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Last week, we looked into the history and the different parts of the Grandson Antependium. This week, we will have a closer look at the actual embroidery techniques used to produce the piece around AD 1300. As I needed to try out a new mixture of pounce powder, I even worked a small sample of freehand pattern couching. Journeyman and Master Patrons will be able to download PDF instructions with lots of tips and tricks. Medieval goldwork embroidery is perfect for beginners as the techniques are simple and quite forgiving! This Saturday 23-09-23, I will meet with my Master Patrons for a Zoom lecture with Q&A on the Grandson Antependium. If this interests you, please consider becoming a Patron. It helps me cover the bills and do my research into medieval goldwork embroidery. And now, onto some early 14th-century stitching!  Grandson Antependium, Historisches Museum Bern, Nr. 18, around AD 1300. The central part of the embroidery is worked on a layer of waxed purple silk (tabby weave) backed with a layer of linen. The two components of the purple have not aged in equal measure, resulting in the silk now looking more red than purple. The original colour can be glimpsed along the edge of the halo of the angel where some of the goldwork embroidery has come undone. The goldwork and the silk embroidery are worked through both layers of fabric. As you can see in the picture of the angel above, the silk embroidery mainly consists of directional split stitch. This technique is often associated with Opus anglicanum. However, it was also used in other parts of Europe and bordering Asia at this time.  Grandson Antependium, Historisches Museum Bern, Nr. 18, around AD 1300. The other technique extensively used on the central part of the Antependium is surface couching over two parallel gold threads (gilded silver, yellow silken core). And although I think that there are possibly only two different couching patterns present, they are used to great effect. By following the contours of the drapery, the simple bricking pattern can change its appearance drastically. The way the light plays of gold threads that are laid in different directions accounts for different hues and thus movement in the design. The other couching pattern used is a nine-step chevron. As the chevron pattern isn't entirely regular, I suspect it was not drawn onto the embroidery fabric. With practice, a master embroiderer probably becomes quite good at keeping the pattern regular and simply does not need to go through the hassle of transferring the pattern onto the embroidery fabric first. Also, as soon as the chevron pattern is worked to follow the shape of the design, drawing it out first is probably almost as complicated as just stitching it. But I might be wrong and there might be guidelines underneath the gold.  Grandson Antependium, Historisches Museum Bern, Nr. 18, around AD 1300. The two side parts were clearly not made by the same embroidery workshop. Firstly, the embroidery fabric is different: it is a red silk twill. And the embroidery technique is very different too: underside couching with a pair of gold threads (gilded silver, yellow silken core). In order to see the different parts of the design clearly, the direction of the gold threads is changed. Not unlike the method used in the central part of the design.
One of the things that keeps puzzling me when I see this composite piece is how different in age the three pieces look. The central part looks so much older than the two side parts. Is this just due to the difference in materials and techniques used? Or are the side parts of a later date? What do you think? Literature Martiniani-Reber, Marielle (2007): An exceptional piece of embroidery held in Switzerland: the Grandson Antependium. In Matteo Campagnolo, Marielle Martiniani-Reber (Eds.): From Aphrodite to Melusine: Reflections on the Archaeology and the History of Cyprus. Geneva: La pomme d'Or, pp. 85–89. Schuette, Marie; Müller-Christensen, Sigrid (1963): Das Stickereiwerk. Tübingen: Wasmmuth.
