Alison Cole (Goldwork and Stumpwork) Website- new kits and new look

A site that I've loved for many years

http://www.alisoncoleembroidery.com.au/

 

has an elegant new look, and Alison has released some lovely new kits. She often designs historically inspired pieces from the Jacobean period to William Morris, and her Or Nue insect range is just lovely! (I really want to do at least one!)

This is one piece that I particularly admire - a modern design of a signature Australian flower - the waratah.

Alison Cole - Goldwork Waratah

  "This waratah is worked in dimensional goldwork embroidery on a background of Colourstreams hand-dyed silk velvet - simply yummy!  This one is only small - approximately 10cm x 15cm and is padded with soft cotton and felt and embroidered in English purls and Japanese couching threads along with kid leather."

The kit is at
http://www.alisoncoleembroidery.com.au/kits-and-supplies/goldwork-kits/new-south-wales-waratah/
Click on the image to see a close up of the waratah.

Some comments on the new kits -
The stumpwork deer floral - lovely! The supplies mention "feathers" I think they are used in the flying insect up the top of the piece. Do you think I'm right? Close up at http://www.alisoncoleembroidery.com.au/uploads/images/catalog/stumpwork-deer-floral_f_1_1800_1.jpg?ac=17449. 

It's very impressive that a kit of this standard has been released.

"Featuring only techniques used in traditional Stumpwork from the 17th Century, this piece is a delicious challenge for the experienced Embroiderer.

Worked in a variety of silks and English metal threads on a silk satin background, it features petit point slips, silk wrapped vellum and five variations of needle-lace among its many techniques."

Check out the lovely bee on the header of the Contact Me page! I love her use of the kid. It must have been hard to work - very shaped, and tiny pieces.

I'd love to do the new "Memories of Italy" piece! Yuuum! http://www.alisoncoleembroidery.com.au/kits-and-supplies/new-releases/memories-of-italy/

 

 

  http://www.alisoncoleembroidery.com.au/uploads/images/catalog/siennese-illuminated-treasure_f_1_1800_1.jpg?ac=42531

 

  :the berries on the sides - detached buttonhole stitch in red thread over kid?!? Pretty sure that's what it is. Love the scrolly vermicilli too.

  http://www.alisoncoleembroidery.com.au/kits-and-supplies/new-releases/beetle-wing-floral/

 

:  I love the way the bettlewings are attached using that "V" of thread - using straight stitches as are traditionally looks relatively ugly in my opinion. You can't hide the stitches used to attach the wings, so making a feature of the way they are attached is a great idea!

And that's just the new kits! There are many many wonderful older ones - goldwork, stumpwork, or the two techniques combined. As you can see, Alison has many wonderful ideas, very solid techniques, and beautiful supplies. You can also buy patterns for some projects.

She also sells some unusual supplies. A great range of coloured kid leather, ...and would anyone like to try use some cane toad skin? (Cane toads are a big pest here in Australia - they were imported to the North in order to cut down on....grasshoppers I think. Now they are taking over the lower end of the ecosystem up there and the population is slowly travelling south, the rotten things!). She also has some vintage French metal sequins in gold and silver....http://www.alisoncoleembroidery.com.au/kits-and-supplies/supplies/

Have fun if you haven't looked at her site before :-)

A Brilliant Opus Anglicanum/Or Nue Tute, and who was asking me ..... ?

Tanya of the Opus Anglicanum blog has written a brilliant tutorial on embroidering faces in opus anglicanum. She includes many general tips on stitching and thread, then a step by step (including photographs) of the embroidery of a jowly fellow from an alter frontal. He has the typical bulgy eyes and high forehead of these faces. Great stuff!

http://opusanglicanum.wordpress.com/2012/03/04/little-faces-opus-anglicanum/

If you are wondering what Opus Anglicanum (which translates to "English Embroidery") is, there's a nice but brief introduction at http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art68868.asp\

Tanya specialises in the technique and her blog makes very interesting reading as well.

