Archive for the ‘ArtsAndSciences50 Wardrobe’ Category
You are currently browsing the archives for the ArtsAndSciences50 Wardrobe category.
26
Aug
2010
Drachenwald – we have dragons ;) – Klosterstich / dragon fun project – Embroidery & Calligraphy
Some of you may ask what embroidery has to do with calligraphy – but sometimes you can also find letters, words and whole texts/stories on tapestries,… following a typical style of its time… 
…and I decided to embroider “We have Dragons” – and that’s a kind of calligraphy – just with thread and needle instead of ink and embroidered…
Sounds difficult? maybe, but it is rather easy if you dare to try it (and have enough letters to get a feeling of the style you want to copy
First I took a look at the letters which were available for me and I was very happy because the Tristan tapestry has many of them…
I could find all letters besides the “W” but I just followed the style for the “V” and doubled it for the “W” (after taking a look at the available “M” and “N” and finding a style similarity with the “V”).
I also took a look at the spacing between the letters and the spacing between the words and what connected or separated them – that’s how I found the lovely + crosses + …because this crosses don’t appear as regular separators (sometimes a small ring was used, sometimes just emtpy space) I decided to ‘just’ use them for the start and the end as a additional decoration
…and not to forget this small extra tiny bits at the base or top of some letters… this small bits really are the additional spice of your embroidered calligraphy
Then I wrote down the words – ca. the height which I wanted to achieve in the end – on 3 small stripes of paper/ one word on each stripe and arranged them underneath the embroidery to get a feeling which distance between the letters and at the beginning and end could work well…
As soon as I found a nice distance between the words I connected the stripes with a glue stripe
Finally I pinned the stripe with the words, just leaving some space for the embroidery, to the fabric and started to copy the words with a pencil on the fabric – still playing a little bit with the space – and started embroidering…
While embroidering I made the decision to alter the distance and shape of some of the words – maybe some of you can see the difference between the paper stripe, the drawing with the pencil and the final embroidery – but small differences between the outlines at the fabric and the final embroidery are period 
For example the “A” , “R” and the “S” – I tried to copy the angles and the small extras as exact as possible
…and now I am working to fill the background with yellow wool…
I think that’s the first time that I embroider the “outlines” before I start working at the background – normally I fill the background first and then start with the outlines…
22
Aug
2010
interesting links – Neulakko & Textile Time Travels :)
Hunnun pukeminen
…I found a great veil turtorial at the Neulakko blog – it’s a blog of a SCA-friend of mine from Finnland and this posting is in Finnish (her new postings are in Finnish and English) but the photos are very great and therefore also very self-explaining – I will keep it in my mind for my 14th century garb project
Textile Time Travels
…and via a link pointing to my blog I discovered that another SCA-friend of mine, Annika, started a costuming blog!!! woooohooooooo!!!! I am so very looking forward to her next postings because I always wanted to make such a lovely dress… – have I ever mentioned that I like Cranach and German Renaissance dresses, and other stuff like this? embroidery!!!! plenty possibilities to get mad with embroidery yeah!!!!!
22
Aug
2010
Drachenwald – we have dragons ;) – some project ideas :)
…my mind started working at this project again – imagination is the key and a good collection of photos of medieval purses helps also a little 
I found a painted picture with a trapezoidal purse with “Fransen” (fringes) at the bottom – see the Manesse Liederhandschrift ‘Herr Dietmar von Ast’, the purse on the right – and therefore I am thinking about to add some colored fringes at the bottom like the one found at the bottom of the book pouch on display at the Schloss Gottorf and which technique I described here: …my opinion on the stitches to create this trim… Raca’s 5cents
btw. with the help of Master Giano, who found the book “Webereien und Stickereien des Mittelalters”
– I could support my guess of this technique (page 116 – “Z 30. Fransen.”)
You can find this kind of colored fringes also as a border decoration for big Klosterstich wallhangings (Teppich: Die Wurzel Jesse, Kloster Lüne, dated 1503, vollendet 1505), Klosterstich “Banklaken” (Banklaken des heiligen Bartholomäus, Kloster Lüne, dated 1492), even for woven “Banklaken” (Pelikan-Banklaken, Kloster Lüne, 1500), cross-stitch “Fürleger” (Kloster Lüne, about 1500) …take a look into the small booklet Bildstickereien des Mittelalters in Kloster Lüne. Die bibliophilen Taschenbücher
a very small but also a great book!
I also think about adding a yellow border of yellow wool or silk and to embroider “Drachenwald” – above the embroidery section – and “We have Dragons” underneath the embroidery section… and also to add some small pearl embroidery at the border because I found a photo of a pouch with lovley small pearl (maybe glass bead) embroidery looking like small blossoms…
soooooo many ideas… soon you will see which of this ideas I will realise
18
Aug
2010
Drachenwald – we have dragons ;) – Klosterstich / dragon fun project – 98 hours :)
wooohooo – embroidery progress of 98 hours!!!
