Medieval Silkwork

Printed linen - little bits from my craft room

2012-01-23T17:17:00.001+01:00

Some time a go I purchased some pretty printed linen fabric from here. I'm still not sure what I will make of it, possibly a wall hanging of some kind to hang inside our tent. It reminds me a bit a a printed linen Italian wall hanging in the Historical museum in Basel. For now it is just being pretty in a corner of our craft room.

Online articles from the 'Textielhistorische Bijdragen'

2012-01-18T11:43:00.009+01:00

Quite recently, the Historisch Centrum Overijssel, has made all the back issues of the Textielhistorische Bijdragen available online (see complete list here). I made a selection for you of all the articles of interest for the late medieval and early modern period. Sadly all articles are in Dutch (so this is especially for our Dutch and Flemish readers or anyone adventurous enough to try his/her hand at reading them anyway).

Laura van Aert & Danielle van den Heuvel, Sekse als de sleutel tot succes? Vrouwen en de verkoop van textiel in de Noordelijke en Zuidelijke Nederlanden 1650-1800 (On female textile sellers in the Low Countries between 1650 and 1800)
M. Balkestein, De plaats van de textielproductie in de rangorde van beroepen. Een drietal prentenreeksen uit de middeleeuwen, de 17e en de 18e eeuw (The place of textile production in the order of professions based on print series from the middle ages, the 17th and the 18th century)
Paul Brusse & Margreet Windhorst, 'Tot welvaren van de stadt ende verbeteringh vande neringhe.' Arbeidsmarktregulering en economische ontwikkeling in de Amersfoortse textiel 1450-1800 (Labor market regulations and economic developments in the textile industry of Amersfoort, 1450-1800)
Sjoukje Colenbrander, 'Zolang de weefkonst bloeijt in't machtig Amsterdam.' Zijdelakenfabrikeurs in Amsterdam in de 17e en 18e eeuw (Silk fabric production in 17th and 18th century Amsterdam)
Marianne Eisma, Met reclame door het lint, lint en passement in Amsterdam in de 17e en 18e eeuw (Ribbons and passementerie in Amsterdam during the 17th and 18th centuries)
Henk van Haaster & Maarten van Bommel, Botanisch en chemisch onderzoek aan de 17e eeuwse lakenweverij in Gouda (Botanical and chemical analysis of the 17th century cloth weaving mill in Gouda)
Judith H. Hofenk de Graaff, Veranderend kleurstofgebruik in de Leidse textielververij in de 16e en 17e eeuw (Changing use of dyestuffs in Leiden, 16th-17th century)
E.J. Kalf, Een interessant borduursel in het Rijksmuseum in Twenthe (An interesting piece of embroidery in the Rijksmuseum in Twenthe)
A.C.M. Kappelhof, Enige aspecten van de produktie, handel en consumputie in wollen en linnen stoffen in Den Bosch (1435-1650) (Production, trade and consumption of wool and linen fabrics in Den Bosch, 1435-1650)
Anique C. de Kruiff, In stof zijt gij ... Enkele textiele vondsten in de reliekschat van de Utrechtse Gertrudiskathedraal (Textile finds from the reliquary treasure from the Gertrudis Cathedral in Utrecht)
Bianca M. du Mortier, Tweedehands kleding in de 17e eeuw (Second hand clothing in the 17th century)
Roger de Peuter, Mooie kleren voor hoge heren. Beschouwingen over de textielhandel te Brussel in het midden van de 16e eeuw (The Brussels textile trade in the 16th century)
Herman Roodenburg, Over korsetten, lichaamshouding en gebaren. Een cultuurhistorische verkenning van de 'nieuwe fatsoenen' tussen ruwweg 1580 en 1630 (About corsets, posture and gestures. A cultural history of the 'nieuwe fatsoenen' between 1580 and 1630)
Thera Wijsenbeek-Olthuis, Gestolen goed, diefstal van textiel in Den Haag 1600-1800 (Stealing textiles in The Hague between 1600 and 1800)

Rags to Riches: dress and dress accessories in social context

2012-01-17T15:26:00.003+01:00

I am just passing this on to everyone interested: today I received an email with a call for papers for a interdisciplinary conference to be held at the University of Reading (UK) on the 21st April, "Rags to Riches: dress and dress accessories in social context".

This one day conference at the University of Reading aims to bring together archaeologists, anthropologists and others from related disciplines to discuss current issues of methodology, theory and interpretation of dress and dress accessories, from prehistory to the present day.

More details and the call for papers can be found here.

I regret not being able to submit a paper or attend the conference myself!

A book of old embroidery, 1921

2011-11-03T16:10:00.002+01:00

It was a such a surprise to find thisbook on-line. I borrowed it from the library a couple of years ago,and it's great to have a pfd copy! Click on the link to browseand/or download it for free:

Holme, C., & Kendrick, A. (1921) A book of old embroidery, London, New York: The Studio.

This book is acollection of embroidered pieces, some of them from the Victoria andAlbert Museum. It focuses on different countries and differenthistorical periods. What I like about this book is that it containssome images that I haven't seen elsewhere. When it comes to Medievalembroidery, some pieces keep popping up over and over again, so it'sreally nice to see something “fresh”.

My favorite is thisGerman 14^th century whitework wall hanging. Apparently,back in 1921 it was part of the V&A collection... I wonderwhether it's still there, because I'd love to see it . (I wrotea tutorial about this type of border here). Click on the image to enlarge:

image taken from Holme, C., & Kendrick, A. (1921) A book of old embroidery, London, New York: The Studio.

note: kbsalazar pointed out in the comments section that you can find this piece in the V&A on-line database here. Thanks for sharing!

image taken from the Victoria & Albert database

Reference for ca 1340 French pouch in Krakow

2011-10-17T14:29:00.001+02:00

Finally, I've found the reference forthe ca 1340 French pouch in Krakow (I wrote about that one here).It's in this book:

Von Wilckens, L. (1991). Die textilenKünste von der Spätantike bis um 1500. München: Verlag C. H. Beck. ISBN 978-3406353635

On page 206 you will find two small b&wimages of this pouch, one of the front and one of the back. On theside that I didn't get to see, the cap of the bearded man is pulleddown. I must confess that the meaning of this all is a bit of amystery to me :-) I scanned the German text, but so far, I haven'tread anything related to this pouch. If anyone of you knows more,we'd love to hear about it!

By the way, this book is a realmust-have if you're interested in medieval textiles. The book coversthe following chapters:

weaving up to the 7th century
woven silks 7-13 th century
woven narrow bands and borders
woven silks 1300-1500
woven fabrics, linen ,wool and mixed fabrics
dyed and printed fabrics
embroidery
tapestry
“other” techniques (sprang, knitting)

It contains a lot of images, both b%wand in color, and is has a substantial amount of images I haven'tseen in other books, or only in references which are hard to findand/or very expensive. I really enjoyed the chapter on embroidery,with quite detailed images of German 14th century whitework.

Building a wardrobe: a mood board

2011-09-25T11:40:00.004+02:00

One of the things Isis and I are working on now is making warm winter cloths. Isis just finished a pair of lovely needlebound mittens and is now sewing a woolen overdress. I'm making a liripipe and a linen chemise, and I also need a really warm dress to wear over my brown one.

But, I must confess I don't really like making clothes: it's so difficult to get the shape and size right.... I'd much rather do some embroidery:-) So, when I cut the fabric for my liripipe, I indulged in a little procrastination by making a dress mood board :-)

brown fabric: my current dress (from a shop in Rijswijk, NL)

dark purple fabric: my liripipe (from a merchant in Visby)

hair pins: from merchants in Nijmegen and Visby

pouch hanger: from Handelsgillet, see more extant pieces in Kunera database

silk, gold and linen thread: thrifted

wooden spool: Bikkel en Been

pouch: embroidery pattern by Wymarc

wool and linen samples: from Naturtuche

Smocked apron finished

2011-08-26T19:35:00.016+02:00

Finally, I've finished my smocked apron:-). I've already worn it during the Medieval Week in Visby, but I haven't got pictures of me wearing it. Sometimes, this type of events goes by in a whirlwind... (But then sometimes other people do have the pictures you need! Isis inserted some here)

Here are some final technical details and "do's and don'ts":

The embroidered part of the apron measures 55 * 5 cm. I used about 180 cm of fabric and made pleats of 0.5 cm deep. I found it quite difficult to make small pleats over such a length of fabric. It took me about 6 hours to make the pleats, and I used diaper pins to secure the pleats as I went along. I took them out again when I started the embroidery:

In previous posts, I wrote about using pencil. I've learned the hard way that you should always test whether pencil lines come out in the wash. The pencil I used this time didn't. I had to use some quite aggressive soap, but you can still see lines and dots when you take a closer look at the embroidery... aargghh

I used this embroidery chart:

Image via Christina

I started with a line of honeycomb stitches, and this looks a little wobbly. I couldn't quite manage to make a straight line. Next time (?), I think I will follow this chart and start with a horizontal row of stem stitches. This may help set the pleats, which probably makes it easier to do the honeycomb stitches next.

And this is what my apron looks like:

For more links to tutorials and background info, see my previous posts here.

Northern German frilled veil Part IV

2011-08-01T23:10:00.005+02:00

Dillemma! An evening of total emotional unrest, stress and lots of cursing. I made the veil part of this new frilled headdress four centimeters too long for it to sit right. How I could have made a gross miscalculation like this is a total mystery to me, but somehow I managed.

Now how to solve this?
1. The lazy option: make a horizontal seam in the neck and cut away the access fabric
2. The die-hard option: take apart the whole veil, cut a new veil in the right size, and put the frills back on.

Option one doesn't feel really comfortable, option two ... well option two would take me right back to where I was in May. I could not possibly finish the veil in time for Visby then. It's too much hours of work. Too many teeny tiny stitches and sowing frills in place.

I'm not even sure if I could mentally handle option two. This veil has become almost a curse over the past few months. I want so badly to just get it finished.

Oh!
Help!

Northern German frilled veil Part III

2011-08-01T16:30:00.007+02:00

Remember the northern German frilled veil I was working on? Here you can see where I was with it last September. The photos above show where I got last May. I wanted to get it finished by the event in Lütjenburg, but utterly failed.
It is almost done now, only 3 straight hemming seams to do. Hoorray! I will make so pics of the finished veil in Wisby, hopefully while it is being worn by its new owner!

Lecture on frilled veils in Visby, Sweden

2011-08-01T16:15:00.007+02:00

Effigy of Johan von Hozehausen (+1393) and Gundula (+1371), Dom, Frankfurt am Main

Catherine Countess of Warwick, 1370, Warwick, England

On August 10 I will be giving a lecture on frilled veils during the second half of the 14th century in North West Europe. Should you happen to be in the neighbourhood I'd love it if you could come and visit. The lecture will take place in the Kapittelhusgarden (click on this link to book your seat, and for the record: I'm not making any mony out of this, the fee is for the accommodation). This lecture will explore the frilled veil in different regions of Northwest Europe, focussing mainly on the period 1350-1450. I will also elaborate on the construction and arrangement of these veils. Some of this information you can find in my final thesis, but the geographical focus of the lecture will be much broader. Also I will be adding new evidence I have found since writing my thesis.

One day later there will also be a lecture on fabric and cut in medieval Norse clohting by Margareta Nockert (sadly, this lecture will be held in Swedish).

These lectures are part of the medieval event celebrating 650 years of the Battle of Wisby that will run from 5 trough 10 August.

Thanks to our 300 followers

2011-08-01T15:07:00.002+02:00

Hi all!

