Last week, I wrote about the embroidered late medieval vestments on display in the St Nicolai Church in Kalkar. We looked in depth at the richly embroidered chasuble donated by Wolter van Riswick in AD 1530. This week, we’ll examine a splendidly embroidered cope and dalmatic, also kept in the church in Kalkar. These vestments were also made in the Northern Netherlands around AD 1530. The embroidery on the cope is a splendid affair. The scenes are very detailed, and there are many different figures. Looking at their faces, you will see they are all very individual. The stitching is very fine, and many different silk colours are used. Apart from the ‘fleshy’ parts, the figures are stitched using the or nue (shaded gold) technique. As many of these coloured silken stitches have fallen out and were likely replaced with colourless conservation thread, the scenes appear very golden. However, the remnants of intact or nue stitching show that it was once of the highest quality. Typical of the late medieval goldwork embroidery from the Low Countries. Also, note the elaborately embroidered frame around the orphrey. It consists of a padded triple-zig-zag line, and trefoils fill the formed triangles. I think these borders were workshop-specific, and I don’t think I have encountered this particular one before. The goldwork embroidery on the dalmatic is a bit simpler. Gone are the elaborate orphrey borders. Instead, the orphreys are surrounded by a common string-padded basket weave. The or nue embroidery used on the figures is also much more blocky and not so finely shaded as seen on the cope. The figures themselves are very standardised. And I am pretty sure that there are ‘twins’ out there reflecting the mass production of this type of embroidery. However, the embroidery is still good quality, just not as spectacular as seen on the cope. This probably reflects the hierarchy of the wearer of the vestments: priest versus deacon.
It was a real treat to encounter these splendidly embroidered late medieval vestments in a small town in Germany. Although Kalkar is close to the Dutch border, these late medieval vestments were not shown or mentioned at the large overview exhibition of Dutch late medieval embroidery in Utrecht in 2015. However, they testify further to the vast output of the late medieval goldwork embroidery workshops in the Northern Netherlands. Literature Werd, G. de, 2016. St. Nicolaikirche Kalkar. Deutscher Kunstverlag Berlin München.
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Last year, I visited the St Nicolai Church in Kalkar, Germany. Kalkar was an important and wealthy city in the late medieval period. It was never very large, but with proud inhabitants who used their monetary power to decorate the place beautifully. Although no longer important from the 17th century onwards, and even reverting to city farming (think Detroit!) until well into the 19th century, Kalkar is well worth a visit. Especially as the St Nicolai Church has one of the most important church treasures still in its original place, and among it, are four spectacularly embroidered late medieval vestments made in the Low Countries. These vestments enhance the many beautiful altarpieces with their paintings and sculptures. You can really see that they form a unity. Think of them in 2-D, and you have an embroidery pattern. The church inventory lists more than 100 vestments in AD 1543. Many of which were donated by important Kalkar families. Today, four of these vestments are displayed in the church treasury. You will need to visit on a sunny day as natural light is the only light source for these beauties. All four vestments are made of red velvet and decorated with the typical orphreys seen in the Low Countries. On display are: two copes, a dalmatic and a chasuble. We will explore the chasuble in this blog post. The chasuble is a testament to the rich cultural heritage of the Northern Netherlands. Its beautifully embroidered orphreys, crafted around AD 1525, are a sight to behold. This chasuble, mentioned in the church inventory of AD 1543, was a generous donation by Wolter van Riswick in AD 1530. Wolter, hailing from a wealthy family, along with his brothers, contributed significantly to this church and the one in nearby Xanten. The front of the chasuble features an embroidered column with three scenes: the women visiting the grave, Noli me tangere, and the road to Emmaus appearance. Although the front of the chasuble is currently on display, the back shows a most elaborate scene of the Crucifixion, followed by the burial of Jesus and the Resurrection. The embroidery is exquisite, and many techniques are used. There's finely shaded or nue for the clothing of most of the figures. There's diaper couching behind the crucified Christ, as well as on the beams forming the cross. The landscape is mainly made up of Italian Stitch/Couching (laid silk couched down with a single gold thread). The frame around the orphrey has been padded with string to form the zig-zag pattern with the dots. The blue scallops are also intricately stitched by recombining and twisting gold threads that come from the regular couching further up. All in all, this was a costly piece of embroidery executed by one of the leading embroidery ateliers in the Northern Netherlands.
