You got some 'splainin' to do!
Some info about my design choice, inspiration, and materials for my pouch.
I've been wanting to try my hand at some "Opus Anglicanum" for some time. It's in inverted commas because my piece really isn't, but could definitely be inspired by, OA. Now, as a scholar, I make a great craftsperson, and I've found Opus Anglicanum very difficult ot pin down definatively. The fact that the purse that inspired my piece is French, however, would suggest that it's unlikely to be known as "English Work"...
The main inspiration for my purse is this French example, dated to approximately 1340:
This image is pinched from elsewhere, but is also in Staniland and Schuette/Muller-Christensen. You can find a really close-up link via Cottesimple's paper on alms purses.
I'm not much of an artist, but I'm a reasonable copyist, so I needed an image (well, two actually) of romantic or social pursuits of a suitable time period. In order to count 2 birds before they hatched one stone, I mixed countries as well as metaphors, and picked scenes from the Manessa Codex. There are lots of lovely pics, perfect for a project like this one, and are available in high-res.
I cheated and used a light-box to transfer the design, but that's because I wanted the finished item to look good, which it wouldn't if I had drawn it freehand. I considered prick-and-pounce (okay, I didn't really) but that would be quite a time consuming method, and probably better suited to a less complex patterns anyway.
The cartoon was drawn onto very fine haboti silk, and then laid over the top of linen ground which was stretched into a frame. This is where I have moved slightly away from period technique, as it appears that the embroidery on the extant pieces was done directly onto linen ground. The silk, however, was an excellent ground for the drawn design, being very smooth and very thin, whereas all the linen that I had available was much coarser, and comparitively loosely woven.
The silk I used for the split stitch is from Devere Yarn. It's a reeled, or filament silk, and has little or no twist. It's much shinier than most of the standard silk embroidery threads, and a more period choice, from what I can gather. I'm using the 120 denier, one strand for the faces, and two strands for the rest. It's barely thicker than sewing thread, so there has been a fair bit of magnifying glass action to make sure I haven't missed spots.
I think that's it for now, and it's about 5 degrees in the computer room, so I'm off to sit on the heater (the cat is bound to offer to *help* with the getting warm thing) until I warm up a bit. Then there's more 'broidery to be done!
I've been wanting to try my hand at some "Opus Anglicanum" for some time. It's in inverted commas because my piece really isn't, but could definitely be inspired by, OA. Now, as a scholar, I make a great craftsperson, and I've found Opus Anglicanum very difficult ot pin down definatively. The fact that the purse that inspired my piece is French, however, would suggest that it's unlikely to be known as "English Work"...
The main inspiration for my purse is this French example, dated to approximately 1340:
This image is pinched from elsewhere, but is also in Staniland and Schuette/Muller-Christensen. You can find a really close-up link via Cottesimple's paper on alms purses.
I'm not much of an artist, but I'm a reasonable copyist, so I needed an image (well, two actually) of romantic or social pursuits of a suitable time period. In order to count 2 birds before they hatched one stone, I mixed countries as well as metaphors, and picked scenes from the Manessa Codex. There are lots of lovely pics, perfect for a project like this one, and are available in high-res.
I cheated and used a light-box to transfer the design, but that's because I wanted the finished item to look good, which it wouldn't if I had drawn it freehand. I considered prick-and-pounce (okay, I didn't really) but that would be quite a time consuming method, and probably better suited to a less complex patterns anyway.
The cartoon was drawn onto very fine haboti silk, and then laid over the top of linen ground which was stretched into a frame. This is where I have moved slightly away from period technique, as it appears that the embroidery on the extant pieces was done directly onto linen ground. The silk, however, was an excellent ground for the drawn design, being very smooth and very thin, whereas all the linen that I had available was much coarser, and comparitively loosely woven.
The silk I used for the split stitch is from Devere Yarn. It's a reeled, or filament silk, and has little or no twist. It's much shinier than most of the standard silk embroidery threads, and a more period choice, from what I can gather. I'm using the 120 denier, one strand for the faces, and two strands for the rest. It's barely thicker than sewing thread, so there has been a fair bit of magnifying glass action to make sure I haven't missed spots.
I think that's it for now, and it's about 5 degrees in the computer room, so I'm off to sit on the heater (the cat is bound to offer to *help* with the getting warm thing) until I warm up a bit. Then there's more 'broidery to be done!