As I logged in to blogger yesterday I noticed Medieval Silkwork has reached the mile stone of 300 blog followers! It seems quite unbelievable that in just 5 years (or even a little less) our blog has found such a large public of regular readers!

We would like to thank you all for your support, interest and enthusiasm over the past few years. Sharing our research and creative projects for you has been enormously rewarding and stimulating for the both of us.

So, a big thanks to you all!

A ca 1340 French pouch

2011-07-14T19:51:00.010+02:00

Last week I was in Krakow, Poland, for a conference. I took some time off to visit the Wawel cathedral museum, and it was such a nice surprise to see this pouch. It's a French pouch from ca 1340, embroidered in silk and metal thread, with a lovely row of tassels :-) It measures approx. 15, 5 * 14,5 cm, height with tassels 21 cm. Now I'm really really motivated to give this type of tassels another try :-)

ps: click on the images to enlarge

ps: this pouch looks familiar to me, but I can't remember where I've seen it before. A book? A site? If anyone knows, we'd love to hear from you!

Gorgeous blogger award

2011-07-13T13:13:00.007+02:00

One of the great things about blogging is getting to know new people, learning about new things... And one of the downsides is that the amount of information can be overwhelming. I tried to use Google Reader to keep track of all the blogs I like, but with a 1000+ unread items, that doesn't seem to be working...

So that's why I only just found out that our blog had been awarded with a “Gorgeous Blogger Award” by

Racaire http://embroidery.racaire.at/?cat=17

Christina http://stolte.wordpress.com/

Eva http://evagrelsdotter.blogspot.com/2011/03/award.html

Neulakko http://www.neulakko.net/?paged=2

Thank you so much *BLUSH* and SORRY for not responding earlier....

Receiving this award means you have to answer 5 questions and pass it on to 5 other bloggers. Since we're unable to choose only 5 people, we're going to dedicate this award to everyone who reads our blog. Thank you so much!!

And now the questions:

1. When did you start your blog? Isis started it in 2006 (I had to check our archives) and she asked me to join her shortly after. (So it's our fifth anniversary this year, I hadn't even realized that!)

2. What do you write about? We're both in Deventer Burgerscap, a reenactment group that depicts life around ca 1370 in the city of Deventer, The Netherlands. We try to focus on those medieval textile crafts that could have been produced and/or used by everyday people in that period, such as clothing, pouches, household linens..

3. What makes your blog special compared to other blogs? I'm very glad this is not a job interview, next question please :-)

4. What made you start writing? Writing a blog is all about connecting with likeminded people, sharing tips, information, tutorials, good practices etc. In my day job (university researcher in the field of applied linguistics) I usually don't meet people who are interested in medieval textile crafts, so blogging is a great way to expand my horizon :-)

5. What would you like to change in your blog? Obviously, we would both like to write more, but with our families, jobs … it's quite difficult. We're amazed (and very happy!) that you keep reading our blog, even though we don't write that often.

And now I'm curious: who started this award? Please tell us if you know. It's a great initiative to learn more about the people in our community!

Letter pouch

2011-06-17T10:06:00.002+02:00

I just came accross this beautifull piece of work, a letter pouch which once belonged to Michiel Adriaenszoon de Ruyter. It is made in a red velvet fabric with red ribbon along the edges and wonderful metal thread emrbroidery. It contained a letter dated 1663.
The purse is now in the 'Zeeuws Maritiem Museum' in the Netherlands.

Us and our men in HOME Eindhoven

2011-05-29T20:02:00.006+02:00

These are us and our men during a quiet moment in the afternoon in the Historical Open Air Museum Eindhoven (HOME). Isis is wearing a gray dress and her man is sitting next to her. I (Machteld) am wearing a brown dress, my Birgitta cap and a belt made by my husband. He's sitting next to me with our daughter on his lap.

Laurens, thanks for taking this picture!

Embroidered border for my Birgitta Cap

2011-05-25T20:53:00.007+02:00

Yes, I wanted a Birgitta cap too :-) I just finished the embroidered band that ties the cap together, and I hope I will finish it before the HOME Textile Fair in Eindhoven this weekend... Isis wrote a post about this cap and a paper:

Dahl, C.L. & I. Sturtewagen, 2008, The Cap of St. Birgitta, Medieval Clothing and Textiles vol. IV, pp. 99-129

A 14th century fragment with embroidered unicorns

2011-05-22T20:30:00.010+02:00

My husband found me a copy of Kroos, R. (1970), Niedersachsische Bildstickereien des Mittelaters, Berlin: Deutscher Verlag fur Kunstwissenschaft . Lucky me :-) I wrote a review about this wonderful book here. If you're interested in German whitework embroidery, it's a mustread. It can be quite expensive, (he paid 140 euros, on the German E-bay site), but it's a heavy book, packed with information (2,5 kilo,a catalogue of 218 pages and an additional 427 pages of black and white images, in one volume).

When I browsed through its pages, I was reminded of this embroidery. According to Kroos (1970), it's not known what it was used for. I think it would make a lovely design for a tablecloth :-)

The images below are from Bildindex, the links are below the images (I couldn't link directly). The first is also in Kroos, the others are not.

Bildindex

catalogue mi07917f02a

Bildindex

catalogue mi07917f05a

Bildindex

catalogue mi07917f04

Turmhügelburg Lütjenburg

2011-05-17T14:02:00.002+02:00

Photo by Julia Kerk

Last weekend I attended a lovely small scale event at the Turmhügelburg in Lütjenburg. Together with Bertus and Lea from Deventer Burgerscap. It was so nice meeting all our friends from Sweden and Germany again, and getting to know new people. The food was great (thanks Chris and Peter!), the setting was beautiful and after all the weather wasn't too bad.

The sad news is however, that I came home with a terrible cold. I am supposed to teach a two hour class on medieval dress to 30 18-year olds tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes. I hope I will have some voice left afterwards!

A smocked apron, continued

2011-05-11T16:37:00.003+02:00

No, I didn't miscalculate the length of fabric this time :-) I wanted to make a smock sampler to get some more practice and then I thought “Why not turn it into an apron for my daughther”? (She's almost 2 now).

Here are some of the things I've learned along the way:

I used 60 cm of fabric with 0,5 mm pleats and I ended up with a piece of embroidery of 20 cm wide. This means that for my own apron, I need around 2 meters of fabric
I can't make these stitches in a straight line without help. The first row of honeycomb stitches looks really wobbly... That's when I decided to use a ruler and a soft grey pencil to draw lines on top of the pleats. This helped me to keep the lines of stitches straight
I put the apron in the washing machine at 40C. It came out well and clean :-)
I used both a fine and a thicker linen sewing thread. I like the fine thread, from Bockens, for the honeycomb stitches and the ticker one, from The Mulberry Dyer, for the stem stitches (horizontal lines and diamond panes)

And this is what I've learned from Trude (thanks!!!):

In my first attempt (which was so horrible that I threw it away) I pulled the embroidery stitches way too tight over the pleats. She didn't say this, but I realized this when I saw her apron
If you want to embroider the diamond panes, it works best to embroider the horizontal lines first. These “set” the pleats, so it's easier to embroider the diamond panes next

Isis showed me this link to the pleatwork embroidery website, which focuses on the 14^{th –} 16^th century. Really worth a visit!

Image of knitting Madonna

2011-05-06T15:50:00.003+02:00

I accidentily came accross this image of a knitting Madonna. This is a painting of the Holy Family, attributed to Ambrogio Lorenzetti (ca. 1345) of Siena. Size 54.5 x 25.5 cm. I think I have seen it in person years ago in the Meermanno Museum in The Hague, but didn't notice the knitting back then. I do remember drooling over the thread reel standard.

Some publications of the York Archeological Trust now downloadable for free

2011-03-01T19:09:00.008+01:00

First of all, thanks to Katrin from A Stitch in Time for posting this link! If you're interested in medieval textiles and clothing, be sure to visit her blog.

The York Archeological Trust put some of their out of print publications online for free. You might be interested in the one below, and take look at their archive for more. I copied the abstract below from their website:
The Archaeology of York 17/15, Finds from Medieval York, Craft, Industry and everyday life by Patrick Ottaway and Nicola Rogers

This report is the definitive publication of some 6,000 objects made in a wide range of materials, including iron and non-ferrous metals, stone, glass and jet. They come from contexts dated to between c.1066 and 1600.

The first part of the report describes tools and implements, including those used in metalworking, leatherworking and textile manufacture. It also discusses the debris from craft activity, including a report on the analysis of non-ferrous metalworking waste at the Bedern Foundry and College sites. In addition, there is a full report on the metallurgy of seventeen iron knives to set alongside analyses of Anglian and Anglo-Scandinavian specimens from York.

The second part presents a wide range of objects, many of which were used on the sites where they were found. They provide a vivid insight into aspects of life as it was experienced in medieval York and include items of personal dress and clothing, jewellery, glass and other vessels, equipment for horse and rider, and a substantial assemblage of objects which illustrate the character of buildings, their fittings and furnishings.

I was particularly fascinated by this image of late 14th century double pointed knitting needles (p 2743, 2744):

Scans taken from The Archaeology of York 17/15, Finds from Medieval York, Craft, Industry and everyday life by Patrick Ottaway and Nicola Rogers

I tried some silk knitting last weekend, and I kept thinking of the quote" Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better." 1.9 mm needles definitely sound better than the 0.8 mm ones I was using!

V&A textile rooms temporarily closed

2011-02-06T10:57:00.003+01:00

Hi all,

This is just a short message to inform you all that the textile rooms and collections at the V&A will be temporarily closed over the coming two years. The collections will be moved to another location fot better storage, conservation and accessibility. You can find more info here.

I thought I'd just let you know so that you are not al dissappointed should you visit the V&A to find out the textiles are not on display.

A smocked apron: Some things I've learned along the way

2010-12-22T10:36:00.008+01:00

One of my plans for this holiday, was to finish my apron, but …. something went wrong and I ended up with a Barbie-sized apron.... :-) I'm going to give smocking another try, by making a small sampler first. That way, I can practice the stitches, and I can use the sampler in workshops and demonstrations.

Here are some things I've learned along the way:

The final width of the apron is determined by two things: the stitches used, and the depth of the pleads.

If you only use honeycomb stitch, my seventies craft manuals indicate that 1,5 or twice the length of fabric might be enough. Other smock stitches are less flexible, which means you probably need 2 or 3 times the length of fabric. (In my case, that would mean using about 200cm fabric for my apron, that's quit a lot).

But, to make matters more complicated, the depth of the pleads is also important. The deeper the folds, the more fabric you will need.

Christina did a very interesting experiment to see what happens when you vary the depths of the pleads:http://stolte.wordpress.com/2009/07/16/comparative-smocking/#comment-196

And this is one of her beautiful aprons:

http://stolte.wordpress.com/2009/07/20/another-gatheded-apron/

Christina, thanks for posting this! ( And Trude, thanks for pointing Christina's blog out to me)

Below is a smocking tutorial from the book Clothing For Women: Selection, Design, Construction, A practical manual for school and home, Laura I. Baldt, 1916, J. B. Lippincott Company. You can read this on-line here and/or go directly to the smocking part here (and scroll down)

First, make the pleads.

Then, start stitching. They make it look so easy :-)

Heraldic pouches revisited

2010-12-03T21:03:00.007+01:00

Image from Gomez-Moreno, M (1946), El panteon real de las Huelgas de Burgos, Madrid: Consejo superior de investigaciones cientificas, Instituto Diego Velazquez.