Literature Werd, G. de, 2016. St. Nicolaikirche Kalkar, Deutscher Kunstverlag Berlin München.
Last week, I discussed some Opus anglicanum pieces that show underside couched silk worked in a brick pattern. I wondered what the benefits were of using underside couching instead of traditional brick stitch. As I had done underside couching with a metal thread before, I imagined that underside couching with silk would be equally slow and cumbersome. I was very wrong. Underside couching with silk is a lovely technique! I hope you will give it a try, as it would be an excellent addition to your toolbox. The tutorial on this blog consists of the design drawing and a video where I work on parts of the design. My Journeyman and Master Patrons will find a downloadable PDF with the design drawing, additional pictures and instructions on my Patreon website.
While researching the grave finds of some of these bishops and kings, I also came across other small embroidered pieces that piqued my curiosity. When we think of Opus anglicanum, we think of underside couched gold threads. However, the embroiderers also underside couched silk. The most famous example is the Syon cope. The background consists entirely of underside couched green and red silk. I always thought that the Syon cope was somewhat of an oddity. And it is in terms of Opus anglicanum copes. However, other pieces of embroidery show underside couched silk, too. Let's have a look. Here you see the Syon cope (made AD 1310-1320, England) in its natural museum habitat. It is displayed in front of the equally stunning Hildesheim cope made in Germany in AD 1310-1320. I never entirely understand why the Victoria & Albert Museum points out to visitors: "Compared with known examples of contemporary Opus Anglicanum, this German work is rather naive and not as finely executed." Really? I beg to differ. But that's the topic of another blog post. Back to the underside couched silk! Here, you see one of the central scenes on the back of the Syon cope: the Coronation of the Virgin. The red and green backgrounds of the scenes are filled with underside couched silk in a chevron pattern. And see the stripiness of the colour of the silk? That proves that different dye lots were used to stitch the cope. Maybe it was not apparent at the time of stitching. However, the different dye lots certainly reacted differently to light exposure over time. As said, the underside couched silk on the Syon cope is a bit of an oddity. As far as I am aware, only a few smaller pieces of embroidery show underside couching in silk. So far, I have come across two amice apparels, an alb apparel, a stole, two seal-bags and an embroidered fragment. The oldest pieces date to the second half of the 12th century (vestments said to have belonged to Thomas Becket), and the youngest piece is the Syon cope itself, dating to the first quarter of the 14th century. The technique has also been in use for about 150 years.
But why would you underside couch silk? Look closely at the picture of the seal-bag. What does underside couched silk on the grain of the embroidery fabric remind you of? Indeed: brick stitch. Why did the embroiderers opt for underside couching instead of brick stitch? To save on silk thread? When another couching pattern, such as the chevron pattern on the Syon cope, is used, I can understand why you use underside couching. However, you could also use brick stitch for a chevron pattern (think Bargello). And when you go off the grid to fill design elements, underside couching is a good option too. But remember the 'inferior' Hildesheim cope? That one is stitched entirely in brick stitch variations. So why would embroiderers on the Continent opt for brick stitch and those on the British Isles for underside couching? What's the difference? Let's explore that next week with a tutorial! Literature Browne, C., Davies, G., Michael, M.A. (Eds.), 2016. English Medieval Embroidery: Opus Anglicanum. Yale University Press, New Haven. Before I show you three more sets of beautifully embroidered pontifical socks, I can finally give you the link for the TV appearance. It aired last Friday. The MDR crew did a good job, and I feel that we all expressed ourselves really well in terms of why we stitch and the benefits of stitching. I really hope that the Museum Domschatz Halberstadt profits from the exposure. So far, I can't see an uptake in my website's traffic. And now, on to the stitched socks! Last week, we looked at three pairs of stockings from two kings and a bishop. The oldest pair dated to the 11th century, and the other two were from