…as you can see I decided to use white and other colors for the outlines instead the black outlines of the original tapestry (and I also changed the color of some sections) …
…and yesterday I also changed the shape of the embroidered section because I decided to do a “round-top trapezoidal aumônière” – yeah, I had to add a small piece of fabric at the left side to make it possible, but I fell in love with this idea and it took me about 14 hours to add the embroidery on the left…
The round-top trapezoidal aumônières I found till now aren’t worked in Klosterstich but many of the lovely Klosterstich wallhangings were destroyed because they just cut them and used them for something different… For this project I just pretend that I cut a piece out of a Tristan wallhanging and rework it into a round-top trapezoidal aumônière for me…
…through the years I have seen so many pouches with many different kinds of embroidery or just using very nice patterned fabric, that I think that maybe, even if it wasn’t very common, there is a small chance that someone also used a small part of a wallhanging to turn it into a purse or pouch…
…a very nice bag for my 14th century garb project (and easier to make than a self supporting cotehardie…
12
Aug
2010
Drachenwald – we have dragons ;) – Klosterstich / dragon fun project – 75hours :)
…and finally some Klosterstich embroidery – I found some time to continue my ‘dragon fun project’
new status: ca. 75 hours
wool: Renaissance Dyeing
10
Aug
2010
Heavy Fighting summary & Gambeson progress :)
Gyles, a good friend of mine in Insulae Draconis (England) whom I got to know during my stay in London before and after the Midsummer Conoration 2008, asked me some time ago if I would like to become his man-at-arms and I agreed. Recently Gyles contacted me and asked me about my recent progress concerning Heavy Fighting and I started thinking about what I have done for my Heavy Fighting during the last months – here my short summary for Gyles and you:
Fighter Practise: unfortunately I didn’t attend a FP since autumn last year, as far as I recall it, due to some health problems which made it not possible for me to participate
Training: I started with the first “Armored Combat” instructions of ‘Paul of Bellatrix’ and still train my arm muscles using 1 kg weights
Body + Leg Armour: *sigh* I still need a good body armour… *sigh* Gyles offered to make a leather body armour for me but for this reason I have to travel to ID and at the moment this is not possible for me …
Helmet: already ordered from a very good armourer but due to some problems the helmet still isn’t finished yet, I also bought a helmet for FP but I still have to adjust it and to make a new helmet padding because I gave mine to Esche, a good friend of mine.
Sword: already made and have one
Wiglaf, a Master and Knight living near the border between Germany and Austria recently offered me some of his old armour – hopefully he will find something that suits me and it would be very nice to meet him again – we haven’t seen each other for some years now.. so near, but also quite far away…
…ok, and now to a piece of my fighting stuff in progress – my Gambeson for FP:
Maybe some of you remember that I started a “Gambeson” for SCA Heavy Fighting in Summer 2008 – I need a “Gambeson” – I have to admit that this UFO (UnFinished Object) still isn’t finished but this summer I started to work at it again.
You know, girls are not as flat built as boys (hips, breasts,…) and that was a major problem I had to fix while adjusting my Gambeson – in the end I decided to treat it similar to a self supporting dress and to work it towards my body to ensure a better movement. First I took away a little bit of the back using safety pins – trying it on, readjusting the pins, trying it on again… and in the end I got a nice shape that fits my back.
After the back part I started to adjust the sides – also using safety pins.
Before I started to sew it together at the new ‘lines’ I just stitched it together with long stitches with a rather thin thread – finally I had to readjust the neck part and than sewed the parts together following the new lines by using a strong thread…
Now I have to work at the armholes and the shoulder part – the better I solve this part the better the possible movement range will be…
20
Jul
2010
Drachenwald – we have dragons ;) – Klosterstich / dragon fun project – 43hours :)
My last days were rather busy – visiting some friends for cake and coffee, BBQ with other friends, driving a MINI (car) for the first time,…
*lol* but I still managed to make some further progress – new status: ca. 43 hours
wool: Renaissance Dyeing
btw. I changed the color of two sections
11
Jul
2010
Drachenwald – we have dragons ;) – Klosterstich / dragon fun project .1 :)
…and again some progress concerning my lovely little dragon – the work of about 13.5 hours
I again use the lovely threads from ‘Renaissance Dyeing’ for this embroidery – it’s my favourite wool for Klosterstich – starting this fun project I realised that I unfortunately ran out of my favourite blue & red color but nevertheless I decided to use another very bright red wool from R.D. and to order my favourite blue and red color to complete my color range for further projects – Renaissance Dyeing handled my order very fast and my new blue and red hanks already arrived including some samples of other colors – thanks Andie!!! – and now I have enough blue wool for the background