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Before we launch into this blog's topic: there are 4 kits left of the initial batch of 10 kits of the self-paced Medieval Sampler online course. You have a choice of just the embroidery kit or the embroidery kit + transfer materials. Should your option no longer be available, choose the other one and leave a comment with your order. I will gladly sort you out. If you miss out on this first batch of kits please email me. This will enable me to guess better if a re-run is needed and how large it should be. Thank you! And now: on to the Grandson Antependium. It is a pretty mix of embroidery techniques, styles, languages and geographical areas. The Grandson antependium is housed at the Historisches Museum in Bern, Switzerland and catalogued under Nr. 18. It is 244 cm wide and 88 cm high and consists of three separate parts. The knight kneeling to the left of the central figure of the Virgin and Child is the donor of the piece. His coat of arms identifies him as Othon de Grandson (c. 1238-1328). Although born near Lausanne in Switzerland, he became a close friend of King Edward I of England. Othon de Grandson travelled widely throughout Europe and the Mediterranean area when he joined the 9th Crusade. Othon accumulated great wealth and donated it to various religious institutions in both England and Switzerland. This particular antependium was donated to the Cathedral of Lausanne where Othon is entombed. With the amount of gold used for the embroidery, it must have been a very expensive piece.  Grandson Antependium, Historisches Museum Bern, Nr. 18, around AD 1300. The central part of the antependium shows the enthroned Virgin and Child with two vases with foliage and two angels with censers on either side. The design has a Byzantine flavour which is emphasised by the Greek embroidered inscription for the name of Christ. But that's not the only language used. Mary is addressed in Latin and the two angels are addressed in ancient French. The design isn't purely Byzantine either: the censers are distinctively Western European. Byzantine embroideries with embroidered donor figures are not known in this era either. Where was this piece made? And for whom originally? Most scholars now agree that the central part of the embroidery was likely made in Cyprus. The island is conveniently placed en route to the Holy Land and also served as a retreat base when things went wrong during the crusade. Cyprus belonged to the Byzantine Empire with its Eastern Orthodox version of Christianity. At the same time, it had ample visitors from the West. Was the central composition mostly finished when Othon saw it at a Cypriot embroidery workshop? Where the texts added on his request? The knightly figure and the coats of arms certainly were.
And then we have the two separate side panels. Very different from the central panel. Style, embroidery technique and materials used differ from the central panel. And their design is non-religious. The side panels are thought to have been embroidered in England as they sport underside couching. Is this a rare remnant of non-religious opus anglicanum? Did Othon come across two embroidered soft furnishings in England that together with the panel he probably acquired in Cyprus would make up a fitting antependium for the high altar in his cathedral back home? As the embroidery is cut at the top, the two panels were not specifically intended for that high altar when they were made. I think we see a rare glimpse of opus anglicanum 'for the noble home' preserved in this extraordinary antependium. What do you think? Literature
Martiniani-Reber, Marielle (2007): An exceptional piece of embroidery held in Switzerland: the Grandson Antependium. In Matteo Campagnolo, Marielle Martiniani-Reber (Eds.): From Aphrodite to Melusine: Reflections on the Archaeology and the History of Cyprus. Geneva: La pomme d'Or, pp. 85–89. Stammler, Jakob (1895): Der Paramentenschatz im historischen Museum zu Bern in Wort und Bild. Bern: Buchdruckerei K.J. Wyss. Schuette, Marie; Müller-Christensen, Sigrid (1963): Das Stickereiwerk. Tübingen: Wasmmuth. Woodfin, Warren T. (2021): Underside couching in the Byzantine world. In Cahiers Balkaniques 48, pp. 47–64. I am back from a wonderful stitching weekend in Halberstadt! My husband and I drove up there on Friday and back again yesterday. It takes us about 8 hours to get there. On the contrary, most stitchers from the Netherlands have a far shorter drive. Maybe some Dutch stitchers could join us next year? Stitching in the medieval cloisters with the largest medieval textile collection next door is after all a pretty unique experience! Especially when the museum's director, Dr. Uta-Christiane Bergemann, is on hand to give us an exclusive tour of the cathedral and the exhibition. It worked out really well for all of us. This means that we will do it again next year. And this time, we will take our inspiration directly from the museum's textile collection. So, watch this blog and the newsletter for more information. For those of you who would like to see more of the Cathedral and the collection, please download the free Domschatz Halberstadt App. It is available in English and German and has some nice close-ups of the embroidered textiles.  Although we had one American lady joining us in Halberstadt, I do understand that not all of you can make such journeys (I still recommend it as this is a collection you really want to see!). Since she needed instruction videos in English, I decided to turn the workshop into a self-paced online course. It consists of five instruction videos and an embroidery kit. There's one video on setting up your slate frame (always available for free on my website). Then there is a video on traditional pattern transfer with prick and pounce and iron gall ink. Buying a full kit for this step is optional as you can also use the transfer method of your choice. The other three videos show you the different couching and embellishment techniques used in the sampler. You will have access to these videos for a whole year from the time of purchase (this will entice you to not only buy a course but also work on it :)). The embroidery kit will contain a large piece of linen (so it will fit a traditional 24-inch slate frame), Japanese thread, gilded silver passing thread with a silken core (otherwise known as 'real gold thread'), real gold twist, fresh-water pearls, Chinese flat silk, linen sewing thread, linen string, cotton string, beeswax and needles.  So, how does one sign up for the course? Through my webshop. Very soon. Unfortunately, I still don't have all the ingredients for the embroidery kits in. But as soon as it has all arrived, I will start kitting them up. Equally, I don't know the exact price yet due to invoices still being on their way. And then there is the small, but pretty important, matter of calculating the shipping costs. This can equally only be done once everything is in.