the late 12th century. This week, we will look at the grave finds of three bishops who lived in the 13th century. First up are the textile remains of Bishop Beringer von Entringen (died AD 1232). He was bishop of Speyer from AD 1224 until his death. The stockings are covered with a regular geometric flower design stitched in underside couching. The embroidery fabric consists of samite. Unfortunately, the original colour is difficult to establish. The underside couched silver gilt threads (single) are packed in tightly to 30-35 threads per cm. Researchers believe that these stockings were embroidered in England around AD 1200. They are thus a typical piece of Opus anglicanum embroidery. Due to the 18th and 19th century habit of dividing up archaeological finds between several enthusiastic collectors, the remains of the socks of bishop Walter de Cantilupe of Worcester can now be found in three museums. Bishop Walter was buried in Worcester Cathedral, which holds some of the remains. Furthermore, pieces are held in the British Museum and in the Victoria & Albert Museum. As the finds are divided up between three museums, their original form has not been reconstructed. It is also not helpful that the remnants of the corresponding sandals are not clearly separated from those of the stockings (I believe that the pictures shown in the British Museum link are part of the sandals). The stockings are covered with a design of standing and seated kings with sceptres amongst elaborate scroll-work. The embroidery is executed with a silver-gilt thread on silk twill. As you can see from the above picture, the embroidery consists of underside couching. You are actually looking at the back of the embroidery. The linen couching thread has completely deteriorated. The only thing left is the gold thread that has been pulled in tiny loops through the silk twill. Only the silk twill is holding the gold thread. The stockings were made in England between AD 1220 and 1250. The last pair of stockings come from the grave of Bishop Pierre de Charny of Sens in Sens Cathedral. The design on the stockings consists of griffons and leopards set in elaborate scroll-work. The embroidery is executed on silk twill with a silver-gilt thread in underside couching. His stockings were probably already a little older when he wore them for burial. They were made in the early 13th century in England. Just as we saw last week with the first three stockings, the embroidery is of a non-religious nature. Geometric designs or elaborate scroll work with animals or human figures are popular. The embroidery is also executed directly onto a thick silken fabric. And these last three stockings all show the underside couching technique as seen in Opus anglicanum. I wonder if there were embroidery workshops that specialised in making these all-over embroidered stockings. Did they cater to royalty and bishops alike? Or perhaps also the higher nobility (the ranks just below the king)? Where these patterns found on other embroidered textiles too? Perhaps as borders on a mantle? The fact that the stockings survived under exceptional circumstances in these graves does not mean that they were the only pieces decorated in this way. Maybe they show us a glimpse of what other embroidered textiles of the times looked like! My Journeyman and Master Patrons will find a PDF of an 1893 publication of the opening of the grave of bishop Hubert Walter of Canterbury for download on my Patreon site. The publication contains full-sized colour photographs of the embroidered stockings and shoes, as well as other textiles found in the grave. Literature
Browne, C., Davies, G., Michael, M.A. (Eds.), 2016. English Medieval Embroidery: Opus Anglicanum. Yale University Press, New Haven. Christie, A.G., 1938. English Medieval Embroidery: A brief survey of English Embroidery dating from the beginning of the tenth century until the end of the fourteenth. Clarendon Press, Oxford. Päffgen, B., 2010. Die Speyerer Bischofsgräber und ihre vergleichende Einordnung: Eine archäologische Studie zu Bischofsgräbern in Deutschland von den frühchristlichen Anfängen bis zum Ende des Ancien Regime. Studia archaeologiae medii aevi 1. Likias, Friedberg. When I was updating the course contents of my Medieval Embroidery Course, I came across beautifully embroidered ceremonial stockings. The use of these stockings ended after the Second Vatican Council in 1962. Bishops, but also some male nobility, were laid to rest in them. They are often the best-preserved part of the funeral clothing due to the way the body decomposes. I came under the