Images taken by me in November 2010 in the V&A textile study room.
1. Parts of a lectern-cover. The Annunciation, with angels censing, German, 14th century. White linen thread in chain, split and buttonhole stitches on linen. From the Bock Collection. 7029-1860.
2. Panel. Adoration of the Kings. German, late 14th or early 15th century in brick and knitting stitches. From the Bock Collection. 8308-1863.
3. Apparel of an amice, with inscription SANCTA ODILLA SANCTUS KYLIANUS AVE REGINA CELO(UM) MATER REGIS. German, 15th century. Coloured silks in lon-armed cross stitch on linen. Said to come from the Cathedral of Halberstadt. From the Bock Collection. 8311-1863.

Some time ago we had a discussion on the blog concerning the type of stitch used on some Spanish purses. Were they knitted or embroidered? The pillow (also made in Spain) in the top image of this post pointed in the direction of embroidery: specifically the long-armed cross stitch. This stitch does slightly resemble knitting, and also explains some elements in the pattern that could not (or hardly) be achieved by knitting.
When I was visiting the V&A museum in London last november I got the chance to study the embroidery collections up close. I was there to visit the first Fashioning the Early Modern workshop at the V&A but got some time to visit the collection as well. (Oh and do look at the photos of the workshop, there are pretty pics of fabulous pieces of knitting).
I found several pieces containing stitches that resembled knitting. However, of all I found the type from image 3 comes closest. This also is a long armed cross stitch. When comparing it to the Spanish pillow it's almost identical.

I have loads of other treasures to show you from my visit to London, but that will have to wait a little bit. I'll be posting them in portions as I have time available.

Machteld already told you all that I have a new job. I started working as a phd researcher at Antwerp University on a project concerning the material culture of the Low Countries during the Long Sixteenth Century. I - oh lucky, lucky me - get to spend four years researching clothing, fashion and textiles of this period and region. Mainly from a written sources perspective, but off course I'll also include visual sources and extant textiles.
This is off course about the most exciting job I could have ever wished for, but it is very intensive, and that means a little less time for blogging... I hope you won't be angry ;-)

PS.: We recently reached 200 followers to this blog! Thank you all for being the best/coolest/sweetest followers in the world!

Embellishing the seams of a pouch with gold thread

2010-11-03T10:52:00.010+01:00

We haven't posted for some time, sorry! Isis just started a great new job (she'll tell you all about later), and I had a busy time at work...

I'm finishing the seams of a pouch in pink silk and gold thread. It's slow work, and I still need to finish the seams at the top. I really like doing this type of embroidery, but I'm not always concentrated enough :-).

This technique involves braiding two loops together while at the same time stitching them over a seam. We wrote tutorials about it here. Most examples of this type of braids were done in two different colors of silk, but I also found some examples in which both silk and gold thread were used:

Staufer, A. (1991), Die mittelalterlichen Textilien von St. Servatius in Maastricht, Bern: Abegg-Stiftung Riggisberg, p 158, a Spanish 135^th century pouch, with a braid in green silk and spun gold thread (a metalic strap wrapped around a core)

Schmedding, B. (1978), Mittelalterliche Textilien in Kirchen und Klöstern der Schweiz, Bern: Abegg-Stiftung, p 190, a 15^th century Swiss pouch with a braid in spun gold thread and green silk, p 288, p 230, “Reliquienhülle” with braids in gold and blue and gold and red (long strips of brick stitch embroidered cloth, I don't know what they were used for...)

Some notes on gold thread

I think chapter 3 of Nancy Spies' Ecclesiastical pomp and aristocratic circumstance is a nice basic introduction to the different types of metal thread that could be used in the Middle Ages. She gives quite a number of references, and she also included some interesting pictures.

This is another great book, because it describes, among others how, “thin” metal thread used in pouches could be, e.g. around or less than 0.2 mm in some cases: Ceulemans, C. (1988), Tongeren. Basiliek O.L. Vrouwe Geboorte. I. Textiel van de vroege middeleeuwen tot het Concilie van Trente, Leuven: Peeters

In my pouch, I' m using 4 parallel strands of spun gold thread of less than 0.2 mm thick each. It's a metalic strap wrapped around a core. I do think it fits the picture described above, but I don't know what it's made of. I bought this thread at an antiques fair, last summer. The vendor told me it was French, but didn't know more about it. (it's the one on the left)

Here are some on-line shops which sell spun gold thread, with a % in gold or gilded silver:

http://www.berlinembroidery.com/goldworkthreads1.htm#passing , e.g gold, 2 % wm smooth passing thread nr 4

http://www.bentonandjohnson.com/

I must confess that the Benton & Johnson website is a bit of a mystery to me. Has anyone ordered there yet? Does anyone know if they have the type of thread I described above?

If you know of other shops/vendors which sell spun gold thread, we'd love to hear from you! And, if you know other interesting references, we'd love to hear that too :-)

Anjou Bible c 1340: fully digitalized and accessible

2010-10-07T19:26:00.002+02:00

Museum M in Leuven, Belgium, presents an exhibition which features the Anjou Bible, c 1340. In their own words:

Image via Museum M

The Anjou Bible - Naples 1340 – a royal manuscript revealed presents the superbly illuminated pages of a little-known manuscript created at the unruly Royal Court of Naples in the turbulent fourteenth century.

The fourteenth-century Anjou Bible, was created at the court of Robert I of Anjou, King of Naples. After peregrinations in royal circles, in 1509 the book ended up on Brabantine soil. During the course of the next 500 years, this unique manuscript fell into oblivion. Until 2008. On March 10th the bible was officially recognized by the Flemish Community as 'a Masterpiece' and that year a major project was launched which involved researching and conserving the book and making it accessible to the public.

The Anjou Bible - Naples 1340 – a royal manuscript revealed comprises over a hundred sublime miniatures which are being shown to the general public for the first but also for the last time. The precious parchment folios of the Bible have been carefully taken apart to give the public the chance to admire them ‘in the flesh’. Once the exhibition is over, this fragile gem will be irrevocably re-bound and returned for safekeeping to the strongroom at the Maurits Sabbe Library of the Theology Faculty (K.U.Leuven). After that it will only be possible to view the bible online.

The entire manuscript is put online. Go to this page and click on the Book Viewer link to browse the folios. The zoom function works incredibly well!

I really appreciate this gesture. In the past, I've had some bad experiences with exhibitions of manuscripts: too crowded, too many people trying to elbow their way to the displays, not being able to get a closer view... Now I can see the manuscript while sitting in my comfy chair and drinking hot chocolate, much better!!

Northern German frilled veil Part II

2010-09-30T14:08:00.005+02:00

Last week I did 10 metres of hemming for Maria's new kruseler. It will be based on a veil depicted on a candelier from Lemgo, Germany, dated shortly before 1400. You can find other examples of this style of frilled veil here.
The next step will be making the pattern for the veil itself. I'll probably get round to that only in two weeks, since the fabric I'll be using is still in Holland (and I am back in Belgium), my bags were already so heavily packed yesterday that I couldn't fit in the linen.

An exhibition dedicated to the memory of Olaf Goubitz

2010-09-28T20:06:00.006+02:00

The Archeological Museum in Haarlem, The Netherlands, hosts an exhibition dedicated to the memory of Olaf Goubitz. He was a Dutch archeologist who specialized in medieval leatherwork, such as shoes and purses. The exhibition is small and shows a number of original shoes, pouches and scabbards, and some of Goubitz' replica. It is prolonged till 10^th october 2010.

This bird shoe was found in Haarlem, and is dated ca 1300-1350. I love the bird and flower design, and the lace-like pattern of holes. According to the information card, this type of design was rare in the Netherlands, and it is not known whether this was a shoe for men or women. Anyway, it must have looked fabulous with bright contrasting stockings in red or yellow.. :-)

ps:

-I went to the exhibition with the Deventer Burgerscap. Bertus wrote about it here.

New outfit planning

2010-09-22T22:33:00.006+02:00

I've been waiting for samples from www.naturtuche.de, to pick a fabric for a new fancy dress, and yesterday they arrived! I will be choosing this pretty madder red fine twill. It goes so well together with the purse I'm working on now. The blue silk will be used for tassels on the purse. The red dress will have brass buttons on the front and on the lower arms.
I am also keeping my eyes open for a pretty light blue wool, to make an over-dress from. I have been wanting an over-dress with buttons all the way from the neckline to the hem for some time now (five years or so?), so it's getting about time I do something about it!
This new outfit will also involve a new frilled veil with gold thread edges, a new belt with gilt mounts, a chapelet with mounts, some jewelry, new shoes, a pair of pattens... Oh well, a girl can dream, right?

To do list

2010-09-19T22:03:00.000+02:00

Here follows a short to do list of embroidery related things I want to do this winter. Yesterday we had a meeting at Machteld's home with Deventer Burgerscap, and during my sewing work I got plenty of time to think out what I want to do this winter.

* make a sampler of different types of embroidery to show the public.
* make samples of different types of finger loop braids.
* make samples of tassels and turks knots (try out making turks knots with gold thread).

Making samples is especially nice for children visiting dipslays, but also grown ups of course, because being able to touch things makes a more lively experience.

* make naturally dyed filament silk for embroidery.
* order a new embroidery frame (I plan to do a post on historical frames soonish!).
* practice metalic thread embroidery.

So, six things on the list (there are of course at least two dozen of other projects I want to finish that involve making new medieval clothing, bed linens, veils, etc.), three months of winter. Will I fishish them? I wonder :)
My winter will get pretty busy as it is, since I'm starting on a new job October 1st.

Medieval Clothing and Textiles 7

2010-09-17T13:16:00.002+02:00

I've got such exciting news to share!
I wrote before about trying to get my final thesis published. Well, the moment is finally here that I can announce an article about frilled veils in the Low Countries will be published in volume n° 7 in the Medieval Clothing & Textiles journal in the Spring of 2011. The article won't be just a summery of the thesis, I have completely reworked the chapters concerning the social context and meaning of the frilled veils and revised the methodology used for the analysis. Good news for most of you off course is that the article will be in English!

The publisher's website says the following about this volume:

This year's volume focuses largely on the British Isles, with papers on dress terms in two major works of literature, the Welsh Mabinogion and the Middle English Pearl; a study of a thirteenth-century royal bride's trousseau, based on unpublished documents concerning King Henry III's Wardrobe; an investigation into the `open surcoat' referenced in the multilingual texts of late medieval England; and, based on customs accounts, a survey of cloth exports from late medieval London and the merchants who profited from them.
Commercial trading of cloth is also the subject of a study of fifteenth-century brokers' books, revealing details of types, designs, and regulation of the famous silks from Lucca, Italy. Another paper focuses on art, reconsidering the incidence of frilled veils in the Low Countries and adopting an innovative means of analysis to question the chronology, geographical diversity, and social context of this style.

The contributors to this volume are: Patricia Williams, Benjamin L. Wild, Isis Sturtewagen, Kimberly Jack, Mark Chambers, Eleanor Quinton, John Oldland, Christine Meek

New spools

2010-09-11T20:35:00.002+02:00

When we were in Nijmegen at the end of August, I bought five little boxwood thread reels from Bikkel & Been. Monica, who made them, told me they were based on a London find, that was originally in bone. They are perfect for fine embroidery silks, because boxwood has a very smooth surface, that won't damage your silk.
Have a look as Monica's website, they make lovely things. For now they only have a Dutch site, but when I last spoke to her she told me they are in the process of building a new site that will also have English pages.