I will announce the course first on my Patreon site and then through the blog and newsletter. As it has proven to be very difficult to guess how many people end up signing up for courses like these, I will have an initial trial run of 10 kits. There will not be a waiting list. New batches will be announced in the same way as the first batch. Happy Stitching! Before I'll begin my summerly blog break until the 5th of September, I have some exciting news to share with you: The Medieval Embroidery Study Group is now open to all Patrons of the Master tier! With the exception of August, we will meet each month for a lecture and subsequent Q&A. We will meet via Zoom and the meetings are recorded and made available as part of your Master subscription. Each lecture will be about a piece of medieval embroidery I have seen in a museum. You will already be broadly familiar with the piece as it will have been featured in a blog post shortly before. This enables you to come up with questions for the Q&A. Even when you cannot attend live, you are very welcome to submit your question. Upcoming Zoom meetings will be announced on Patreon and in my newsletter. All current Patrons already have access to the recording of the Königsfelden Antependia of last Sunday. Zoom meetings will be on Saturday or Sunday evenings 19h CE(S)T.  Detail of the Grandson antependium dating to the last quarter of the 13th century. The next meeting of the Medieval Embroidery Study Group will be on Saturday evening the 23rd of September at 19h CEST. We will explore the Grandson antependium held at the Historischen Museum Bern. The parts of the antependium date to the last quarter of the 13th century and the first quarter of the 14th century. It combines surface couching with underside couching. A very interesting piece indeed!
Have a lovely summer and see you on the blog, and hopefully, in the Medieval Embroidery Study Group lectures in September! Before I tell you all about some exciting experiments with pounce powder and membrane gold, let's talk about a new class in 2024. You might have heard that the Alpine Experience is now called Creative Experiences. They still offer amazing needlework retreats. In addition, they'll take you to different parts of Europe. Les Corroz in the French Alps is beautiful, but so are Tuscany and Scotland :). My next class will take part in Les Carroz. You will have a choice of three smaller medieval goldwork projects to choose from. They are designed so that you can really get a few medieval goldwork embroidery techniques under your belt. You can find pictures of the projects and a full description here. And now on to the experiments!  Today, I set up a new slate frame with a piece of 46 ct linen. If you want to see how a slate frame is being set up, you can watch my free instruction videos in either English or German. I needed a 'fresh' frame as I wanted to do some more experimenting with some new pounce powder I had found a couple of weeks ago. As I am teaching a class in a couple of weeks, I really need to keep experimenting. I still have some pounce from Sarah Homfray, but that's running low. And, sometimes, her black charcoal pounce smudges quite a bit. That's why I now prefer her grey pounce. By the way, my workshop still has some free spaces. Just saying :).  Originally, I had tested the new pounce powder on a piece of linen. The light-blue chalky powder worked really well and I liked it a lot. Today, I tried the red version and the yellow version on a piece of silk. With less success. Both smudged when I brushed them off. They left a red or a yellow hue on the naturally coloured silk. The question is: is this due to the pounce or due to the silk? Not sure yet. I will need to do a lot more testing!  Now, I didn't need a whole slate frame for just the pounce experiments. Nope. I am going to do something much more exciting. See the above box? It represents Christmas, my Birthday and my Wedding Anniversary rolled into one. It contains samples of something that has not seen the light of day for a couple of centuries. It contains freshly made membrane gold. Correction: membrane silver. Gold was a little too expensive to mess around with :). Fellow archaeologist Dr Katrin Kania organised a study day to try to recreate these once ubiquitous metal threads. They are made by glueing thin sheets of metal onto animal gut (i.e. membrane). These are then cut into very thin strips and then wound around a silk or linen core. And we have a metal thread. Contrary, passing thread and Stech are made with a thicker strip of metal that does not need backing with a membrane. Due to its higher metal content, passing thread was more expensive than membrane threads were. But the membrane threads darkened quickly due to the very low gold content. But what does it feel like to stitch with them? Nobody has done that in the past couple of centuries. Soon I will! How cool is that?