impression that these stockings (also called buskins or caligae) are somewhat uniform when it comes to the embroidered decoration and the goldwork technique used. But is this true? And if so, what could that mean? Let's have a look at the Bishop's socks! So far, I have come across the socks of six important medieval men. Some were laid to rest in England, others in Germany or France. We will look at all of them in chronological order of their deaths. First up are the socks of King William II of Sicily (AD 1153-1189). William was of the Norman house of Hauteville and married Joan of England (AD 1165-1199), a daughter of Henry II. His beautiful cochineal-red samite socks with goldwork embroidery were made for him in the Royal Workshops of Palermo, Sicily. We know this through the Arabic dedication on the tapestry bands attached at the tops. The embroidery is very special (Seipel 2004, 272-274). The design consists of interlocking quatrefoils. In the middle of each sits an identical motive. It is interpreted as being a simple four-lobed flower or small star. The socks are all-over embroidered with this design, leaving out only the heel and the foot (this is probably easier for when the corresponding sandals were put on). The embroidery is executed with pure gold wire (0.15 mm in width). Not a gold thread made of gold foil wrapped around a textile core. The technique used is normal surface couching, but the couching pattern is a slanting line and not normal bricking. The couching thread is naturally coloured silk. Once the embroidery was completed, the gold wire was hammered flat. The embroidery pattern transferred onto the red samite consists of dark lines (ink?). The tomb of Archbishop Hubert Walter (AD c. 1160-1205) was opened in 1890. The beautifully embroidered socks were in exceptional condition. Christie (1938) describes the original colour of the silk twill fabric as possibly having been green. The silver-gilt threads have been underside couched. The pattern is geometric with diamonds filled with eagles, stars and crosses. The socks were made in England around AD 1170-1200. Philip of Swabia was king of Germany from AD 1198 until his assassination in AD 1208. Philip belonged to the Hohenstaufen family and was born in AD 1177 in Pavia, Italy. His father was Holy Roman emperor Frederick Barbarossa and his mother was Beatrice I, Countess of Burgundy. The textiles were found in his grave in Speyer Cathedral in 1900. However, this was not Philip's first resting place. Since he was murdered in Bamberg, he was initially buried in Bamberg Cathedral and relocated five years later. It is likely that some of his funeral attire came from the Bamberg Cathedral Treasury. Most notably, the stockings as they are much older than Philip himself. The fabrics used and the quality of the embroidery point to the 11th century and not the late 12th/early 13th. The embroidery on the shaft of the socks is quite unusual. The design of the heavy silk fabric (proto-lampas) has been embellished with gold embroidery. Some elements have been completely filled with couched gold threads, whilst other elements only have an outline in couched gold thread. It is possible that gold threads of different gold content, and thus colour, were used on purpose to achieve a shaded effect. The couching thread was likely a red silk. The original colour of the silken fabric could not be determined as it is so degraded. The gold embroidery is very fine with 50 to 60 parallel threads per centimetre. This sounds familiar. The Imperial Vestments kept at Bamberg (the place where Philip was murdered!) Cathedral and dating to the 11th century are also decorated with very fine goldwork embroidery. The embroidered stockings of King William, Archbishop Hubert Walter and King Philip share several characteristics. 1) The design has been embroidered directly onto a heavy silken fabric. 2) The embroidery only uses gold thread, either surface or underside couched, and no coloured silks for part of the design. and 3) The design is non-religious. I'll have three more socks for you next week! Literature