Eyelet stitch embroidery I

2010-09-09T19:04:00.003+02:00

Recently my attention was drawn again to this purse from Tongeren, Belgium (see more info and images here). It is dated to 1276-1300. It exists of a woollen ground fabric - as does this purse I posted about earlier this week - with silk and metal thread embroidery. The embroidery is a mix of brick stitch and eyelet stitches. Tristan from Taschen did a pattern redaction of this purse, with which I do not fully agree (I have been wanting to do a redaction myself for some time, I promise I'll do it soonish). You can find it here. His finished piece is gorgeous too! Also have a look at this detail shot.
For a long time I have thought this was the only piece of embroidery with eyelet stitches from the medieval period in Europe. Apparently not!

Just this week I was browsing the website of the Needleworkers Guild of the West Kingdom, where I bumped into this fabulous piece of eyelet embroidery here. As opposed to the purse from Tongeren this embroidery pattern is built up from eyelet stitch only. The colour photo by Catrijn shows that the piece was done in red, blue and yellow/green silk, and metalic thread. It is situated in the Uppsala Cathedral Museum. Has anyone got more information on this piece of embroidery, or interesting literature about it? Recommendations are always welcome.

Frilled veils final thesis is online!

2010-09-08T19:16:00.000+02:00

I kind of forgot to tell you all that my final thesis has been accessible online for some time now! You will find it here, at the website of the Ghent University Library.
For your pleasure I also made pages on the blog where articles, tutorials and embroidery patterns will be grouped. That way it will be more easy to find the information you need! You will also find a link to my thesis on the articles page.

New pattern

2010-09-07T01:22:00.009+02:00

This very small embroidered pouch was found in the Eglise Saint-Vincent in Soignies, Belgium. It dates back to the 13th or 14th century (alas I couldn't find a more precise date). It is embroidered in silk on a woollen tabby weave canvas. The colours now appear to be dark red, white/yellow and orange/brown. The drawstrings in finger loop braiding are made using a green silk. In the tassels red and green silk have been combined. The tassels are embellished with red silk turk’s head knots. The opening of the pouch has been decorated with loop braids.

You can find a pattern redaction and information sheet here.
This purse wil be my next embroidery project :-)

Other lozegne embroidery patterns can be found here:
pattern 1
pattern 2

Progress, part IV

2010-09-06T20:44:00.006+02:00

It's been a while since I last posted about this project! I am now a little over half way with the embroidery (I made some more progress since these photos were taken).
I want to finish it this winter, because I want to start a new embroidery project next season wich will involve naturally dyed filament silk, hopefully, when I get round to dyeing this winter. I have been wanting to work with naturally dyed silk for long, but couldn't find filament silk in naturel dyes readily available, only spun silk it seems. But after seeing this wonderfull purse by Miriam of Diu Minnezit, I decided to dye my own.

Gebroeders van Limburg Weekend, Nijmegen

2010-08-29T20:03:00.007+02:00

Isis is finishing the seam of a pouch

This weekend, Isis and I were at the Gebroeders van Limburg Weekend in Nijmegen, The Netherlands. The weather was terrible, but the public was friendly. We met some nice new people and caught up with some old friends. We even met some people who read our blog and told us they liked it. This made us very happy, thank you!!

I only managed to take one "normal" picture because, yes, the weather was THAT bad...

2010-07-28T16:00:00.006+02:00

Last week, I was in Brussels where I visited the Jubelparkmuseum/Musee du Cinquantenaire

They have a lovely piece of 14^th century whitework on display:

Images from Kikirpa.be

You can find these images and more in the Kikirpa database, searching for object nr 20016337

While I was browsing this database, I also found this supercute 14^th century mermaid pouch. It's in the same museum, but not on display (too bad!!) (clichenr A50420):

Image from kikirpa.be

13th century lace embroidery

2010-07-07T20:29:00.009+02:00

Images from Seven centuries of Lace, here and here

It's such a nice surprise to see something you haven't seen before (at least, in the embroidery department :-) I found these images of 13th century lace/embroidery while I was browsing through the book Seven centuries of lace by Maria Margaret Pollen (1908). You can download or browse the book for free here. The site allows you to zoom really well, so it's better to view these images from the site itself.

For those of you who are interested in smocking: the armpits in the Alb attributed to st Francis(third picture) appear to be have been smocked in a way similar to those of the Alb of St Hugo. Chris Laning, thanks for uploading this picture, and the picture of your wonderful reproduction. ! Additional note: Chris just pointed out that the reproduction was made by her friend and that it's not smocking as such but a technique called ""Italian shirring."

This type of ecclesiastical clothing always makes me wonder: Would this type of embroidery have been used in secular clothing, and if so, how, when..? I would love to know more about this!

Heraldic pouches continued

2010-06-11T15:50:00.009+02:00

Thanks for all your comments! It's nice to know that we're in a community, doing research and craftwork together!

I really do not pretend to have the “definite” answer, but I'm inclined to think that it's embroidery rather than knitting. Chris L., thanks for pointing the Spanish pillow out to me and dropping the word “long-armed cross stitch! This reminded me of some sources that were “sleeping in my archive”. I happened to make a scan of the Spanish pillow some time ago, which clearly shows the changes in direction you refer to. The changes are not only at the edges of each square, but also occur within the heraldic motives. With my knowledge of knitting, I think it's technically not possible to change directions like this.

Image from Gomez-Moreno, M (1946), El panteon real de las Huelgas de Burgos, Madrid: Consejo superior de investigaciones cientificas, Instituto Diego Velazquez

There are two papers on long-armed cross stitch by the Westkingdom Needleworkers Guild. Do take a look at them, because they also contain pictures of the Spanish pillow and a close-up of a purse in long-armed cross-stitch which looks very similar to that blogged by Racaire (this close-up also shows the surface “ridges” which surprised me so much)

http://wkneedle.bayrose.org/Articles/cross_stitch.html

http://wkneedle.bayrose.org/Articles/cross_stitch_patterns.html

Westkingdom Needleworkers, thanks for these papers!!!

So, it may be long- armed cross stitch (or a chain stitch?), which allows you to changes directions

Racaire also suggested the technique might be similar to that used in a “Codex Manesse” pouch. I saw this pouch a few years ago, fell in love with it instantly, and made a copy myself :-). This pouch is made using “versetzter gobelinstich” and couched goldwork.

A picture and a description of the original can be found in:
Schneider, J. (1975), Textilien. Katalog der Sammlung des Sweizerischen Landesmuseums Zurich: Zurich: Verlag Berichthaus

The Cloisters Museum, New York, owns a similar purse, see here: Hoving, T., Husband, T., Hayward, J. (1975), The secular spirit: life and art at the end of the Middle Ages, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art

14th century heraldic pouches: what type of stitch is this?

2010-06-10T19:21:00.012+02:00

Racaire just posted a picture of a 14th century heraldic pouch on her blog. It reminded me of these images from the Bildindex I downloaded some time ago. Does anyone know what type of stitch is used here? I have no idea, and I even thought of knitting, but that's probably not true.. We would love to hear your ideas on this!

A gift from Quakenbrück

2010-06-09T13:27:00.001+02:00

Mr. B. brought back home a gift for me from the event in Quakenbrück last weekend: two sets of veil pins. The one has lapis lazuli beads, and the other cut garnets. I just love them, and can't wait to wear them with my frilled veil soon!

Smocked apron tutorials

2010-06-08T14:06:00.005+02:00

Last weekend, I was at the historical festival in Quackenbruck, Germany, where I demonstrated smocking. I think this might become the latest fashion in living history groups: when I told people I was working on a smocked apron, they told me they were either wanting one or working on one :-). This is my apron so far: (it's not stretched out yet)

There are several very interesting tutorials and resources online, so I won't be writing one myself :-). The first place to start when you're interested in aprons is Larsdatter's picture archive:

http://www.larsdatter.com/aprons.htm

Tutorials can be found here:

http://catrijn.blogspot.com/2009/05/smocked-apron-part-1.html

http://catrijn.blogspot.com/2009/05/smocked-apron-part-2.html

http://catrijn.blogspot.com/2009/05/smocked-apron-part-3.html

http://haandkraft.blogspot.com/2008/12/pleated-apron.html

http://matildalazouche.livejournal.com/2569.html

Catrijn, Louisa and Matilda, thanks for the tutorials! In each of the tutorials, honeycomb stitch was used. I was told there are two ways of making these: a) fold the pleads first and then stitch on top of the pleads, or b) make the pleads while stitching at the same time. I used method A (see picture above), click here and scroll down:

http://tipnut.com/smocking/

A tutorial of method B can be found here:

http://katafalk.wordpress.com/2010/02/05/honeycomb-smocking-tutorial/

A technical note based on my experience so far: My needlecraft encyclopedia recommended using 3 times as much fabric as the required length of the finished piece. This means that an apron of 50 cm would require 150 cm of fabric. However, honeycomb stitch is very stretchy, so if you use only honeycomb stitch, you might need only twice or 2,5 times as much fabric. The other smock stitches are not quite so flexible, so if you plan to combine honeycomb with other stitches, it is probably a good idea to use more fabric. It's really important to take the time to figure this out, because I've seen some reproductions of smocked aprons which were too small, and that's a pity for all the hard work!

The aprons from the Lutrell Psalter (see Larsdatter above) seem to be embroidered with different stitch types and probably require a rather extensive length of fabric. This makes me wonder: using 150 cm of linen fabric for an apron seems quite “decadent” for such a basic, working class item, especially when you can also make a plain apron using only 50 cm. Where these types of smocked aprons really part of the working class wardrobe or were they a nice, decorative addition to the wardrobe of more afluent social groups? I don't know, but it would be interesting to read more about that...

Preparing for Quackenbruck (part 1)

2010-06-02T16:22:00.004+02:00

This weekend, the Deventer Burgerscap will join the historical festival in Quackenbruck, Germany. So, there's still time for me to work hard on some much needed last minute costume adaptations :-)

I decided to make a liripipe with an open front, in cream wool and white linen. And, to complete the summer feel, I decided to embroider the seams in yellow and aqua. I still haven't finished it, so there's more work for me to do :-)

I was inspired by Isis' post on this type of liripipes here. It's in Dutch, but the pictures and links are very interesting!

I will be demonstrating how to make a smocked apron, but I haven't got pictures of that yet (so that will be part 2)

I think some of you might go to Quackenbruck as well, so I'm really looking forward to meeting you!

Finished: Swedish frilled veil

2010-05-19T14:38:00.005+02:00

Finally I got round to finishing this project (I started it in the fall of 2008, oh shame on me): Maria's Swedish frilled veil is ready to wear! Bertus will take it with him to Morimondo (an event in Northern Italy) this weekend to hand it over to her! You can see the progress in these posts:
1. The sculpture from which the inspiration for this veil was taken;
2. A sketch of the pattern I used;
3. The sewn veil without starched edges.

I (with the assistance of mister Bertus himself) have been cutting and sanding wooden setting sticks and applying the starch to the frilled edge.

Starching a frilled veil is fairly easy.

You need a clean surface that is large enough for the size of your veil to work on;
Take your dry starch and prepare for use according to the instructions on the package;
Apply the starch to the veil by dipping it in the starch bath completely (you can also choose to only starch the edge);
Put the wet veil on the clean surface and put in the setting sticks in the openings of the frilled edge before the starch dries out;
When you're finished putting in the setting sticks, flip over the frilled edge and make sure everything looks fine on the down side of the frill as well, then flip back;
Let dry over night;
In the morning you can iron the veil and the frilled edge with the sticks still inside. Heat setting of frilled veils is not documented for medieval times, but it was used to starch/stiffen from the 16th century onwards. It does help to keep your veil in shape longer, which can be very welcome at events.

That's all!

I hope you enjoy your veil Maria!