One of the reasons for writing my weekly blog is to introduce you to medieval embroidered pieces that are in collections outside the UK and the US. Due to the language barrier, these pieces are often hardly known in the English-speaking world. This has led to such strange ideas as "stumpwork was invented in 17th century England" and "Opus anglicanum was only practised in England". Sorry to disappoint you, but both assumptions are wrong. One such collection is in the Bernisches Historisches Museum in Switzerland. A couple of weeks ago, we looked at an Antependium made in Vienna for Königsfelden Abbey. Today, I'll introduce you to another embroidered antependium from the same Abbey. It is very different from the first.  Historisches Museum Bern Inv. Nr. 19 Königsfelden Antependium The above antependium or altar cloth measures about 3.18 m x 0.90 m. The background fabric is probably not original. The embroidered figures are about 60 cm in height. In the middle, we see the crucifixion with Mary and St John on either side. These figures were likely embroidered in the Upper Rhine area. The other figures (St Peter, St Catherine and St Agnes on the left and St Andrew, John the Baptist and St Paul on the right) were probably embroidered in Königsfelden Abbey. How do we know?  Parchment padding Königsfelden Antependium. The padding material in the embroidery is parchment. During an extensive restoration in 1889, some of the parchment was removed from the back of the figures. Besides a cut-up breviary, they also found the remains of a letter between Queen Agnes of Hungary and Emperor Ludwig of Bavaria. Clever historical research by Jacob Stammler, later bishop of Basel, revealed that this letter was written between 20 October AD 1334 and 20 October AD 1335. The fact that a trivial letter to Queen Agnes was used to pad parts of the embroidery indicates that the embroidery was executed where she resided: Königsfelden Abbey. The style of the figures points to c. AD 1350 as the date for the embroidery.  St Agnes on the Königsfelden Antependium. Personally, I quite like to read 19th century papers on medieval embroidery. I love the tone (scholarship with a splash of Ivanhoe) and the beautiful technical drawings. Quite often, the embroidery was better preserved over a 100 years ago and the drawings clearly show that. However, there is a caveat: research marches on. The aforementioned bishop Jacob Stammler was quite convinced that Queen Agnes herself professionally embroidered and was quite capable to produce an altar cloth such as the one shown in an earlier blog post. After all, her biographer said that she was proficient with the needle! Nowadays, we know that these (former) queens were far too busy to embroider professionally. With all the diplomacy they conducted for their families and the overseeing of the royal household, they were probably as busy as any female CEO is today. Good luck embroidering professionally at the same time ...  Detail St Agnes on the Königsfelden Antependium. So, who did embroider the additional figures on this second antependium used at Königsfelden Abbey? As Queen Agnes resided at (near?) the abbey for many years and was very active in international diplomacy with many visitors and envoys coming to see her, she basically set up court there. It is thus likely that she had a royal workshop as well. The embroidery on this second antependium is of far too high quality to have been worked by part-time embroidering nuns. This is the work of professionals. The fact that the saints chosen to accompany the central crucifixion scene have a relationship with Queen Agnes and her family (St Andrew for her late husband and St Catherine for several female relations) shows that she was, however, actively involved in choosing the design. If you would like to read the original paper by Jacob Stammler, you can find it here. As it is written in Fraktur, I've prepared a transcript and a translation for my Journeyman Patrons.
Two weeks ago, I travelled by train from Oberau to Geneva Airport to be picked up by Nadine for a week of teaching embroidery at the Alpine Experience. Door to door, it takes me about nine hours to arrive at Le Carroz in a more environmentally responsible way. Not bad at all. Why it still costs about twice as much as taking a plane will always be beyond my logic. Anyway, this year, nine students worked the background of an orphrey. The design combines two orphreys found on this late-medieval chasuble in the collection of Museum Catharijneconvent in the Netherlands.  Stephanie having fun transferring the design: the best proof that it IS fun to transfer a design the old school way! In my embroidery courses, I always try to work with procedures, materials and tools that were also commonly used in the medieval period. In this way, I am able to study how these things might have worked back then. After all, regrettably, I cannot time-travel to ask Jacob van Malborch how he pulled it off at his late-medieval embroidery workshop in Utrecht. This means that students usually will need to make their own prickings and paint on the design with paint or ink. You will also always use a professional slate frame. Not only are they medieval, but they also ensure the best results when creating goldwork embroidery. Being able to dress a slate frame and transfer the design in a traditional way is a valuable skill to master when you want to progress as an embroiderer.
