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Posts categoriezed as Surface Embroidery

Smooth as Silk: Split Stitch Embroidery

Smooth as Silk: Split Stitch Embroidery published on No Comments on Smooth as Silk: Split Stitch Embroidery

Smooth as silk: Split stitch Embroidery
— Mistress Isela di Bari, Guild Patron

It is a simple stitch, yet has enriched the noblest of medieval embroideries. It is an easy stitch to learn, yet difficult to master. It is one stitch of many used by modern embroiderers, yet enjoys a long history spanning centuries, countries, and cultures. The versatile split stitch is an excellent choice for outlining, completely filling, shading, or delineating detail within a period design.Continue reading Smooth as Silk: Split Stitch Embroidery

The Roots of Blackwork Embroidery

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The roots of blackwork embroidery
(will the real blackwork please stand up?)
by Christian de Holacombe

Blackwork, as a style of needlework, is notoriously hard to define. It’s worked in black thread — except when it’s red, blue, or lavender. It’s usually in a single color — except when it’s two or three colors at once, or has spangles, or gold thread added. It’s mostly outlines — except when there are fillings. It’s done to counted threads (except when it’s not) and in double running stitch — except when it’s backstitch, or includes cross stitches or plain running stitch. About the only thing that doesn’t seem to change is that historical blackwork is almost always worked in silk thread on white linen.Continue reading The Roots of Blackwork Embroidery

Prose, Poems, Points & Purls

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Prose, poems, points & purls:
Embroidered book covers
by Christian de Holacombe

Artisans have probably been decorating book covers for as long as there have been books — and before the invention of the “codex,” the book with pages that has been the mainstay of literature in the West for a thousand years or so, the long Judaic tradition of rich covers for the Torah scroll tells us that there were fancy covers for scrolls, too.Continue reading Prose, Poems, Points & Purls

Pincushion (with motifs from the Carew-Pole Collection)

Pincushion (with motifs from the Carew-Pole Collection) published on No Comments on Pincushion (with motifs from the Carew-Pole Collection)

The Project Page
Pincushion (with motifs from the Carew-Pole Collection)
by Christian de Holacombe

While an entire Elizabethan sweet bag may be a rather daunting long term project, a three-inch pincushion is a more manageable size for a trial project in this style of embroidery.
As was mentioned earlier, these embroideries in period were done on a sturdy, but somewhat loosely woven linen. Although it helps if the linen is approximately square, with something close to the same number of threads horizontally and vertically, it doesn’t have to be exactly even, because you are going to trace the design onto the linen and outline it by making tent stitches in dark colored thread following the design lines. Once your design is outlined, the parts can simply be filled in.Continue reading Pincushion (with motifs from the Carew-Pole Collection)

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