Browne, C., Davies, G., Michael, M.A. (Eds.), 2016. English Medieval Embroidery: Opus Anglicanum. Yale University Press, New Haven. Christie, A.G., 1938. English Medieval Embroidery: A brief survey of English Embroidery dating from the beginning of the tenth century until the end of the fourteenth. Clarendon Press, Oxford. Herget, M. (Ed.), 2011. Des kaisers letzte Kleider.: Neue Forschungen zu den organischen Funden aus den Herrschergräbern im Dom zu Speyer. Historisches Museum der Pfalz, Speyer. Muthesius, A., 1995. Chapter III: The silks of the tomb of Archbishop Hubert Walter, in: Muthesius, A. (Ed.), Studies in Byzanthine and Islamic silk weaving. The Pindar Press, London, pp. 45–54. Seipel, W. (Ed.), 2004. Nobiles Officinae: Die königlichen Hofwerkstätten zu Palermo zur Zeit der Normannen und Staufer im 12. und 13. Jahrhundert. Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Wien. And we are back! My summer break turned out to be far less of a break than I had hoped for. Some non-break things were very pleasant, though! I very much enjoyed the Tour de Broderie shows I did with the FiberTalk Gang. They were great fun, and I encourage you to watch the recorded shows on the FiberTalk YouTube channel. The other major thing that got in the way of a proper summer break was I ended up helping out at my husband's place of work. All four of his colleagues fell ill within a couple of days of each other. At present, we have no idea how long this craziness will continue. They would love to have me there permanently for three days a week. Upon trying, we were quickly met by reality. The day only has 24 hours :). So, I had better stick to helping out as much as possible for now, helping my husband with his freelance archaeology work, running my embroidery business, and running the household. I hope they find new personnel real soon, or we will need to find a new Jessica! In between it all, I run a very successful embroidery workshop at Halberstadt Cathedral Treasury. My husband and I returned from our 1240 km round trip to Halberstadt very early this morning. I am very grateful that he always agrees to accompany me so that we can share the driving. Especially driving back in the late afternoon after having taught for two days is not my favourite thing to do. I can manage a couple of hours but not the full 7 to 8 hours it takes to get back home. And since Halberstadt is a lovely small town with plenty of medieval churches, houses and a synagogue to explore, he happily comes along. The above picture is of a typical wattle-and-daub house dating to 1537. Many similar houses still line the streets of Halberstadt. Some have been converted into hotels and restaurants. And since these houses are similar in date to some of the late-medieval embroidered treasures in the Cathedral Treasury, some might even have been made there. The embroidery workshop takes place in the museum's library. The library is conveniently located just outside of the exhibition area. Students can walk in and out to visit the medieval originals whenever they need a break from stitching. The library is equipped with large tables where you can work. Big skylights connect the modern building with the medieval cathedral. They provide beautiful natural light for stitching. My students worked on the singing angels. The originals can be found on many embroidered chasuble crosses made in Germany in the second half of the 15th century. The spiral background is also typical of embroideries from Germany. The areas between the spirals can be filled with gold threads or, in this case, silk embroidery. On the second day, we were visited by reporters from the MDR television channel. Seeing that they became enthusiastic about this medieval goldwork embroidery was great. Their 2:30 min. report will probably be aired tonight at 19:00h on the MDR show Sachsen-Anhalt Heute. I will share the link to the recording with you next week. The museum and I hope to organise another workshop next year. We will aim for the same weekend. I will post this on my website as soon as we have set the date. The workshop is an excellent opportunity to learn medieval goldwork embroidery in a historical setting and with easy access to the originals. Halberstadt is a lovely small town with many historic sites. Whilst it cannot provide the luxurious accommodation of other historical embroidery retreats, you can book a beautiful room with a hearty breakfast in a historic building (no elevator, but ground floor rooms available). Excellent meals can be had at the Halberstädter Hof (also a lovely hotel in a historic building). Everything is within walking distance from the Cathedral and the workshop venue. As Halberstadt is in former Eastern Germany, prices are very affordable! On a different note: Bookings for the self-paced Medieval Goldwork Course will open tomorrow at noon (12:00h) CEST. Due to the BREXIT tax rules, there are limited places available. If they sell out, new places will become available next year. Sorry! Former students of the course will find the updated course content on Padlet. Enjoy!
