About This Blog

My current research obsession is centered around purses and pouches from the European Middle Ages, and the accompanying hardware and passementerie. It is my hope to not only study extant items but also learn via reconstructive experiments; these will be limited for the most part to the textile components, however in the future I hope to explore the production of the metal frames.

18 May 2010

A little bit of progress

The blue latticework purse, at 91 hrs 40 minutes:


Work has been slow on this piece for a few reasons. The biggest culprit is all the little eyelets; not only are they time consuming, but all the embroidery is so tight that the needle often needs extra encouragement to pierce the holes in the ground fabric. I've broken at least a half-dozen needles so far. Modern needles, mind you. I shudder to think about how I'd fare using some hand-made needles.

One of the other reasons progress has been slow is due to this little side-project: I'd decided that, after my class on German counted work, I should really have some examples that use the 2/1 stitch slope (sometimes referred to as Gobelin stitch). The patterns are from Richard Wymarc's A Stitch Out Of Time (patterns 6 & 10 on that page). Both will become small cushions:

7 comments:

Racaire said...

I love your latticework - it looks gorgeous in this blue/white colors :)
lovely German counted work too! :)

Kathy Storm said...

Yes, having examples is good for teaching class. Amazing how much time you put into making a class when you consider all the time to make examples!

Gina-B said...

That is simply stunning, thanks so much for sharing.

atelierpolonaise said...

You have very talented finger for embroidery. Wonderfull work but I like very much your small cushions.

Alessandra

Rachel said...

Working on queen stitch on 32-count at present, so I have some sympathy with your eyelet problems! I think slow and steady wins the day...

Machteld said...

the latticework embroidery is so beautiful, wow, it may be timeconsuming, but it is really worth the effort!!

Unknown said...

I love your works. About a month ago I also started my adventure with brickdstitching (I guess that's the english name for it) so I invite you to see my blog (http://szafa-recznie-szyta.blogspot.com/).
I'm a beginner so maybe you could give me some useful advices :)