A whole week of embroidery sounds like you can really make a head start with your new project. At the Alpine Experience, you have about 30 hours of tuition in between meals and a day-long excursion :). However, as most students are not used to embroidering all day, this actually isn't a lot of time. After all, you are learning new skills. This means that, with a large project such as my orphrey, you will embroider the majority on your own at home. To ensure that you are well equipped to master this, I touch upon all techniques used in the project during the 30 hours of tuition. In addition, students have access to instruction videos and downloadable PDFs. And I am only an email away when they get stuck!
As you need a lot of energy to keep going for a whole week, Mark makes sure that there is plenty of delicious food to keep you fuelled. The desserts are absolutely fabulous and my personal favourites. No surprises there for those who also know my father. I am genetically handicapped :).  Gail, Namik, Gülnaz, Stephanie, me and Michelle shopping in Annecy. As mentioned before, we take a break from stitching on excursion day. The area around Les Carroz is very beautiful and you can easily go for a walk in nature after class. On excursion day, however, you might visit a charming medieval small town, an area of outstanding natural beauty or a typical French market. I joined the excursion to Annecy this year. Mainly because they have something very rare there: an embroidery shop! I have plenty of natural beauty at home. However, I have no idea where my nearest true embroidery shop is located now that the London Bead Company has sadly closed. I love going through the boxes with cross-stitch designs by Le Bonheur des Dames. This year, I came away with a beautiful sampler of summerly designs.
If you are thinking of joining me (again) for a lovely embroidery retreat under the expert guidance of Mark and Nadine, then mark your calendar. I will return to Les Carroz from the 15th until the 22nd of April next year. More information will appear soon on the new website of Creative Experiences, the new name for the Alpine Experience. Hope to see you next year!
Last year, I visited the CIETA conference in Switzerland and we made a field trip to the Bernisches Historisches Museum. It has a large permanent display of medieval textiles well worth a visit. One of the many beautiful pieces is a large two-part antependium made in Vienna around AD 1340-1350. It was gifted by Albert II, Duke of Austria (AD 1298-1358) to the abbey of Königsfelden (now in Switzerland) where his sister, Agnes of Austria (AD 1281-1364) resided. Very kind of him, indeed. It is a stunning piece of embroidery and very well preserved. Let's explore!  Königsfelden Antependium (c. AD 1340-1350), Bernisches Historisches Museum Inv. 27 & 51. The antependium consists of a larger part (90 x 318 cm) with seven scenes from the life of Jesus. From left to right we see: Gethsemane, Christ in front of Pilate, Christ carrying the cross, Crucifixion, Ascension, Crowning of the Virgin and Christ in Majesty. And a smaller band (18 x 292 cm (cut)) with angels surrounding Mary and Jesus in the middle.  Ascension scene, Königsfelden Antependium (c. AD 1340-1350), Bernisches Historisches Museum Inv. 27 & 51. My personal favourite is this Ascension scene. I just love the naive way this is depicted in medieval art. And this is a particularly detailed depiction. We even have the footprints :).  Angel clapping its hands, Königsfelden Antependium (c. AD 1340-1350), Bernisches Historisches Museum Inv. 27 & 51. The smaller band with the angels is really lovely. Two of the angels are playing string instruments. Two others are carrying what looks like a tall white candle. The rest is having a blast. They seem to dance and clap their hands to the music. They form a rich resource for anyone looking to work a medieval musical angel.
