Now that the ecclesiastical motif has been stitched, it is time to decide on the second project.  One of the goals of this undertaking is to identify embroidered items in images and documents and attempt to re-create them from the images or the written descriptions.  There are plenty of extant religious objects to develop into designs and numerous embroideries to examine to determine technique, so painted or drawn images weren’t really required to execute the design.  Secular items do not survive in as great a number but inventories are chock full of embroidered items of every type.  Furnishings such as chairs, cushions, and bed hangings were already popular but as the century progressed, the selection of items richly embellished with gold and silver embroidery increased. Books, coffers, hunting accessories, and mirrors are described as being “enbrawdered allover” with “damaske and veanice golde”.   The increasing popularity of embroidered clothing is evident in the pages and pages of kirtles, foreparts, gowns and sleeves.  The problem is that the actual design is rarely noted, and here is where the drawings and portraits come into play.   

Working through the century on a chronological path, the next period of embroidery is the last half of Henry VIII’s reign – so 1530ish to the late 1540’s.  The source for the type of embroidered items is the transcript of the inventory taken after his death in 1547.  I planned to do a sleeve but going through the inventory item by item located many embroidered sleeves but only a few with a mention of subject matter, usually acorns, honeysuckles and pomegranates.  The mention of honeysuckles and acorns reminded me of the famous set of valance panels in the Burrell Collection.  They are not worked with gold thread but at least it is an example of an embroidered design from the period and if a sleeve is to be next, I will need some inspiration. 

Then there is the actual pattern for the shape of the sleeve.  Not being very experienced in tailoring or dressmaking, I headed to the bookshelf for a recent addition to my library:  The Tudor Tailor.  The thought of making an actual garment had never crossed my mind until this project so I have only recently become aware of the complexities of Tudor dress.  There are so many unfamiliar items of dress in the 16^th century and I will never be able to keep them in mind.  Tudor sleeves are complicated and there are several patterns in this wonderful book but which ones are the ones in the Henry Inventory? 

To determine the style of sleeve that was most popular, I went to the portraits of the day.  The sleeves mentioned in the inventory were usually tied with aglets and there are quite a few helpful examples.  I located the pattern in the TT and to become more familiar with the size and shape I would be working with I drew out the pattern and made a muslin mockup.  Then I asked Challe if she might have any photographs showing the sleeves on 16^th century effigies so I could see a three-dimensional example.  There are, of course, no embroidered sleeves but looking from below I could see the closures and how the puffs of linen were pulled out between them and I marveled at the skill of the carver!  Other parts of the dress on the effigies such as the girdles and headgear provided examples of patterns used in the period.

Before starting on the design, I collected images of Holbein drawings from the BM and looked through all the pattern books that were published before 1550.  Armed with all that and the design from the Burrell valance, I was ready to sketch…

Next steps: finish the design, source the appropriate material and frame it up!

I began the week still puzzling over shading the drapery, so I went back to my photographs to study how the detail stitching helped to define the folds.  There are not many seated angels and there is a wide range of skill and detail in the Tudor saints I have seen.  Many are damaged, some are quite rudimentary and a few are absolutely awesome.  Here is an example of the range: 

I concluded that I should have used a deeper green for the couching and the shading wouldn’t show unless a darker colour was used.  Placing stitches in just the right place, on just the right angle and at the perfect length is a challenge on laid gold and because I was using the dark green, any odd angle showed up like a beacon.  After a few abortive attempts I settled on using only vertical stitches in varying lengths and densities. 

The experimental face stitched up beautifully in seemingly no time at all and I figured I could stitch it again with little trouble.  Experience has shown that one improves the second time around but it came out three times before I remembered where I had placed the under stitching.  If you recall, I mentioned that I felt the flesh tone was too pink.  I mistakenly changed the colour I used for the shaded area on the neck and tried to fix it by adding stitches in a lighter colour over top.  By that time, it was too late to unpick without it affecting the stitches that did work.  Note taken: don’t change colours unless you actually try them to make sure they work as planned.

Note ignored:  I did the same thing with the hair!  I wanted it to be a bit darker with a hint of red and I chose a darker colour than on the experiment, ginger to put in the major waves, with a lighter strawberry blonde shade to fill in the curls.  Luckily, this time it worked very well.