Over the years, I have come across the names of hundreds of medieval embroiderers. A couple of names can often be found in papers on medieval embroidered textiles. Sometimes, a whole list is provided, for instance, of those people who worked on embroidered textiles for Duke Philip the Good in AD 1425. Or we have a nice paper on a particular embroiderer and his conduct. Analysing the development of the embroidery trade through surviving guild regulations is also a good source of names. Each of these instances is anecdotal. As far as I know, there isn't a central database which lists the personal details of medieval embroiderers from Europe. That can be easily changed! From now on, I will maintain an Excel list. The list will be accessible through this blog (easily found through the blog index under 'medieval embroiderers`). Although I have gathered an impressive 294 names, my list is far from complete. Please contact me if you want to see names added to the list. My cut-off point is AD 1550-ish. Curious if someone with your (sur) name is on the list? Let's find out! So far, I have been able to find embroiderers from as early as the 9th century and for each subsequent century right up to the mid-16th century, which is where my cut-off point is. They come from sources in Austria, Belgium, England, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Sweden. The further back in time we go, the less information we have. As you probably feared, most of the embroiderers who made it into the written record were male. Of only 45 embroiderers, I can be certain they worked with gold threads. Interestingly, the male:female ratio still holds. This does not mean that women did not embroider professionally. It does mean that they were not as often in a position that needed for their names to be written down as embroidering men were. As soon as we split the available data into the appropriate centuries, a slightly different picture emerges. Although based on very small numbers, the data probably hints at a change in society. Professional embroidery was probably done predominantly by women in the early Middle Ages before men entered the field in the high Middle Ages. However, the data for the early Middle Ages comes predominantly from England. Thus, what we see might result from geographical differences and not applicable to all of medieval Europe.
Those who would like to investigate and/or play with the raw data can download my Excel file by clicking on the above link. Enjoy!
Please note: I am off to attend the International Istanbul-Büyükcekmece Culture and Art Festival tomorrow. After that, I'll take my summer break to work on the program for the rest of the year. Blogging will resume on the 2nd of September! Before we dive into this week's tutorial, I want to remind you to sign up for my upcoming in-person embroidery workshop at the Cathedral Treasury in Halberstadt. This is your unique opportunity to stitch in the grounds of a medieval Cathedral with its beautiful cloisters, a location steeped in history and beauty. Enjoy in-depth discussions of the embroidered pieces on display with the curator, myself, and your fellow students. Getting to the beautiful historic town of Halberstadt is easy as it has its own train station. Internet platforms such as Booking.com provide booking travel arrangements and lodging in your own language. The past 14 years have shown me that organizing financially successful embroidery workshops in Germany or the Netherlands is almost impossible. Yes, the Halberstadt workshop has four attendants, which means that it does not cost me anything to teach. However, I am not earning anything either. As I am a business and not a charity, I do need to draw an income from my work. Therefore, I will not organize further in-person workshops if the count remains at four. Instead, I will concentrate on my partnership with Creative Experiences and my own online classes. Now, on to this week's tutorial: beaded needle minders with historical motifs. I have always been fascinated by historical samplers! When I lived near Rotterdam many years ago, I became a textile volunteer at a local museum in Maasland. They had a stunning collection of beautiful historical samplers. I had permission to reproduce them when life took me in a different direction. Since then, I have been captivated by the beauty of these old samplers and often wondered how I could use those motifs that I liked without stitching a whole sampler. Two weeks ago, I had an idea. Why not use individual motifs to decorate a needle minder? This could all have gone by without you knowing about my now somewhat sizeable production of needle minders. Alas, I am Gary and Jennifer's trusted side-kick on the Tour de Broderie, and the needle minders have gained quite some traction. So, let me show you how to construct these beaded beauties! For my needle minders I used: 40ct natural linen by Zweigart, variegated silks by Caron, Glissen Gloss, Gloriana and Flower Silk, thick template plastic, thin wadding, double-sided tape, polyester sewing thread, round 2 cm nyodem magnet and beads 11/0 and 15/0. However, you can use whatever you