Northern German frilled veil Part I

2010-04-29T12:25:00.001+02:00

A selection of Northern German frilled veils for Maria.

1. Lemgo, Candelier with female bust, shortly before 1400
2. Lemgo, Effigy of Otto zur Lippe and Ermgard von der Mark, late 14th century (a nearly identical one can be found in Mariënfeld)
3. Hamburg, Meister Bertram vom Minden, Der Buxtehuder Altar, ca. 1400
4. Hirschhorn, Effigy of Margarethe von Erbach, ca. 1383
5. Hamburg, Meister Bertram vom Minden, Der Buxtehuder Altar, ca. 1400
6. Master of the Golden Panel, Golden Panel from Lüneburg, ca. 1431-1435
7. Conrad von Soest, Niederwildungen Altarpiece, 1403
8. Conrad von Soest, Niederwildungen Altarpiece, 1403
9. Hamburg, 1379

Peter also posted some images on his blog here and here.

There is one dominant style in this region: the frilled veil with thick frilled edges both surrounding the face and hanging on the shoulders. (fig. 1-4, 6, 8-9)

Another, seemingly less popular among the depicted nobility and saints, and maybe more common among ordinary women (it's a much less elaborate style), is a veil that it frilled at the edge that is worn around the face, and at some occasions has frilles all around. It is worn loosely over the head in a more casual way than the first style. Sometimes the frills are on the thick side, but mostly there is only one layer of frills (fig. 5 & 7)

So, Maria, make your choice!

Turk's knot tutorial

2010-04-27T20:53:00.004+02:00

Just a quick post to tell you about a very nice "animated" tutorial about making turk's knots:

http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/Exhibitions/ManitobaCrafts/content/macrame/turkshead.html

I'm still trying to make good knots, that's how I found this. Knots like these were used to embellish pouches, such as this one

Wish me luck :-)

Embroidery for a friend

2010-04-07T20:23:00.003+02:00

Lea from Deventer Burgerscap made my daughter a beautiful hand-dyed (!), hand-sewn (!) liripipe. Her head will never be cold :-) As a thank you gift, I made her this embroidery. It's going to be a purse, of course! I used different silks from my stash: Madeira silk, Au ver a soie (my personal favorite) and Devere Yarns. The pattern, 14th century German brick stitch, is taken from the wonderful collection by Wymarc.

I'm thinking about a light blue and purple braid to finish the seams. Lea, what do you think?

Swedish frilled veil Part III

2010-03-11T13:06:00.004+01:00

Read part I and part II.

Finally I finished the sewing portion of this project. I last blogged about it last april, and I'm so ashamed I have let it sit in a drawer for all these months. The veil is presented in these photo's on the wrong shape of hairdo, so please don't pay too much attention to that. I did find it funny though to see it arranged this way.

The veil still needs starching, and finishing touches. I will wait with that until I have the second veil I will make Maria is finished as well. This one has to be based on a northern German example. So now I am finding myself in the middle of two stacks of books. If anyone of you it familiar with frilled veils from this region, you're always welcome to share the info's you have here in the comment section. It will be greatly appreciated!

I will show some of the examples I tracked down on the blog next week.

Embroidered baby coif

2010-03-01T18:57:00.009+01:00

I couldn't resist making an embroidered coif for my 8 months old daughter :-). It's a woolen coif, with a single row of interlacing stitches embroidered in linen. The embroidery is inspired by
Birgitta's cap, studied by Isis. I'm not quite sure whether children actually wore embroidered woolen coifs like this, but it was fun to make.

Shoes and stockings

2010-02-23T12:33:00.004+01:00

I just finished my wool stockings and my wonderful husband made me these shoes :-).
Just in time for the LHO Winterfair 2010

Reading: Using computers in history

2010-02-17T12:12:00.002+01:00

I haven't been doing much silkwork as of late. I am reading a lot, and somehow ended up in a small research project where I have to work on early 16th century male clohting.

I have made some progress on this embroidery and this afternoon i'll be working on this. I hope to show you the progress next week!

Silver and gold ornaments of the vikings: Posaments

2010-02-09T17:27:00.004+01:00

Quite recently an amazing website was brought to my attention: http://www.silberknoten.de/
It is entirely devoted to plaited silver and gold metal ornaments or "posaments" of the early middle ages.
The word "posament" has its origines in the french word "passement" which means applicated onto textile material.
Be sure to have a look!

Tablet weaving: practice run part II

2009-11-05T15:19:00.006+01:00

Thanks for all your comments on my SOS post! This is my second attempt, in pink and white silk (1200 dernier) from Devere Yarns. This silk gives a very smooth, soft and shiny braid :-). The braid is about 1 cm in width. In the upper row, you can clearly see the point where I reversed the directions of the tablets. It's not so obvious as in my first attempt, but I'm not sure whether I like it: it really disrupts the smooth surface... I also found it difficult to maintain the tension of the weft. I guess that in my next attempt, I have to pull the weft a little tighter, because now it really shows at the edges.

(A reenactors dilemma: reversing the tablets is done in the original work, but the braid looks much better without it. To go for "authentic" or to go for "beautiful"? I'm inclined to go for beautiful...)

I want to use this type of braid to make some 14th century garters. (I've put my embroidery projects on hold and I'm currently focusing on a set of ca. 1370 clothes. )

You can find a picture of the original in

Crowfoot, E., Pritchard, F., & Staniland, K., Textiles and Clothing c. 1150-c. 1450. Medieval Finds from Excavations in London, 4. London: The Boydell Press, p 133 braid C.

A pattern of this braid can be found here.

Tablet weaving SOS

2009-10-28T17:20:00.004+01:00

I'm trying to practice some tablet weaving, using, among others, the great tutorial from string page here.

I'm doing a simplified trial run (sszzss) in thick cotton of the 14th century striped braid described here: http://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/3recipes.html

There is something I'm doing wrong, but I don't know how to correct it.

Each time I turn the tablets in reverse direction (e.g. 4 turns backward and then 4 turns forward), the weft shows through the surface. This happens only at the point where I reverse the tablets from one direction to another. (Each of my turns is one quarter of the tablet, so in 4 turns, I'm in "home position" again.) You can see this happening in the white stripe left of the pencil, where the red weft thread is visible in a way that shouldn't be...

I know the weft should not be showing, but I don't know what I'm doing wrong. If anyone knows how to solve this problem, please let me know :-)

Rogier van der Weyden, embroidered pillows?

2009-10-22T13:06:00.008+02:00

Yesterday I visited the Rogier van der Weyden Exhibition in Leuven, Belgium. It was interesting, with some beautiful paintings, scuplture and embroidery.

This blogpost is called embroidered pillows, because my attention was drawn by a detail from The seven sacraments (ca 1440-1445). In the left corner of the painting, where the 7th sacrament is depicted, a dying man lies in bed on a pile of pillows. When I looked at it closely, I thought that maybe the seams of these pillows were embroidered with some kind of interlacing stitch. Unfortunately, the picture of this painting in the Web Gallery of Art is not very detailed:

Seven Sacraments (right wing)

1445-50
Oil on oak panel, 119 x 63 cm
Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp

This type of pillow appears again in another painting by (the workshop of?) Van der Weyden: the Madonna of the dyptich of Jean the Gros. (this painting is not part of the exhibition). This time, the on-line picture is more detailed:

Portrait Diptych of Jean de Gros (left wing)

1450s
Oil on oak panel, 36 x 27 cm
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Tournai

all images from: http://www.wga.hu/

Interlacing stitches were used to sew pieces of linen fabric together in a decorative way. There are some examples of tablecloths, and of course the cap of St Birgitte.

I wonder whether these type of stitches were also used for pillow cases? If you know more about this, please let us know!

Catherine’s world: devotion, demons and daily life in the 15th century

2009-10-14T12:55:00.004+02:00

Museum Valkhof in Nijmegen (The Netherlands) presents an exhibition about Catherine of Cleves: Catherine’s world: devotion, demons and daily life in the 15th century.

Kunera: a database of medieval badges and ampullae

2009-10-06T09:41:00.003+02:00

Kunera is a database dedicated to the study of medieval badges and ampullae. In their own words:

"The website Kunera offers access to over 15.000 badges and ampullae of religious and profane subjects. The pilgrimage sites and the sites where the objects were found are mapped out visualizing the dissemination of the objects and the travel routes at a single glance."

You can find the database here: http://www.kunera.nl/

I write about this, because I really like the badges in the form of different types of pouches from circa 1375-1425. Search for "beurs" or"purse" and you'll find lovely badges such as this one (object 00818):

Quick update from Isis

2009-09-30T17:03:00.002+02:00

Hello dear readers!

These past months, I haven't been able to write on this blog, for which I am truly sorry.

I got a bit of a thesis whiplash, so to say :) Mr. B. has moved so I've been busy helping out with renovating and decorating the new house. I went on vacation for three lovely weeks (to France and Switserland). I visited two evens recently, one in Germany and one in Holland. I started a new study: Textile conservation and restoration, in Antwerp. My phd. proposal is slowly getting shape.

But alas, I have not made any progress on getting my thesis published yet. One: step in the right direction: before the end of this week I'm going to buy a laptop, this means I can work during long hours of train traveling! Yay :)

Museum Mayer van den Bergh

2009-09-05T18:13:00.006+02:00

This week I visited the museum Mayer van den Bergh in Antwerp, Belgium. It's a small, charming museum with an interesting collection of medieval art: embroidery (opus anglicanum), sculpture (wood, ivory) and paintings.

I really liked this panel from circa 1400, because of the colors and details such as the apron and the shoes. (read more about it here, go to "collections" and then "Antwerp-Baltimore")

The picture below and more nativity scenes can be found here. Too bad I can't read it, but the pictures are interesting!

Gold thread used in backstitch?

2009-09-05T13:56:00.004+02:00

Note: please read the comments to this post for new insights

Bertus from Deventer Burgerscap told me about this nice picture of a 15th century leather pouch, embroidered in gold thread:

http://www.hermann-historica.de/auktion/hhm58.pl?f=NR&c=93474&t=temartic_A_GB&db=kat58_a.txt

The embroidery used to decorate the pouch raises some very interesting questions: Is gold thread used in techniques other than couched work, i.e. techniques in which the thread disappears at the back of the work, such as brick stitch or backstitch? If so, then how is this achieved?

Usually, there are two arguments against the use of gold thread in techniques other than couched work:
1)gold thread is too expensive to be used at the back of a work, where it will not be seen
2)gold thread is not flexible enough to be used in stitches such as backstitch or brick stitch.

Still, it appears to me that in some rare cases, gold thread is used in techniques which involve sewing the thread through the fabric. The pouch above, for example, seems to be embroidered in backstitch rather than couched work.

Other examples , complete with close up pictures, of this particular use of gold thread can be found here:

Takacs, I. (2006), Sigismundus Rex et Imperator. Kunst und Kultur zur Zeit Sigismunds von Luxumburg 1387-1437., J.P. Himmer, Augsburg p 96 embroidered cloth from ca 1830 with unknown purpose/function

Tongeren, Basiliek O.L. Vrouw Geboorte. I Textiel. (1988), Leuven: Peeters. On the cover is a close up from a pouch dating from ca 1300.
See also Isis' documentation on this pouch here: http://www.paperflowergirl.com/patroon2web.pdf

It would be nice to know more about this (rare) use of gold thread. If anyone knows more about it, please let us know!

BTW: the leather pouch is for sale. Please let me know if one of you has bought it! (it's too expensive for me ...)

Book release!

2009-08-04T16:55:00.004+02:00

I just found out via Gina's blog that a new book from the Tudor Tailor authors has been published recently.