The ermine cape was a late addition.  The upper portion of the drapery appeared to be separate from the lower portion – a cape of some sort.  The angels on the Maddermarket ceiling are wearing ermine capes and a little research indicated that ermine was quite popular as a trim.  Heaven must be chilly!

The harp ended up as a filling of split stitch which worked well but it was very plain and flat.  I didn’t find any Tudor embroidered harps but the space called out for something – a little scroll design in gold passing worked well but perhaps a little much?  The strings are of silver passing and there are more than on the original because only five didn’t have a chance of showing up against those feathers!  Each finger of the arm was padded with several layers of split stitch to raise them to about the level of the strings.  The individual fingers are satin stitch over the padding and “tapestry” shading in long and short filled the rest of the hand and arm.

The last major element was the scroll.  There are many examples of scrolls in extant embroideries and I enjoyed looking at all of the different ways they were done.  My favorite is the one that accompanies the “walking dead” on the Vintners’ pall.  The motto for the Broderers’ Company was the most appropriate Latin phrase to include.  The base was stitched with surface satin but for some reason (I was in a hurry and didn’t take time to make sure I was doing it correctly!) I decided the surface couching should go straight across instead of with the curve of the scroll – arrggh!  The pressure of time!  The words were sketched out to fit nicely centered on the length and the lettering was chosen from the examples.  I used a single strand of white silk to place the letters first but it probably wasn’t necessary.  After the lettering was done, any empty spaces are just an invitation to fill with more curls of passing.  Once again, maybe a bit much…

To finish up, the different elements were outlined with black as if they had been stitched separately and then assembled and secured onto a prepared ground.  Going in and out and over the edges of the laid gold was a challenge.  I will be taking a break from the angel for a bit and move on to something else for change but there are still some little revisions and tweaks to be made.  Also, the whole piece will eventually be glued, trimmed and fixed onto an appropriate ground.  I’ve made a few altar cloths and vestments in my time and I think I will be able to find a lovely scrap of damask that will be perfect!

For now, all the notes have to typed up and the hours spent have to be calculated.  I will analyze them and figure out just how long it would take to stitch a second one without the agony of design decisions because five weeks spent on a single angel would be a recipe for starvation in Tudor times!

Before finishing the right wing, the background pattern had to be filled in.  Putting the basting lines on the ground at the points of the diamonds helped a bit (thanks for the suggestion, Mike) but the short rows were still a counting nightmare!  It was definitely a little easier on the longer runs on the side.  If I was to do this again, I would try the pattern first in a small area to ensure I could follow it and finish in a timely manner!  Finishing up the lovely little feathers on the right wing was a joy in comparison.  Just look at how the colours glow in the light of my magnifier!

The drapery has taken ages too.  I couldn’t get comfortable with the many horizontal folds of the seated angeI.  I had done a little sample of the technique I wanted to use and knew it would be difficult to cover the padding with rows of passing because it takes more threads to up, along and down than just over the vertical padding.  So I tried painting, pencil crayon and colouring a black and white image, I even tried putting my husband to work as a model and simplifying the drape! I lost track of the fact it was to be a 16^th century project and found myself adrift on a sea of green pseudo or nué… not just the colours, but I was counting again and filling in areas like a paint by number!  One of the issues was that the third colour I chose was much finer than the others and didn’t show up as it should so I had to go back and add a second stitch.  I kept on stitching, hoping it would eventually come together, I tried adding the lines to define the folds in one strand of green, two strands of green, black… nothing was working.  Finally, I was wasting so much time that I had to give it up and start over.  It all came out in a fraction of the time it took to put it in but what a mess I made of the linen with the lines marking the areas.  Also, having sunk the gold threads weakened the cloth and I ended up with a hole that needed to be darned!   What a week!

Back to the original plan… and the passing went in quite smoothly in a morning!  The horizontal areas are a little loose but I’m hoping they will adjust when the shading goes in.  Stay tuned…

Taking a break from the drapery, I decided to work on the harp.  I was never quite sure about the silver so I’m trying a wooden harp instead.  Early stitches but I’m liking it better so far.  I will put a nice little floral or knot design on the brown and highlight with gold…

My lovely little angel project seems to have taken on a bit of a life of its own and is taking much longer than planned. However, I have a goal and plenty of determination so I hope to have it finished this week!

