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Historical Embroidery News...

Pounce

5/6/2023

8 Comments

 
When I started my embroidery business many years ago, freshly out of the Royal School of Needlework, I simply continued to use the materials they use there. It was very convenient. I was familiar with the product, and I knew where to get it. After a while, I discovered products I liked better and so started to swap things out as and when needed. When the catastrophe of BREXIT became final in 2021, I needed to find even more replacements for 'typical' British products or pay 19% extra tax + a customs handling fee. One of the last products I have so far not found a replacement for is pounce powder. Theoretically, you could make your own from drawing charcoal (white chalk powder is easily available in a good art store). Practically, though, it is very messy, and you might end up with a black powder that smudges your white embroidery fabrics when you apply the baby brush to brush the excess off. Not good. So, I still ordered my pounce from Sarah Homfray. However, she has been having supply problems herself. Time to find an alternative. And no, it won't be an aqua trick marker :).
Picture
light blue pounce and pinned pricking
To my surprise, there is a small family business in Germany that has been making and selling pounce since 1876! That's like since dinosaurs roamed the earth. The only drawback: there's no black. They do white, light blue, yellow and red. I decided to order the white and the blue. On their website, the blue looks rather dark. In real life, it is VERY light baby blue (DMC 3747). Main question: is the pounce suitable for the prick-and-pounce method? Let's run a few experiments!
Picture
rubbing the pounce through the pricking
Picture
remaining dots after removing the pricking
For my experiment, I used a small pricking from my collection. Pinned it to 46 ct linen that's on my slate frame at the moment. Rubbing the pounce through was not a problem. It made nice small dots on my fabric. Although the blue is very light, I found the dots easy to see. I was working in front of my window: no direct sunlight and no additional artificial light either. I used some iron gall ink for part of the design and some watercolour paint for the rest. The ink was nicely inhibited by the pounce so that it didn't spread. The only blobs are actually in the area where there was no pounce dot. The pounce also worked well with the paint. Overall, I had the impression that my brush did not clog up as much as it does with charcoal pounce.
Picture
after inking and painting
Picture
after brushing
Once the paint had dried, I brushed the excess pounce off with a baby brush. The pounce was easy to brush off and it did not leave a trace on the fabric. The design lines are crisp and easy to work with. I think I have found myself a new favourite pounce! How historically accurate coloured pounce is, is difficult to say. We know about the white (chalk/burnt bone) and the black (charcoal). And possibly a yellow. Unfortunately, not much research has been done on the actual materials used in the Middle Ages. I did not yet experiment with the white pounce as it looks and feels exactly the same as the white pounces I already have.
Picture
100 gr bags of pounce
The pounce powder comes in a box with 10x 100 gr bags in one colour. Most stitchers won't go through a kilo of pounce in their stitching lives. Besides, you probably want more than one colour. Maybe order as a group? Or see if they are willing to sell a combi-pack where you get a 100 gr bag of each of the four colours? Although I could see the light-blue dots perfectly well, I am going to order a box of the red and the yellow pounce as well. If those colours behave as well as the blue did, I will see if they are open to selling specifically to embroiderers and doing the combi-pack. It is probably a market they have not thought of. By the way, their pounce is normally sold for those puff machines with which you encircle a person wearing a skirt that's too long and needs shortening.

For your chance of winning a bag of blue and a bag of white pounce: please consider becoming a Patron. Your monthly contribution keeps this blog and website running. I'll pick a winner from my Patrons on Friday 9th of June, 9:00h CEST. Still time to join!
8 Comments
Jane Drummond
5/6/2023 16:10:52

Hi Jessica, I’ve made my own pounce by grinding up cuttlefish( I buy it at the pet shop) & I’ve made my own black by grinding up charcoal, I agree, it’s messy, I find blending the two to give grey works well. I’ve also ground up tailors chalk if I need a colour. Necessity was always the mother of invention ! See you soon x

Reply
Rebecca
5/6/2023 17:27:25

Before I had real pounce powder, I successfully used the powder in one of my Clover Chaco-Liners; it’s like a pen with a wheel tip that dispenses chalk and is made for the quilting and dressmaking markets in several colors. I was using the gray powder, which is admittedly harder to find than other colors. It was quite successful as a pounce powder, and might provide another option for embroiderers, as Clover seems to be a worldwide brand. Not historically accurate, though!

Reply
Rachel Biel link
6/6/2023 01:45:55

Hi, Jessica- Just out of curiosity I did a search and a shop on Etsy came up with a dark grey: https://www.etsy.com/listing/582944275/prick-and-pounce-kit-embroidery-image

She's based in the UK, so there is that tax issue again...

There are some shops on eBay that have a darker blue:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/256033744047

Reply
Acupictrix - Dr Jessica Grimm link
6/6/2023 09:10:53

Thank you, Rachel! I actually think it is the same blue :). The shop on Ebay does not ship to Germany. Most shops seem to be located outside the EU (mainly US), I have the same tax problem :(.

Reply
Rachel link
6/6/2023 11:49:38

I'm glad you told us what it was currently used for - I was struggling to think of something!

It would be nice to think they might be willing to repackage specifically for embroiderers, because as you say, the current packaging is far more than most of us would get through. I have one of Sarah Homfray's sets, and the several projects I've used it for haven't even made a perceptible dent!

Reply
Sue link
6/6/2023 12:02:13

I have found unscented baby talc works for white (I think the health risk is minimal as you're not creating dust) and have used blue powder sold for plumb lines in DIY shops in the UK for blue marks. I tend to mix the blue with the white to lighten the colour. Both work fine going over the lines with pencil and brush off acceptably and the blue washes out if necessary. A container of each will last my lifetime! and they are reasonably cheap.

Reply
Agne
8/6/2023 10:10:36

Jessica, thank you for your experiments. It was interesting to read and now I want to try this pounce myself :) Maybe you could buy collections of four colours yourself? I really do not need 1 kilo of each colour, but I want to try... :D

Reply
Acupictrix - Dr Jessica Grimm link
8/6/2023 10:21:54

Sorry, Agne, but that won't happen. Since my move, I don't have the space to story physical goods for a webshop anymore.

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