this work. Now I need a lot of coins to start playing! There is a drinking game version of the game, so I have 7 neat little cups made out of rose wood to finish this set.

I have entered this in Arts and Sciences competitions a couple of times. I have got critique because of it being an embroidered game board, when those were supposed to be made out of wood, and because of the lack of knots (!).

Fit for champions

This is a commission from Her Majesty Eleanora von Ratzeburg, Queen of Drachenwald. These Dancing champion badges will be attached to arm bands. They are both 10cm across and embroidered on linen with silk thread using split stitch.

Both still on the frame. (My new frame that I got from Aarnimetsä. I love it!)

A close-up of one of the dragons.

I could not keep myself from playing with the split stitch a little. It reflects light differently if worked in different angles, and it produces a subtle shading if looked from the side.

Now I'll give these to Lady Magdelena Grace Vane, who will finish the arm bands. New pictures when that is done.

A Christmas present

I wanted to make a christmas present for a friend of mine. He really likes the drum playing skeleton by Hans Holbein (see for example this page, detail in here.), so I embroidered him a needle roll. (He makes awesome garb, by the way.)

Cotton on linen with split stitch and whatever stitch for detail.

The other side, where you keep your needles, is wool, there is a couple of layers of it to make it thicker.

The strings ended up being a little bit too short, but one can still tie it up, so no harm done. He recieved his gift and liked it. And I liked making it. It was a new experience. I've never embroidered line drawings this fine before and the details made it hard to transfer the design on the fabric, but the result looks much better than I had hoped for. This took all together two days to make.