The embroidery itself is very fine. The under drawing on the linen is of high quality. The faces of the angels are worked in very fine directional split stitch in untwisted silk. The same technique is used in Opus anglicanum. The other parts of the angels are worked in slightly longer split stitches. Probably because they don't need to be as detailed as the faces. The noses seem to be a little bit padded. And I think they used a knotted stitch for the hair. And it seems that the silk in the halos is laid flat and then couched down. A few additional embellishments on the clothing are stitched in couched gold thread on top of the silk. The background is formed by couching down parallel rows of gold thread with a light-coloured silk. The diaper patterns are relatively simple for the angels but more elaborate for the scenes of the life of Jesus. All in all, the embroidery reminds me a lot of the embroidery made in Bohemia at the same time. This isn't too surprising as Vienna and Prague are relatively close. The Habsburg rulers and the Bohemian kings were also related by marriage and fighting for supremacy in the region. If you ever have the chance, do visit the Bernisches Historischen Museum in Bern, Switzerland. My Journeyman Patrons will have access to many more pictures of this gorgeous embroidery. Please note: I will take a two-week blogging pause whilst teaching for the Alpine Experience. A fresh blog post will go up on the 10th of July. Literature Schuette, M., Müller-Christensen, S., 1963. Das Stickereiwerk. Wasmmuth, Tübingen. Stammler, J., 1891. Königsfelder Kirchenparamente im historischen Museum zu Bern, Berner Taschenbuch 40, p. 26-54. Those of you who listen to the FiberTalk podcast will probably know that Gary and Beth have this thing going whereby they are not adding to their stash until June next year. Some (most?) of their listeners are predicting that their resolve will crumble very soon. I am of a different opinion. I think that they will last. They will just add another exception to their already very long list of exceptions:). And as always, they have no problem coming up with ways in which we, their loyal listeners, can spend our money. In my case, on a membership of the EGA. I was a Member at Large many years ago, but this wasn't really what I was looking for. I was missing out on connecting with a local chapter. Thanks to the pandemic and some promotion on FiberTalk, I am now a happy virtual member of the Day Lilies chapter in Medina, Ohio. I think this might be a solution for others too, so let me explain how it works.  Hybrid EGA chapter meeting on Zoom. For years, I have tried to set up stitching groups both in my native Netherlands and, once I moved, here in Germany. To no avail. Some ran for a while and then faltered as the commitment to travel, make time or spent a little bit of money was just not there. At other times, people just did not get along with each other and I had to dissolve the group. However, I very much like to stitch and chat! So, when Beth mentioned that some EGA chapters now offer Zoom meetings, I wondered if that could be the solution for me. After all, the EGA has been going for a while and has a strong structure in place. No inventing the wheel here. I contacted EGA and they were very helpful in helping me find a chapter with hybrid meetings at a time that's compatible with my time zone. I also preferred a small town/rural chapter as that would match better with where I live (a small village with 725 inhabitants). Last Thursday, I attended my very first 'local' chapter meeting. About 18 members live in the Medina library, two members Zooming in from Georgia and me Zooming in from Germany. Chapter President Angelia moderated us through the meeting and carried us through the room so that it really felt like we were there too. I did a quick screenshot to show you what that looked like. I made sure that Marie from Georgia ducked, and all others are only recognisable when you know them. It is just me staring into the camera like a deer into the headlights :). It turns out that another relatively new member has better cameras which we can use next time to make the experience even better. We are going to try that out on Thursday 13th of July during our Stitch in Public Day at the Medina Library. I will be there too; on a screen.  Blackwork Daffodil pattern by Bonnie Rhodes. Apart from meeting so many other stitchers, I also got to participate in a blackwork project. Bonnie, a Master Craftsman and member of my chapter, taught her blackwork daffodil design. This was the perfect opportunity for me to try my hand at something new. Yes, I had done blackwork before for my RSN Certificate and I have taught it many times for the RSN, but that's different. This time, I could play.
First of all, I changed the colours. I had never tried blackwork in colour and was wondering what that would look like. Furthermore, the way blackwork is taught at the RSN is very specific and not historically correct. Bonnie's approach is much more in line with historical blackwork. At first, this new approach was very hard for me to get my head around! In the instructions, Bonnie provides a sequence of diagrams that would make up a single blackwork filling pattern. You work layers of darning patterns on top of each other and that makes the pattern. At the RSN, you get a diagram of the complete pattern, and you are told to stitch that as economically as you can with as few 'wandering' threads on the back as you can. Not having a 'complete' diagram to work off was very hard for me at first. But it provided me with an alternative way of how to teach somebody how to 'read' these patterns. Not all students see the best stitching paths when confronted with a traditional diagram. And this is exactly why I still take classes and work kits. There is always something new to discover! 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 :).  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!
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.
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.  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.
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Copyright Dr Jessica M. Grimm - Mandlweg 3, 82488 Ettal, Deutschland - +49(0)8822 2782219 (Monday, Tuesday, Friday & Saturday 9.00-17.00 CET)
Impressum - Legal Notice - Datenschutzerklärung - Privacy Policy - Webshop ABG - Widerrufsrecht - Disclaimer
Copyright Dr Jessica M. Grimm - Mandlweg 3, 82488 Ettal, Deutschland - +49(0)8822 2782219 (Monday, Tuesday, Friday & Saturday 9.00-17.00 CET)
Impressum - Legal Notice - Datenschutzerklärung - Privacy Policy - Webshop ABG - Widerrufsrecht - Disclaimer