Here is an excerpt from the website:

FAT GOOSE PRESS is pleased to announce the publication of a new book offering a detailed insight into clothing at the beginning of the 16th century. The King’s Servants provides a vivid picture of Henry’s early court using evidence from royal warrants and account books in The National Archive. Caroline Johnson’s transcriptions and translations of more than two hundred hand-written pages of the original 16th century Latin and English documents have revealed a wealth of fascinating facts about expenditure on garments for servants at the Tudor court. The typical clothes worn by middling men during the decades between the battles of Bosworth (1485) and Flodden (1513) are described and reconstructed in this beautifully illustrated book.
Previously unpublished documents, including bundles of orders for clothes, and parchment books recording payments to such people as mercers, drapers, tailors, cordwainers and silkwomen, are carefully analysed to provide details of the usual allocation of dress to different ranks of servants at the royal court. The book focuses on the middle-ranking men who were clerks, messengers and huntsmen. There is also information on trends in men’s fashion at the turn of the century as the documents investigated demonstrate Henry VII’s expenditure as well as his son’s. A noteworthy inclusion is an early livery issued to Henry VII’s newly-founded Yeomen of the Guard, who were resplendent in green and white damask coats embellished with lavish gold embroidery.
The book offers a survey of relevant pictorial sources such as effigies, brasses and stained glass plus rare glimpses of archaeological artefacts from the late 15th and early 16th century. These, together with the archival information, have provided sufficient evidence for reconstructions of the typical royal servant’s every day wardrobe to be made and these are illustrated in high-quality colour photographs. The book also features comprehensive patterns for a man’s complete costume during the early Tudor period. These were devised by Ninya Mikhaila with other experienced costumiers, including Sarah Thursfield (The Medieval Tailor’s Assistant) and Jane Huggett (Clothes of the Common Woman, 1480-1580).

For more information click here.

Buttons

2009-07-30T12:08:00.003+02:00

A set of woolen buttons for the sleeves of my ca. 1370 dress.
I used Isis' tutorial, click here. It's in Dutch, but the pictures speak for themselves.

Dress in progress II

2009-07-19T17:41:00.006+02:00

I haven't posted for a long time: I gave birth to a sweet little baby girl and all I could think of was knitting baby stuff and decorating the nursery. In the last weeks of my maternity leave, I thought that maybe I could finally finish my dress.

Things to do:

- finish the hemline at the ankles
- sew 14 buttonholes (one sleeve)
- make 28 buttons (for two sleeves)
- lose 5 post-pregnancy kilos so I can wear the dress and breath at the same time :-)

10th International Conference on Urban History

2009-07-12T20:57:00.004+02:00

I know I have been away from the blog for a while, but I have been working on an archaeological site in Western Flanders, very near the French border, these past two weeks. The work was very rewarding, and the people very pleasant company, but being away from home 12 hours a day for two weeks is quite demanding.
The coming week I'll be also working, but closer to home, which will hopefully leave me a bit more time to myself in the evenings. We'll see!

For now I thought I'd just do a small post on an interesting conference that is taking place here in Ghent in September 2010!

10th International Conference on Urban History
Ghent
1st-4th September 2010
website: http://www.eauh2010.ugent.be
Organised by The Committee of the European Association for Urban History

The European Association for Urban History (EAUH) was established in 1989 with the support of the European Union. Conferences are organised every two years. These biennial conferences provide a multidisciplinary forum for historians, sociologists, geographers, anthropologists, art and architectural historians, economists, ecologists, planners and all others working on different aspects of urban history. This invitation is extended to all scholars who make urban history a distinctive and innovative subject.
The 2008 conference took place in Lyon, France. Click here to visit the website.

The submission for sessions is already closed, but papers can be submitted until the end of October 2009. One session is of particular interest to the people reading this blog:
S28: Silks, Tapestries and Townspeople: the Role of Luxury Textiles within Urban Economies during the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries.
A full list with all sessions can be found here.

Picking colours

2009-06-10T22:18:00.005+02:00

White satin lining

Purple tassels

White turk's head knots

Ochre braids

???

White satin lining

Purple tassels

Ochre turk's head knots

White braids

???

White satin lining
Purple tassels
Red turk's head knots
Ochre braids
???

OR

White satin lining
Purple tassels
Red turk's head knots
White braids
???

Notebooks

2009-06-09T14:39:00.003+02:00

I have bought myself 5 small notebooks last week. They are the size of a wallet, which means they are very easy to take with me wherever I go.
While working on my thesis, I realized I read way to little. I figured that one reason for me to not just read for fun, and only read things when I really need them for my research, is that I always forget way to much of the interesting facts I came accross. I don't like to use markers or pen in my expensive books, and when dealing with library books you can't even use them, even if you would want to. I also don't like sitting behind the computer while reading, so that you can directly put all the interesting and relevant information in a word.doc immediatly. I have an allergy to seperate pages with reading notes on them too. So that was the point when I decided to buy booklets for this.
Now, having them in use for about one week, I'm totally happy! They allow me to structure my thoughts about specific subjects and costume history in general way better. It's easy to find back quotes I found interesting, and it also serves as a kind of to do list for subjects I want to learn more about.
The only annoying thing that can happen is that you forget where you put your notebook. Was it in my handbag? Did I leave it on the coffee table? Maybe it sits underneath my pillow?

Fabric for pillows

2009-06-08T10:10:00.003+02:00

Maria from Albrechts Bösser has been weaving some custom fabric for me, to use for making medieval bed pillows. Yesterday she posted some photo's of the work in progress on facebook. The weave is made from linen yarn with a blue/white checker pattern.

It is based on several late medieval iconographic sources, but the pattern is specificly taken from a 1370-1372 dated fresco from Tirol. Maria had tried to recreate the pattern of the pillow with black chekcs in the above photo, but with blue instead of black yarn.

I decided to have the fabric custom made after a very long search for the perfect type of checked fabric. It seemed impossible to find. There are lots of internet stores selling antique linnen with checked weaves, but the checks are mostly red, of red and blue combined on a white ground, or the pattern of the checks is just not right.

I am very happy with how Maria's work turned out, and am waiting with excitement for the moment I can hold the fabric in my hands and sew it into pillows :-).

Evolution

2009-06-05T09:44:00.002+02:00

I was just going trough some old photo's today, as I came accross the ones below. The first one is from 2004, the second from 2006 and the last from 2008. In 2004 I didn't do any embroidery but my textile work was more focussed on dyeing wool. 2006 were my very first steps in embroidery, it was also the year I started this blog. 2008 was a year of progress (notice the embroidery frame, and I also made a complete new set of clothing).

I hope to work on some of the following things this year:

* make samples of different types of embroidery to show the public

* make samples of different types of finger loop braids

* make samples of tassels

* finish a couple more purses for display

* tansfer my yarns to replica thread reels

* I could go on for a couple more hours...

But, as I applied as a freelance craftswoman for Stichting Hei (Historical Educational Initiative) I want to work on the educational aspects of my 'performance'.

New things to read!

2009-06-04T17:31:00.004+02:00

Look what arrived in the post yesterday! The new MT&C v. 5! I've been waiting a bit with ordering it, because of the price ticket, but now I got one secondhand from Amazon.co.uk for a bargain :) And it's still in mint condition too.

I'm looking particluarly forward to reading "French Hoods: Development of a Sixteenth-Century Court Fashion" bij Melanie Schuessler and "One Quilt or Two? A Reassessment of the Guicciardini Quilts in the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Museo del Bargello" by Sarah Randles. If I only had the French Hood article at my disposal while writing my final thesis... It would have been of great help!

For the full table of contents of this volume, click here.

ALSO: thanks a billion for all your wonderfull reactions on my last post! It has now become the most commented post of this blog! I feel totally honoured and warm inside :)

It's finished!

2009-05-27T18:42:00.008+02:00

My thesis is finally finished and handed in.

I can still hardly believe I wrote a book-size work (it's about 200 pages and several ten thousands of words long) in one year time!

I will see what the possibilities are for publishing it in English. Any news on this matter will be put here on the blog to keep you all updated.

Abstract

2009-05-20T11:47:00.003+02:00

My thesis is nearly finished. I have to hand it in coming Monday but want to have everything printed out and bound by Friday evening.

I am now in the procress of editing my text. Most work I will have on putting my bibliography in order. This afternoon will be my last visit to the library to check some dates and details on written accounts.

Below I have included the French and English summary/abstract to my thesis. If you should have any comments on the language, please leave a reaction to this post! I would be endlessly thankfull!

____________

Avant 1350 des fichus froncés étaient utilisés couramment dans les Pays-Bas et le plus part des pays Européens. A partir d’environ 1340 devenaient en vogue des fichus bordés avec plusieurs couches de ruches et apparaît une plus grande diversité régionale dans les genres des fichus froncés. A partir de 1350 ce fichu émerge chez la noblesse des Pays-Bas et à partir des années 1360-70 elle pénètre jusqu'à la population ordinaire. Après environ 1460 la coutume de porter le ranse apparaît de disparaître chez la noblesse, par contre que chez la bourgeoisie cette coutume continue jusqu'à environ 1475 ou plus tard. Le ranse était un vêtement coûteux uniquement porté par la noblesse, les bourgeoises riches et rarement par des femmes de métier. Les occasions dans lesquelles les fichus froncés sont représentés sont essentiellement de caractère formel néanmoins pas nécessairement de caractère cérémoniel.
La comparaison de l’art bas Moyen Age avec des techniques de couture et de tissage (post-) médiévales nous permet d’acquérir une notion des méthodes de construction pour les faire. Les données sorties des recherches expérimentales nous ont offert une plus grande compréhension de la construction des fichus froncés, ce qui nous permet de mieux les classer typologiquement. En plus des expériences démontrent qu’on peut créer une très grande variété de fichus avec très peu de moyens et que le fichu froncé était un vêtement très multiple qu’on pourrait accommoder facilement à la dernière mode.
Grâce à une base de données contenant plus de 200 exemples de fichus froncés des Pays-Bas, il était possible de composer une typologie détaillée des différentes espèces des fichus de cette région.

____________

Simple frilled veils were already in use long before the mid 14th century, in the Low Countries as well as in most other European countries. From c. 1340 onwards frilled veils with multiple frilled edges became fashionable, and a greater regional variety of types of frilled veils came to be the order of the day. Around 1350 this multilayered style first appears at the courts of the Low Countries and about 1360-70 it reached the middle classes. After c. 1460 the frilled veils seem to disappear as a noble fashion, wealthy townswomen held on to wearing them until at least c. 1475. The ranse was a precious piece of female attire that was worn mainly by noble women and the citizen elite. Rarely it can be seen being flaunted by the working class as well. The occasions at which the ransen were worn were generally of a formal nature, but were not necessarily ceremonial.
Comparisons between late medieval art en (post-)medieval sewing- and weaving techniques allow us to have some understanding of the possible construction methods used for this headwear. Experimental study has resulted in a better understanding of the construction and arrangement of the frilled veils, allowing a better typological categorisation of iconographic sources. The experiments also show that with limited resources a wide variety of veils could be achieved.Thanks to the compilation of a database containing more than 200 sources from the Low Countries it was possible to construct a detailed typology of the frilled headwear in this region.

Embroidery at the Rijksmuseum

2009-04-25T18:24:00.004+02:00

The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam has a new online exhibition: Accessorize! with a selection of the (dress) accessories in their collections. All items in the exhibition are post medieval, but very worth your time!

In the image above are two pairs of embroidered slippers and a embroidered purse.

What my weekend has been about...

2009-04-20T10:09:00.005+02:00

Experimenting with all the achievable varieties of one and the same frilled veil. They seem endless.