Way back in November, Challe and I went to visit St Faith’s Church, the parish that preserved the Bacton Altar Cloth for over 400 years. We had a lovely visit and Challe presented a slide show of the BACstitch Group’s research over the past two years to a small, very receptive and appreciative group of parishioners.

We have just had our first article published in the journal Archaeological Textiles Review 64. It describes the methodology we have used to date. Jenny, Challe and I continue to meet every week for an hour to examine the secondary motifs one at a time, and it still amazes me how much there is to see and learn.

If you would like to read it, click on the bird below to open the article “Unpicking the Bacton Altar Cloth: innovative methodologies for interpreting embroidered artefacts“. You will have to scroll a bit to get to the article.

It’s been one of those weeks when nothing is working.  The basketweave pattern I originally chose for the background was lovely but too distinctive and had large unstitched areas that didn’t work well in the narrow area between the hair the wing.  I found a piece of graph paper where many years ago I had charted the patterns used on motifs from late 15^th and early 16^th c vestments I had seen.  The diamond pattern looked like it would be perfect, I just needed to add a couple of stitches to fill the empty spaces.  Sounds easy, doesn’t it?  It was not! 

As I stitched, I realized that the pattern is very complicated where it crosses, and the large diamonds shift as they meet, the double line going over one at the cross. I had to rechart adding the extra stitches and expanding the pattern to include four full squares.  I messed up so many times trying to compensate the pattern at the turns and because the rows were so short and the overall design so large, I couldn’t recognize the pattern as I went from one row to the next.  I tried following with a pencil, colouring the squares and marking out the spaces between the stitches but nothing really helped and all I did was make a mess of the paper pattern.  I did remember to lay the passing vertically this time and thought my brain might be having difficulty with the direction so I tried turning my frame to work horizontally but it didn’t help.  The little area on the left side took me almost ten hours working in silence because anything more was too distracting! All the effort was worth it though, the pattern is recognizable but not overwhelming. I still have to figure out what to do with the little spaces in between the feathers. The red silk is very noticeable at the turns and that will also have to be rectified.

On to the next section – the feathers on the edge of the wing.  I began well by choosing some lovely bright colours but when I stitched them in, they didn’t seem to work.  Several attempts later, I tore it all out and decided to take a break from thinking and just complete the floor and the wing on the other side because all the decisions had already been made.

Early this morning, I went back to the original premise – vibrant colour is good – and stitched in the feathers.  Now I just have to do a little blending of colour, add the outline and touches of gold. Hmmm, there may be more unstitching…

It’s a very snowy day today and it makes me wonder how a Tudor embroiderer would fare on a day like today. I don’t think a London embroiderer would have to deal with this volume (it’s been snowing for 18 hours without a break) but it would probably have been this cold (-6°C) on some days. There were different hours for journeymen in summer and winter but were there “it’s too cold for work” days or “I can’t get out my lane” days? Imagine the sights, sounds and smells in the 16th century city…

As I’m tucked up nice and warm in my studio, and the internet is still working, its a good day to post my progress this week:

In Tudor embroidery, the background and the figure would often be embroidered on two separate pieces of linen: the saint on one and the setting on another. Although the stitching has not survived in good condition the front and back images below are perfect illustrations of this technique. A close examination of the stitching on the back reveals that the coloured silk areas behind the figure is worked in surface satin stitch which keeps most of the silk in long stitches on the top of the fabric and very small ones on the back. Sometimes, when you can see the back of the embroidery, it is covered with paper. In this case it is a drawing that has been pricked for transfer. Unfortunately, the design is not decipherable. Before starting the embroidery I made the decision to work the angel and the surrounding area together.  This may have to change…

The background of many embroidered images is often pairs of filé (venice gold) couched in a diaper pattern with a coloured silk.  You can see this a bit in the tarnished filé stitched vertically around the figure’s head. Having done this technique before, I felt fairly confident that I could do it without practice and needing a break from experimental embroidery, I chose a basketweave and #3 passing couched with crimson silk. All was progressing smoothly until I came to the area behind the head and between the wing – far too narrow for the couching pattern I had chosen.  I had also stitched the filé horizontally… What I completed looks great but now it will all have to come out and something very different will have to be used.  So much for confidence!  Mrs. Zinkewich would have called it hubris…