like. Solid colours in stranded cotton on aida would work just as nice. As I don't have a stack of reproduction sampler patterns at home, I did the next best thing: visit the Antique Pattern Library. Scroll down a little for 'Kreuzstich und Filetmustern aus Graubünden'. This is a collection of Austrian folk patterns published in 1927. Square patterns of about 30 x 30 stitches seem to work best for a 4 x 4 cm needle minder. But again, anything goes! And, when you are not too precious about your finished masterpiece, you can also use the larger motifs to make coasters. Just saying :). Cut two identical squares of the thick template plastic. They should be a bit bigger than your sampler motif. Cover one with the thin wadding. Either glue it on or use a piece of double-sided tape. You are going to cover this piece with your finished embroidery. Have your finished embroidery face down. Center the plastic+wadding on it. You can either lace it on or stick it on with double sided tape (my preferred method). Make sure you follow the grain of the fabric as best you can. I then simply folded the corners over. However, you can also mitre the corners when you prefer. Personally, I don’t cut any of the ‘folding bulk’ away. I like my needle minders chunky and not too fiddly to make :). Cover the bare piece of thick template plastic with a piece of linen in the same manner. Stick a magnet on the back. You can either buy magnets with a sticky side or you can use a piece of double sided tape with a regular magnet. Put both halves of your needle minder together. Use your polyester sewing thread and hide your knot between the two halves. Now slip (ladder) stitch both halves together. As this is a rather three-dimensional step, I have made a short video for you. You can stop here. You have a perfectly working needle minder. If you want to bling up your needle minder, add a beaded edge. It is worked in two stages. The larger beads are sewn on in such a way that they lay flat with their holes facing up. During the second stage, you will add picots by weaving through the beaded edge created in the first stage. This very three-dimensional work is also best explained in a short video (I call beads pearls sometimes, sorry!). Enjoy your needle minders!
Downloadable PDF-Instructions are available to my Journeyman and Master Patrons. German medieval embroideries are often characterised by a composite thread not seen elsewhere: gold gimp. This is a relatively thick piece of string wrapped with a thin thread of membrane gold (gilt animal gut wrapped around a linen core). Was this a ready-made thread? Did the embroiderers make the thread themselves? Is it either pre-made or made during the actual embroidery? Let's see if we can find the answers! Here you see a detail of the Nativity scene from the chasuble kept at the Kulturhistorisches Museum Magdeburg. The nimbus is edged with this composite thread: gold gimp. Here's a close-up of the gold gimp. The wrapping isn't very neat. But what is more puzzling: there are no couching stitches to attach the gold gimp to the background fabric. The membrane thread isn't used to do this either. Firstly, it would be far too fragile to endure being pulled through the fabric multiple times. I've worked with recreated membrane threads, and they definitely do not hold up to this kind of abuse. Secondly, you can tell from the above picture that the membrane thread is wrapped around the thick string and does not penetrate the fabric. And what about the 'mess' on either end of the gold gimp? What's that all about? And then I remembered that Alison Cole had written about making silk gimp before it was commercially available. She describes a method whereby you make that composite thread whilst you embroider. Let's see if that works. The ratio of string to membrane gold is about 5:1. From my experiments with the recreated membrane gold, I know that it is more similar to Japanese thread than to passing thread. But it isn't the same. Its core is made of linen instead of cotton, and the spinning direction is opposite.
Trying to recreate gold gimp wasn't entirely successful. It works, but it isn't very neat. And it is very fiddly to do. Nevertheless, I did learn a few things. Firstly, it is possible to hide the couching thread completely. Especially when you use a very thin linen or silk thread for this (mine was a bit bulky). Secondly, the thick string should be as firm as possible. Cotton string worked less satisfactorily than stiff, non-squidgy linen string. And thrirdly, one should leave a tail of the gold thread at the start. This can be used to wrap the plunged string at the start. Just as I was able to do at the end. My little experiment also hints at the impossibility of producing a gold gimp as a pre-made thread. The wraps would come undone as soon as you take off tension. You would need to glue them onto the string to prevent this from happening. And I don't think there is glue in these threads. The glue would adhere to the thin membrane and tear the fragile thread apart as soon as you manipulate it to work with it. Any thoughts? |
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