I'm just giving a sneak preview in the photo's: my thesis will have lots more on this subject :)

Thesis stress strikes

2009-04-19T17:41:00.001+02:00

... What happens after nearly 24 hours of sewing ...

Illustrating

2009-04-18T15:53:00.000+02:00

I call these my 'silly lasses'. They are illustrations to accompany the typology for my Master thesis. The writing is going slow: somehow these days I seem not in the mood for writing. I had lots of fun making these drawings though.
I made the first drawings like this for my powerpoint that accompanied my lecture in March. Now I am completing the series with the other existing types of frilled veils discusses in my thesis.

Winding up Part II

2009-04-16T12:15:00.003+02:00

Stuttgart. Cod. Poet. 2° 2: Schachzabelbuch, 1467, fol. 196 v.

So, I found this image lingering on my computer. I made a drawing of it a couple of years ago for a friend who was writing about cloth production and needed an illustration to accompany the text. Looking at it again, I found this interesting detail in the forgeground of the scene. See the little box? It has two sticks pointing upwards with a horizontal bar in between. On the bar you can see a round disc or wheel, and on the left of the wheel a bow shaped thing. On the other side of the weel there appears to be a stick with yarn wound around it. In the box are more reels with yarn.

ca. 1509, penelope with the suitors, PINTORICCHIO, national gallery of london, Fresco on canvas, 125.5 x 152 cm

Laura made me aware of the existance of another work of art showing a very similar tool. Here the bow is missing, and the wheel isn't massive but it has four spikes connecting it to the shaft.

The bow shaped thing right a way reminded me of a bow lathe. Bow lathes were used in Medieval (and earlier) times for small turning projects, like bone beads etc. By moving the bow up and down you can turn round the object you are working on. However, with this mechanism your object also always turns in two directions: it will always turn back at you.
When winding up yarns you cannot have a mechanism that turns in two directions, because then the yarn will never be wound on the reel.

So someone with more insight in things like this could throw in some ideas?

A typology of Netherlandish frilled veils

2009-04-15T11:00:00.000+02:00

The catalogue for my final thesis is finished. It counts 81 pages and has 201 works of art/objects featuring frilled veils in it. In those 201 objects there are to be seen 228 frilled headdresses.

Now I'm working on revising the typology of Netherlandish frilled veils I made last year. With new pictorial evidence it is now possible to make a better division between types, and to see the chronological evolution more clearly. The typology chapter will consist of small explenatory drawings showing a prototype of each subtype of frilled headwear, accompanied with a text giving more information about when and where the type was popular, and in which ways it was worn. There will also be references to the items in the catalogue of that particular type. Included in the typology chapter will be a timeline with frilled headwear types.

Ah, I got work to do!

New project: Swedish frilled veil Part II

2009-04-10T19:20:00.004+02:00

Read part I here.

In the mean time I have ordered fine linen fabric to use for the veil.

I've been doing some calculating for the frilled veil I'm making for Maria from Albrechts Bössor. I figured the frilled edge should be ca. 70 cm long and the edge of the veil itself ca. 85 cm, in order to resemble the veil on the statue. The frilled edge will consist of two layers of fabric worked in frills of each ca. 1,75 cm wide. There will be ca. 40 pleats in total.

And now I remember where I saw this type of frills earlier. It was on this Netherlandish statue from the 15th century of St.-Anna-ten-Drieën (Saint Anne, the mother of Mary). It was made by an anonymus sculpturer, and is now in a private collection.

To be continued...

Frilled veils - Experiment 2

2009-04-08T21:39:00.005+02:00

1. Mechelen, Schepenhuis, 1374-1385.

2. Hakendover, Goddelijke Zaligmaker Church, 1400-1404, statue was part of an altar that is partly preserved, but the sculpture in the photo is now stolen. You could already see a peek of this statue here.

3. Mechelen, Hof van Buysleden, late 14th or early 15th century.

These sculptures show a very similar style of headdress. On fig. 1 you can see a female head console with a single layered wavy frill on her headdres. Fig. 2 wears to layers of wavy frills on top of each other. In fig. 3 two layers of fabric are worked into one wavy frill.

Here is my reconstruction before starching, hence the pins still being in place. This is just a small sample. I didn't attach a veil part to it, just a small strip of fabric to attach the frilled edge to.

fabric = bleached linen
thread count = 26x21 / cm² (and a coarser linen for the veil-part, just what I had at hand)
width of fabric = 8 cm
length of fabric = 70 cm
length of final sample = 16 cm
pleats = small cartridge pleats of ca. 0.5cm deep, for the wavy frills I used my index finger as a diameter for the frills

Here's how I made it:

1. take a strip of fabric and sew it in tiny cartridge pleats
2. attach pleated fabric to veil
3. work the pleated edge into wavy frills using pins to hold everything in place

More detailed descriptions of all the experiments will be in my final thesis.

New embroidery project Part III

2009-04-07T17:13:00.005+02:00

Yesterday's progress...
The inventory with frilled headwear is now 72 pages long and nearly finished! YAY!

I also found the time to finally upload the promised pattern/information sheet on the Maastricht purse.

Find a pdf-file with the pattern and more information and photo's of the original here.

Silk yarns: a comparison

2009-04-05T16:00:00.008+02:00

I thought, now that I have done some embroidery in filament silk, that it would be interesting to do a detailed comparison between yarn types and medieval originals.

In the images above you can see a comparison of modern spun silk, modern filament silk, and medieval filament silk. You will notice that the modern filament silk is much more similar to the medieval original. On original medieval embroideries in most cases you can not tell if the yarn is S- or Z-spun, which is an important characteristic to loose twist filament silk.

The original shown in the above photo's is a reliquary purse from Maastricht, dated ca. 1300.

Filament silk is made by reeling one continuous silk fibre from the silk cocoons and plying those together to form one thread. This results in very strong yarn, since one firbre is over 1 km long.
After the reeling process shorter fibres stay behind. When these are combed they can be spun into yarns. This results in a less strong and less shiny yearn.
A discription of the silk reeling process can be found here.

Filament silk

basic characteristics: very strong, shiny, very even thread
suitable for period embroidery, narrow wares, possibly less suitable for tassels
modern option: e.g. Devere Yarns - 1200 dernier silk, Au ver a Soie - Soie Ovale

Spun Silk

basic characteristics: less strong and shiny, not as even as filament silk
less suitable for period embroidery, suitable for tassels
modern option: e.g. Au ver a Soie - Soie d'Alger, Aurora Silk

An interesting discussion about this subject can be found on the Soper Lane forum. You can read it here. In the discussion, it seems to turn out that medieval silkwomen used to prefer to work with filament silk, and that for fingerloopbraiding, tabletweaving and embroidery, filimant silk was probably used in most cases. Spun silk could have been used for making tassels, or silkwork of lesser quality.

New embroidery project Part II

2009-04-04T16:47:00.006+02:00

A tiny bit of progress! I added a touch of strawberry red and I decided the tassels of the purse should be blue. I'm not sure which type of tassels I should pick this time. Tassels with turk's head knots, pompom's with a turk's head knot or maybe even just the knots without tassels or pompoms.

We'll see :)

New embroidery project

2009-04-03T13:28:00.006+02:00

I always seem to be doing a lot more things at moments I have very little time. It's isn't any different right now. I started a new embroidery yesterday. It's going slowly, but it is a good thing to do during my small breaks away from the computerscreen in between writing sessions.

I'm using DevereYarns loose twist 1200 denier silk. It is the first time I use this type of yarn for embroidery (I have been using it in the past for fingerloop braiding and tablet weaving), and I really love it. It is so shiny and smooth and it looks so much like the silk used on original medieval purses. Machteld did a comparison between spun and filament silk some time ago. More recently Kathy from Medieval Arts & Crafts did a comparison between different types of embroidery threads that is interesting to take a look at.

I decided I will not ever use a different type of thread to do silk embroidery ever again :-).

The pattern of the embroidery will be the same as I did on this one, except I won't be adding the coat of arms. the pattern is based on a ca. 1300 purse in the Sint Servaas treasury in Maastricht. the purse originates from the Liege/Maastricht region. I have made an information sheet on this purse in a pdf file, including the pattern and a photo of the original. I will be putting it in the new 'downloads' section on the blog soon, so keep your eyes open!

In the background you can see an image of a console from Diest, Belgium. It dates back to the second half of the 14th century.

"TEXTILES ET COSTUME DU HAUT MOYEN ÂGE"

2009-04-03T11:02:00.002+02:00

Wat I happened to stumble upon this morning: something of interest to all of you interested in earlier textiles:

Textiles and costume of the High Middle Ages: an article by Swiss Textile specialist
Antoinette RAST-EICHER with several very interesting archaeological finds. http://www.histoire-images-medievales.com/HIM20_Dossier_textiles.pdf

Winding up

2009-04-02T16:30:00.007+02:00

Winding up my naturally dyed silk yarns on reels is one of the things I have been doing these days besides writing. The spools are based on a 12th century find from London. It's the only reel find I know so far, I'd be happy to hear about other finds. Mikkel from the Danish blog Haandkraft made some really lovely reels loosely based on the same London find. In his post you will also find a photo of the original.

The yarns are, from foreground to background:

Redwood - Aurorasilk

Weld - dyed by Indra Ottich

Camomile - dyed by Indra Ottich

Madder - Aurorasilk

Cochineal - Aurorasilk

Madder - dyed by Indra Ottich

Redwood - dyed by Indra Ottich

I really like to use these yarns for making tassels and braids.

You can also see some late 14th - early 15th frilled veils in the background as well. Fragments of paper with parts of my catalogue are cluttering every table in the house!

Presentation handout

2009-03-31T15:05:00.001+02:00

You can download the handout of Saturday's presentation here or by clicking the image.

Cataloguing Netherlandish frilled veils

2009-03-30T16:22:00.003+02:00

The first six of over 60 pages of catalogue.
The catalogue will contain over 170 works of art and objects that feature frilled veils. It will be added to my final thesis as an appendix.

I will also put the handout of my presentation last Saturday online this week, so that everyone who wasn't there can download it. It is written in Dutch but is has 30 pictures on only 8 pages to explain the text!

Courses in gold embroidery and other textile crafts

2009-03-26T23:58:00.002+01:00

When you are in the Netherlands and looking for places to take courses or workshops in textile techniques, have a look at the following sites:

NEEDLES4ALL

Needles4all organizes workshops and short courses in several locations in the Netherlands on a regular basis. Workshops/courses are announced on the Needles4all website and open to anyone who likes to embroider.
Needles4all's workshops and courses include: gold embroidery, needlebinding, smocking, blackwork, and more.

Creativiteitscentrum Boerderij Oud Woelwijck

This centre for creative arts offers a course in gold embroidery, taught by Ulrike Müllners, a professional textile conservater/restorator.

Frilled headwear presentation on Saturday

2009-03-25T17:20:00.006+01:00

Here are some screenshots of my powerpoint presentation for Saturday :)

"A chest with ranssen [=frilled veils]"
Pleated and frilled headwear in the Netherlands of the Late Middle Ages

The name of a piece of female dress made of one or another fine fabric, probably a synonym of hovetcleet [=headdress], namely a bonnet or cap, that fals in folds from the face to the shoulders.

-> This is the definition that is given to the word 'ransen' in the Middle Netherlandish dictionary by Jacob Verdam.

Early examples of frilled headwear.

The places where examples of frilled headwear can be found in the Netherlands. Every dot stands for one iconographic example.

The veils themselves didn't always change much during the years. It is rather the hairdo's that change, so that a rather different image appears.