Figures depicted on ecclesiastical embroidery are often found on a lovely embroidered hillock of green grass dotted with flowers and the occasional skull. I particularly like the one on the Vintners’ Pall. The problem with the feet had been solved with the scroll so the little green hillock wasn’t possible.  It would have to be a floor and because many of the saints are set in castle niches there are also some tiled floors.  This one is pretty sketchy but the one on the Fishmongers’ Pall is lovely at https://pieceworkmagazine.com/i-spy-couching-stitch/. The next logical step was to embroider the tiles.  Drawing the tiles to a vanishing point was a challenge and then transferring the lines to the linen after the embroidery had begun was almost impossible but they finally look like they belong.  Each tile was filled with surface satin stitch to ensure I would have enough thread to complete them all.  Then rows of passing were couched across the area.  The individual tiles have to be indicated with a darker thread but I haven’t quite decided on just how dark or how thick, so that part will wait until more of the figure has been completed.

The long feathers came next and although I had experimented, I wasn’t sure which metal thread I should use.  I decided on one strand of #3 passing and filled in the silk but it just didn’t look right so I had to add a second thread to make a traditional pair. 

The little feathers were done in steps, first was to fill in the background colour.  Once again, I was using the Fishmongers’ Pall but I don’t have my own images and there is far too much stitching to determine how it was stitched.  I needed to see the individual feathers so the areas were filled individually using split and satin stitches.  Following layers were:  black silk for the “eye”; a pair of tambour for the circles; silver tambour for the rachis; saffron circles; black outline; the individual barbs; and sea blue for the inner circles.  When I’ve posted this, the blue will have to come out because I used too many strands and it doesn’t sit properly around the gold.  How far will I get by next Thursday?

The experimental stitching is almost complete but choosing the colours of the edge feathers has still not been accomplished.  Since they are one of the last elements to be stitched, I’ve gone ahead and started the actual angel.  I’m hoping the colours will kind of choose themselves when all the other colours are in place. 

I’ve embroidered a few faces in the past, in a number of different techniques, and rarely can I get them to look a little like the person I’m trying to represent.  Luckily, this angel had no real model so as long as it looks relatively “angelic” it will be an achievement.  Inspecting a variety of embroidered faces of the late 15^th and early 16^th century, from angels to evangelists, helps to understand how they were achieved.  In this period, the stitching is usually a series of long stitches that encroach into previous stitches.  If we had to classify it today it would be called “long and short” but the image that term conjures for a 21^st century person very precise and perfect (see https://rsnstitchbank.org/stitch/long-and-short-stitch).  The Tudor embroiderer’s long and short faces were lovely but not so perfect from our perspective today.  The appearance of the “long and short” stitch could be quite different from face to face.  Here are just a few examples from extant 15th and 16th c English embroideries I have had the opportunity to examine:

As you can see, innumerable expressions and stitching styles, and all are very appealing in their own way.  And they can’t be classified as anything except embroidered faces. The thing is to recognize this, you have to spend quite some time looking very carefully at each element in every item!  Just think of the different embroiderers who worked these faces and how each embroiderer’s work may have changed (or not changed) with the number of faces they embroidered. As an experiment and for practice, I completed the entire face but now I have to repeat it and I wonder if I’ll attempt to change anything as I’m stitching…

The hair was challenging as well.  For my angel, I used the hair on the Fishmongers’ angel for a model.  Working the shape of the curls first in very tiny split stitch and then filling the areas with more tiny split stitch worked in the direction of the curls in a lighter shade.  I haven’t completed it but I have the concept and hopefully I will take a little more care with the direction of the split stitch filling on the actual piece.

I tried a couple of different things for the harp, beginning with single rows of couched gold passing but changed my mind to try satin stitch in a dark gold silk.  Eventually I decided to try to introduce silver and this was the result.  White silk satin stitch with a greyer tone for depth and a little vine design worked in couched silver passing and green silk. 

There are many different ways to stitch a scroll and after looking at a number, I decided that it would be white with rows fine silk couched to secure the long surface satin stitches.  The most appropriate Latin motto would be the 16^th century Broderers’ Company motto:  Omnia desuper or Omnia de Super.  It has been spelled both ways on different extant documents.  Omnia de Super would fit very nicely!