You may ask why I am ordering 250 m hanks – the answer is quite easy – 25m are rather nice for special colors and rather small sections but I order basic colors like red, yellow, blue and white only in 250m hanks because I am sure that I will need them und use them up
…btw. this here are my Renaissance Dyeing threads – the ‘basic’ color range I am working with including the new order, but most of this threads are still “leftovers” of my Weiberlisten Wallhanging …and if you don’t find the color you are looking for at the Renaissance Dyeing website – just contact Andie, maybe she has some threads with special colors hidden in her ‘treasury chest’ like the special green wool for the grass hills of my Weiberlisten Wallhanging *sigh* yeah, that’s customer service
4
Jul
2010
Drachenwald – we have dragons ;) – Klosterstich / dragon fun project :)
Finally I decided that I need another embroidery ‘fun’ project after the embroidery for Anya’s Laurel Cloak – a ‘fun’ project which doesn’t involve any kind of pearls or beads or ‘gold thread’ to recover from the project and to get inspired for my next projects… I really need some new inspiration…
When I started my research for my ‘Weiberlisten’/'Malterer’ Wallhanging Project, the Tristan Wallhanging from the Kloster Wienhausen in Germany was the first wallhanging worked in Klosterstich which I found. I was very happy when I got the big size picture map which I ordered via the telephone directly at the cloister Wienhausen… and I immediately fell in love with this cute dragon – several times I wanted to copy this dragon and to embroider it but for some reasons I wasn’t pleased with my outlines and didn’t continue with the embroidery… until some days ago when I finally decided to embroider it…
…btw. that’s the progress of about 5hours…
…and if you would like to get to know more about the story of “Tristan and Isolde” follow the link to Wikipedia: “Tristan and Iseult”
22
Mai
2010
4th item for my artfire shop… 13th century German Brick Stitch pouch :)
Finally I managed to take some nice photos of my 13th century German Brick Stitch pouch in day light (and some additional ones of my small pouch with 14th centruy German Brick Stitch) and therefore I also added my 13th century German Brick Stitch pouch to my artfire.com studio – “Racaire’s embroidery & needlework“
…completely embroidered and sewn by hand…
…it took me about 250 hours to embroider and finish this pouch.
Details:
- For more information please follow this link: German Brick Stitch Pouch 2
- Height: ca. 27.5 cm / Width: ca. 22.0 cm
- Embroidery:
- German Brick Stitch (13th century pattern)
- border: ‘Finishing the seams of 14th/15th century pouches’ along the border of the embroidery - Working time: 250 hours
- Pattern inspiration: Tristans ‘German Brick Stitch’ pattern – “13th century brick stitch pattern, revised version”
- Used fabrics: linen and cotton/linen blend
- Embroidery & Cord thread: Lana Grossa – Basics, “Lauflänge ca. 115m, 100% Baumwolle gasiert, mercerisiert” (Cotton – can be washed in the washing machine: delicates / 30°C / no tumble-dryer, can be ironed)
- Cord technique: “1. A Broad Lace of 5 Loops” based on the instruction in the book: TAK V BOWES DEPARTED – A 15th Century Braiding Manual Examined
…and here are the new (daylight) photos of my 14th century pouch:
13
Apr
2010
German Brick Stitch II – 13th century pattern – status: pouch finished / + 6hours :)
…embroidery status:
236 hours 18 minutes
+8 hours for sewing
+6 hours for cords/braiding & tassels
Tristans ‘German Brick Stitch’ pattern
“13th century brick stitch pattern, revised version”
At the picture above you can see my first try of a Turk’s Head Knot – many thanks to my friend Tristan and his great “Taschen” blog who pointed me to a posting about knots at the Medieval Silkwork blog: “Racaire, the tutorial I use is this, which I got from one of Machteld’s posts @ Medieval Silkwork.”
Tristan uses the Turk’s Head Knot as a decoration for the tassels for his beautiful pouches – this very special pouch inspired me to learn this technique. The thread that I used for this Turk’s Head Knot is not very decorative on its own therefore I added more thread and separated the different sections by some “gold thread” – to keep the threads together and to add some nice decoration I added three lines of chain stitch underneath the Turk’s Head Knot…
Yesterday I tried my first “A Broad Lace of 5 Loops” and today I used this technique again for the cords for this pouch
11
Apr
2010
German Brick Stitch II – 13th century pattern – status: sewing finished / + 8hours :)
…embroidery status:
236 hours 18 minutes
+8 hours for sewing
…maybe some of you will ask why it took me 8 hours to finish the ‘sewing’ – first I had to cut the pieces for the lining, than I had to pin them together and finally I could start sewing… and in the end I tried to hide and secure the threads as good as possible…
Tristans ‘German Brick Stitch’ pattern
“13th century brick stitch pattern, revised version”
15
Mrz
2010
German Brick Stitch II – 13th century pattern – status: embroidery finished / 236h 18min :)
…embroidery status:
236 hours 18 minutes
Tristans ‘German Brick Stitch’ pattern
“13th century brick stitch pattern, revised version”
22
Feb
2010
German Brick Stitch II – 13th century pattern – status: 200h 23min :)
…embroidery status:
200 hours 23 minutes
Tristans ‘German Brick Stitch’ pattern
“13th century brick stitch pattern, revised version”
4
Feb
2010
German Brick Stitch II – 13th century pattern – status: 153h 49min :)
…embroidery status:
153 hours 49 minutes
Tristans ‘German Brick Stitch’ pattern
“13th century brick stitch pattern, revised version”