Crowns???

2009-03-25T12:49:00.007+01:00

These three sculptures from Ghent once belonged to the mantlepieces of old townhouses across the city. They all wear a wrilled veil and a crown-like thingy underneath it. The women on the first and last pic are wearing their hair loose, the middle one wears it in short braids. I have only seen these in the Ghent-region and not anywhere else. So they might be a very local fashion.

Has anyone ever seen anything like these crown-like things before? They seem to be made from semi-circular rosette like pieces is some kind of metal. They might be completely circular and then partly covered by the veil so that what you see is only part of the crown.

I'm anxious to know wether anyone of you has ever seen these from other places than Ghent en if you have maybe come accross archaeological finds of metal jewelry that resemble the crowns on these sculptures.

In the mean time I'm preparing a small lecture about frilled headwear for the LHO (a medieval reenactment society) on Saturday. It will be a good excercise in preparation of my thesis defendance in June.

I'm still writing crazy, so many pages still have to be put on paper before mid May!

Found in Alva's Ditch - Exhibition

2009-03-12T10:16:00.004+01:00

From March 6 to Agust 9 2009 there is an exhibition at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen with 16th century textile finds from the socalled Alva's Ditch in Groningen, unearthed during excavations in 1996 and 2000.

In 2007 Hanna Zimmerman finished het Phd. on this subject. Her dissertation resulted in the book 'Textiel in Context' which sure is something you have to read (it is in Dutch though).

Visiting the Belgian Royal Library

2009-03-11T22:57:00.004+01:00

Last week I was in Brussels, Belgium, and I visited the Belgian Royal Library:

http://www.kbr.be/informations/informations_fr.html

The “manuscript room” was really interesting! They've got a very nice collection of research literature on medieval manuscripts, books, literature, illuminations etc. But the most amazing thing is that the library has also got a collection of medieval manuscripts that you might actually consult in the reading room. You have to search the catalogs to find the manuscript and then you can order it for reading. For really valuable manuscripts, you have to have permission of the Head of the Manuscript Room. I haven't tried it yet, but while I was there, I saw people leafing through illuminated manuscripts that you normally only see behind glass in a museum. There are also files of black-and- white photocopies of illuminations in specific manuscripts, so you can see which manuscripts might be interesting.

A visitor pass for a day is 2, 50 euro and for a week 5 euro.
The Royal Library is very close to Brussels Central Station and it's really worth a visit when you're in the neighborhood.

Random

2009-03-11T02:18:00.002+01:00

Just some random things about today:

I treated myself to a membership of the British Costume Society.
I found out this lovely Finnish blog now also has English summaries.
I have been wondering about the history of lace, but I couldn't find a book about it in the uni library.

Help! Illumination mistery

2009-02-28T11:05:00.003+01:00

Does anyone know this image and where it comes from?

Any hints would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Mistery solved:

Illumination from the "Trojanischen Krieg"
Date: 1441
Manuscript: HS 998
Collection Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Germany

Frilled veils - Experiment 1

2009-02-19T22:22:00.007+01:00

I am working on a new series of experiments with frills.
Here is n°1.

fabric = bleached linen
thread count = 26x21 / cm²
with of fabric = 8 cm
length of fabric = 3 x 70 cm
length of final sample = 22 cm + 4 cm fabric left over
pleats = 6 cm wide

The example is a chimney/hearth console from Bruges, in the collection of the Gruuthuse Museum. It is dated to the late 14th century.

Next to it is the first sample I did. I am not completely satisfied with the result yet. The two outer rows of frills do not stay in place as they should.

Above are some other examples of frilled veils from the Low Countries with box-pleats. The three on the top row are also in the collection of the Gruuthuse Museum in Bruges, on the bottom row the one on the left and the right are currently in the collection of the STAM museum. All date from the last quarter of the 14th century.

Above are two photo's of the progress.

More detailed descriptions of all the experiments will be in my final thesis.

Help!

2009-02-17T10:07:00.008+01:00

1. Sint-Michielskerk, Gent, Belgium - 13th century

2. Old townhall, Mechelen, Belgium - late 14th century

3. Village church, Eine, Belgium - 13th century

4. Village church, Eine, Belgium - 13th century

Does someone have a clue what these figures with bits in their mouths stand for? In the case of the male heads I can imagine it might have to do something with the legend of Aristoteles and Phyllis (see also fig. 2).

Aristotle, the Greek philosopher and tutor of Alexander the Great, allowed himself to be humiliated by the seductive Phyllis, Alexander's favorite courtesan, as a lesson to the young ruler, who had succumbed to her wiles and neglected the affairs of state. Encouraging Alexander to witness his folly, Aristotle explained that if he, an old man, could be so easily deceived, the potential consequences for a young man were even more perilous.

Source here.

However, I can not see why women would also be depicted this way and what the meaning is that is hidden behind it.

Any information on this matter would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you.

Women's caps

2009-02-04T12:45:00.005+01:00

Prefix: A short version of this post is also available in Dutch. An extensive article on medieval women's caps and the cap of St. Birgitta (a Swedisch saint of the 14th century) is to be found in: Dahl, C.L. & I. Sturtewagen, 2008, The Cap of St. Birgitta, Medieval Clothing and Textiles vol. IV, pp. 99-129.

1. Maciejowski Bible

White fabric caps can relatively often bee seen on women in medieval art from the 13th to 15th centuries. Examples are known from Italy, France, The Low Countries, Scandinavia, ... These images can teach us much about how the caps were constructed and how they were worn. Fig. 3 in particluar is very interesting because we can see the ties are not two seperate ribbons, but form a loop. On fig. 4 a seam on the back of the cap is clearly visible.

2. Tacuinum Sanitatis, c.1390, Paris, BNF, MS. Lat. Acq. 1673, fol. 11r.
3. Les Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles, Frankrijk, c.1475-1500, Glasgow University, MS Hunter 252, fol. 186r.
4. Liturgische kalender uit Kamerijk, 1275-1300, Den Haag, KB, 76 J 18, fol. 211v.

Also written sources give information about women's caps. The word that is regularly used in Dutch witten sources is 'huve' or 'huvete'. The word 'huve' is not exclusively used for female headgear, but also for men's. For a more detailed discussion about the terminology of women's caps see Dahl, C.L. & I. Sturtewagen, 2008, The Cap of St. Birgitta, Medieval Clothing and Textiles vol. IV, pp. 99-129.

Item off twe vrouwespersonen sick onder een ander dat huvete afftogen kijflicken, dat is vijff marck, Westerw. Landr. 53, 3 (Source: Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek).
TRANSLATION: About two women who quarreled and ripped each others 'huvete' [= cap] away, that makes five 'marck' [=monetary unit].

Van huven, die sy voir mire vrouwen gecoft hadde, Oorl. v. Albr. 308 (Source: Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek).
TRANSLATION: Of 'huven' [=caps], that she had bought for my lady.

Other written sources (eg. the ca. 1370 Bruges Livre des Métiers) tell us that huves could be made in silk or in linen and that they were often worn underneath a veil, which makes total sense. This may be the cause of the fact that women's caps are much more rare in iconographic sources than the well known male coifs. However this does not necessarily mean that they were worn less regularly. Also the caps for a good base for pinning upper veils to, and they are a less labour intensive alternative to knotted silk hairnets.

5. The cap of Saint Birgitte in the Birgittine Convent in Uden, photo's by Isis Sturtewagen.

An original medieval cap (dating between the 13th and 16th centuries) is in the posession of the Birgittine Convent in Uden, The Netherlands. This cap is believed to have been Saint Birgitta's of Sweden and is kept as a relic. On this original the ties were broken, so it is not completely clear wether it were two seperate ties of one loop similar to the cap in fig. 4 however it is very probable they formed a loop. This is also how the cap was restored during the conservation in the ealry 1970's.

6. Arrangement of the cap, Medieval clothings and textiles vol. 4. Fig 6.11 p. 122

The women's caps could have been worn in different ways, depending on how long the loop was en how many times it could be wrapped around the head. The method above is the same as we can see in the Maciejowski Bible and Tacuinum Sanitatis.

7. Reconstruction of the cap of Saint Birgitta by Isis Sturtewagen (nevermind the modern clothing)

Above is my own attempt on making a women's cap. It is made out of linen and lacks the emroidery that was found on the cap of Saint Birgitte. I plan on making a silk 'huve' somewhere in the future which will have all the embroidery applied to it.

I showed you a couple of reconstructions of the cap in a previous post on this blog. Catharina Oksen (from the Middelaldercentret in Denmark) has also made a lovely reconstruction (text in Danish).

Border in interlacing stitch finally finished :-)

2009-01-05T13:27:00.007+01:00

I finally finished the first part of my 14th century tablecloth: a border in interlacing stitch :-) It's about 100 cm by 5 cm. It took me about 30 hours: I needed about 1,5 hours for each sequence (the close-up above shows 2 sequences).

You can find pictures of similar whitework borders here, here (the one I'm trying to re-create) and here. I wrote a tutorial for this type of embroidery here.

Medieval Silkwork

Printed linen - little bits from my craft room

Online articles from the 'Textielhistorische Bijdragen'

Rags to Riches: dress and dress accessories in social context

A book of old embroidery, 1921

Reference for ca 1340 French pouch in Krakow

Building a wardrobe: a mood board

Smocked apron finished

Northern German frilled veil Part IV

Northern German frilled veil Part III

Lecture on frilled veils in Visby, Sweden

Thanks to our 300 followers

A ca 1340 French pouch

Gorgeous blogger award

Letter pouch

Us and our men in HOME Eindhoven

Embroidered border for my Birgitta Cap

A 14th century fragment with embroidered unicorns

Turmhügelburg Lütjenburg

A smocked apron, continued

Image of knitting Madonna

Some publications of the York Archeological Trust now downloadable for free

V&A textile rooms temporarily closed

A smocked apron: Some things I've learned along the way

Heraldic pouches revisited

Embellishing the seams of a pouch with gold thread

Anjou Bible c 1340: fully digitalized and accessible

Northern German frilled veil Part II

An exhibition dedicated to the memory of Olaf Goubitz

New outfit planning

To do list

Medieval Clothing and Textiles 7

New spools

Eyelet stitch embroidery I

Frilled veils final thesis is online!

New pattern

Progress, part IV

Gebroeders van Limburg Weekend, Nijmegen

13th century lace embroidery

Heraldic pouches continued

14th century heraldic pouches: what type of stitch is this?

A gift from Quakenbrück

Smocked apron tutorials

Preparing for Quackenbruck (part 1)

Finished: Swedish frilled veil

Northern German frilled veil Part I

Turk's knot tutorial

Embroidery for a friend

Swedish frilled veil Part III

Embroidered baby coif

Shoes and stockings

Reading: Using computers in history

Silver and gold ornaments of the vikings: Posaments

Tablet weaving: practice run part II

Recommended reading: Ecclesiastical Pomp and Aristocratic Circumstance

Tablet weaving SOS

Rogier van der Weyden, embroidered pillows?

Seven Sacraments (right wing)

Portrait Diptych of Jean de Gros (left wing)

Catherine’s world: devotion, demons and daily life in the 15th century

Kunera: a database of medieval badges and ampullae

Quick update from Isis

Museum Mayer van den Bergh

Gold thread used in backstitch?

Book release!

Buttons

Dress in progress II

10th International Conference on Urban History

Picking colours

Notebooks

Fabric for pillows

Evolution

New things to read!

It's finished!

Abstract

Embroidery at the Rijksmuseum

What my weekend has been about...

Thesis stress strikes

Illustrating

Winding up Part II