As you can see from the over all image, I have also tried the tiled floor in a number of colours and layers.  I’m not in love with any of them and haven’t made a decision for the final as yet.  It’s a little out of focus because I wanted you to see that I do have some company as I stitch!

A special note for those readers who have been fortunate enough to take a class on Medieval Embroidery with Jessica Grimm… If you look carefully at the image at the top of the page or below, you can see that the linen under the couched file (passing) has been painted with what is likely madder!

This was never going to be easy, but if it wasn’t a challenge and nothing to learn there would be no point! I’ve been experimenting for about five days, on and off of course, my left hand index finger bears the brunt of fine embroidery after not picking up a needle for a whole year.  It guides the point of the needle on the underside of the frame and with this super pinpoint placement through several layers of thread, it gets in the way sometimes.  It takes a while for the skin to toughen up.  That’s the physical challenge and after so many years and sometimes long hiatuses, I’ve already learned how to deal with that.  But I always learn something from choosing colours:  I just wish I could remember from one project to another.

I began by forgetting that I can’t be afraid of deep, rich colour, which is a hallmark of Tudor textiles!  I almost always begin with what is in the background and on the angel, it is the long feathers.  Right off the bat, my colour choice was too bland and it didn’t take long to decide to put the needle down and do a little more research.  Since this was to be based on the techniques used in the figures in a vignette, I went back to the images on the palls.  The wings on the Fishmongers’ Pall were the inspiration for the new angel but the longer feathers are quite different so I didn’t think they would help.  Think again… I haven’t been able to photograph the pall as yet but friend and colleague Natalie Dupuis wrote an engaging article for Piecework about the couching on the pall at https://pieceworkmagazine.com/i-spy-couching-stitch/.  The image of the angel provided the clues I needed to develop the long feathers and here is what I have come up with so far.  I still have to make some decisions with respect to final colour choice but that will depend on how all the different elements go together. 

For the smaller feathers, since the colour choice had been made by the embroiderer of the original, I just followed their lead.  This is where the guidance of the needle is important.  The background is worked in split stitch and then the small coloured circles are also split stitch and to split the super fine stitch from the underside through two layers of stitching you have to be very precise.  Then the circles of gold have to be couched.  The exact sequence of stitching on the original is hard to determine because the layers overlap so much.  I tried two different ways but it will take a little more practice to result in a more refined feather. 

The drapery, arrgh… I’ve tried or nué a couple of times and abandoned it fairly quickly.  I appreciate that it is a very skilled practice and the colour placement is challenging but despite the glittering gold and the potentially gorgeous result, it bores me to tears – not enough messing around. This is where the learning and dogged determination comes in.  Beginning with pairs of #3 passing and a selection of three colours, it only took two rows to learn it was not going to work and blue was not the colour. Back to the drawing board (literally) to get a better understanding of how the shading works because isn’t a piece of fabric a single colour?  The depth of colour just changes as the light hits it… and can’t that be done by adjusting the spacing of stitches and the gold?  A little more research and yes, shaded gold was achieved in many different ways.  A single colour, a little string padding and some black lines for definition might work.  After that, some additional directional stitching on top to add a little detail.  Not there yet but it looks promising.

The smaller feathers on the edge of the wings are what really attracted me to the Fishmongers’ angel.  Once again, I’ve begun with a very unTudor-like colour and will have to re think.  However, I love the way the feathers fold into one another and they are so textural, I just have to trial and error to achieve the correct colour combinations – and that’s fun!

I thought the line drawing was going to be pretty straightforward but the more I worked at it the more it became apparent that it was not going to work without some adjustments.  The feathers on the outside of the wing were too prominent and the whole shape was wrong.  I am not an accomplished artist and my skills usually only get me as far as I need to get the shape on the fabric and then work the details out in needle and thread but this project will require more steps.  Thank goodness for tracing paper… After many attempts the feathers finally looked like they should but then I couldn’t just tweak the shape so scrapped the rounded wings and spread them out.  Then they were too straight so a little curve had to be put back in. 

Hands are difficult to draw realistically but the feet were always going to be a problem – there were none on the original stone carving and I have no idea where they should be so, I added the scroll.  I will think about what will be written on the scroll as I stitch but I will have to be in Latin so a little research will have to be done.  The drapery is going to be a huge challenge and I haven’t come up with a solution for the harp that is still floating in mid air – maybe I can explain that away as “heavenly”…

In any case, this is the final line drawing.  I have an idea of the order of work and which threads and techniques to use but since they will be new to me for the most part, I knew I would need to transfer the design twice.  I will have to experiment as I progress trying out the combinations initially on one angel to make sure they will work.  Then I’ll go ahead and complete the stitching on the second design and hope I’ve got it right.  I have chosen a fine white linen and it has been prepared and mounted on a slate frame.  It looks quite like the one in the image from Opera Nuovo except the figure is angel not a saint and there will only be one embroiderer.

As a 21^st century embroiderer who focuses on goldwork techniques, I use texture more often than colour to achieve my design objectives so adding colour is a real challenge.  Normally, I would dive straight in to the stitching but this time it is important to consider colour first.  The colours on the motifs on the Fishmongers and Vintners Palls are quite vibrant, so a coloured rendition of the line drawing would assist in the selection of threads.  I have quite a few pencil crayons that have survived over the years, some Derwent and Reeves watercolour pencils, Prismacolor, Laurentian, Crayola and a gold metallic gel pen – nothing that hasn’t been around for at least 5 years (the gel pen) and lots that have been in my collection for over 25 (the Prismacolor and Crayola)! 

As with the sketching, it was slow going at first but as I worked it began to get more comfortable and I was able to get a better feeling for how the embroidery might work: the length and direction of stitches, the layering of colours and the addition of passing for highlights.  Moving onto the drapery in green and gold, then the floor and the background in laid gold with a diaper pattern. I hope the stitching goes as smoothly…

For the keen Tudor embroiderer… if you would like to experiment with your own angel, send me an email request and I will send you a pdf of the line drawing. Please note: This is not a teaching project, simply my research blog with pictures of my experimental embroidery of a Tudor Ecclesiastical Motif. At this time, I will not be able to help with any stitching related questions… comments and research questions only, please!

The time has come to decide the subject matter for the first practical exercise. An ecclesiastical motif would represent the greatest number of extant embroidered objects from the early part of the Tudor era.  Little angel image. The small angel with a scroll emerging from a cloud was stitched as an experiment a few years ago.

Since then, I have studied a variety of motifs featuring techniques requiring a range of materials and skill levels.  Copes, chasubles and other vestments are powdered with conventional flowers, fleur de lys, saints, angels and many other symbols including rebuses and coats of arms. Surviving hearse cloths have some wonderful biblical scenes and hagiographical imagery. An outstanding example is the Fishmongers Pall which was on display at the V&A Opus Anglicanum exhibition, but the Vintners’ and the Merchant Taylors’ cloths also have some incredible embroidery.

To begin this exercise in late 15^th/early 16^th century ecclesiastical embroidery, a single motif that features a number of techniques would be ideal.  Face, hands and hair in fine silk and drapery in laid gold, with accessories such as keys, books or wheels worked in silk and metal threads can all be found in a figure of a saint but an angel has wings with feathers too.  I didn’t want to just re-create an extant motif, so I selected some images of angels that were not embroidered and began by sketching them.  It has been quite some time since I have attempted to draw anything and the pencil in hand felt even more awkward than a needle. 

The angels depicted on the wooden ceiling of St John Maddermarket in Norwich came first.  They are beautifully painted examples that are very reminiscent of the embroidered angels powdered on many extant vestments.  They are all different and have a lot of interesting elements – the scrolls, the head pieces and the circles on the wings.  The sketch worked out well but the figure is very static. 

For the second attempt I chose this lovely little angel tucked in a crevice in a tomb in St Mary’s Warwick.  The angle that it was taken at makes it very appealing but not quite detailed enough for a Tudor embroidery.

The third angel was from a series of stone bosses scattered throughout Tewkesbury Abbey.  All the angels were musicians playing instruments and the one playing a harp featured the drapery, the accessory and the wings.  As I sketched, I was imagining how it might be adapted to incorporate a few of the different techniques found on the embroidered figures on the hearse cloths.  I kept erasing and sketching (need more practice with drapery) and eventually stopped at a point that might include all the elements I was looking for in a complete motif.  Next step is to make a line drawing, determine where the padding might go to most effectively portray the drapery, make a preliminary selection of coloured silks and metal threads, find an appropriate linen ground, and do some experimental stitching…