This technique was the mother of Or Nue and the tutorial is relevant to those interested in that technique as well.

~~~~~~~~~~

Now, who was it that was talking to me about the needlepainting book "Embroidery from English Gardens"? I've finally received a copy from the library, and I'm ready to talk about it..... :-)

The Franses Exhibition - Tudor and Stuary Embroidery

The link is from The Essemplaire Newsletter ..... http://www.fransesexhibition.com/

 "The Franses exhibition includes museum quality embroidery and needlework, as well as rare examples of English knotted Turkeywork and woven tapestry. Also included is the Crocker Tapestry,  a recently discovered Elizabethan tapestry, a masterpiece acquired for the famous west coast Crocker family by Elsie de Wolfe in 1911.  Woven in the 1580's, and in exceptional condition, it the most important English Renaissance tapestry to appear for over fifty years.

The selection of textiles begins around 1485 with the accession of Henry VII and ends with the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the overthrow of James II, the last Stuart to sit on the throne of England.  ......" (from the Introduction)

The items are shown starting from the bottom row of the first Exhibition page. Click on each object to zoom, although the images don't have much zoom detail, unfortunately.  You can step one zoom further in by RightHandButton-Mouse clicking and selecting "Zoom In". This will show design details in much better detail that the original zoom, but not stitches. Any more zooms, the images just pixellate. (Rotten web resolution!)

The details for the item are on it's page - the Catalogue tab provides abbreviated details.

The exhibition is of interest in spite of the zoom and not much technical detail because it has items that I, at least, haven't seen before.

Price of Reproduction Embroidery, Example

Wow - the second post in a day!

I came across this .....

http://www.carolescountry.com/Artisans/AA_ItemsForSale_2010_01/AA_PamGill/AAPG001.html

One of a Kind 18th Century Reproduced Queen Stitched Ladies Pocketbook by Pam Gill $1250. This extraordinary one of a kind piece has been exquisitely reproduced. All hand done in the "queen" stitch, required months of tedious work, and has resulted in this lovely reproduction of an 18th century ladies pocketbook. The original ladies pocketbook can be seen in the Time Life American Country Series, entitled The Needle Arts book, page 26. I have included a photo of the original as seen in this book. The queen stitch was mainly used for small items during the 18th - 19th centuries because it is such a time-consuming and very difficult stitch to do. The color of threads used and the pattern design are taken from a photo in the needle arts book. The pocketbook measures 6 3/4 W x 8 3/4" H when fully open. It is lined with a salmon colored satin fabric and has two pockets. It is aged to look worn and used. $1250. Includes shipping for this one of a kind piece.

"tedious" work? I wonder who chose that word?
"very difficult to do".....not once one learns it.
"Mary Alsop" sounds familiar - probably a name that has come up on a sampler on the Needleprint blog.
....and wow! I wonder what the Masterclass, and other complex pieces of work we produce are worth, if only we  had the name and an established market?

My google-fu didn't discover a site for the embroiderer.

More On Crewel Excitement

EDIT :-  I will look into the making of the right side of this flower when I eventually do a Jacobean piece, and write a tutorial.

I wrote a post on a lovely entry on the EGA's blog on some Jacobean wall hangings in their collection at http://elmsleyrose.blogspot.com/2011/11/crewel-excitement.html- the post with those stvpendovs close vp shots.

There has been some discvssion abovt the stitch vsed in the leaf above - the direct link is http://www.egausa.org/scripts/blog/?p=230 in the Comments section.

Crewel Excitement!

Needlework News http://needlework.craftgossip.com/ featured a post today from EGA America. It discusses a series of Jacobean hangings in brief. What excites me about this entry is the closeup photos provided. They are just magnificent!

Inspiration here, folks! http://www.egausa.org/scripts/blog/?p=230
Thankyou, NeedleWork News

17th Century Samplers - Article from the V&A

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/s/samplers-stitches-techniques/

The part I like best, apart from all the interesting information and the pretty images, is the poem :

" In 1688 the following list was published to explain 'The School Mistris Terms Of Art For All Her Ways Of Sowing':'A Samcloth, vulgarly a Sampler
Plat-stitch, or single plat-stitch which is good on one side
Plat-stitch, or double plat-stitch which is alike on both sides
Spanish stitch, true on both sides
Tent-stitch on the finger
Tent-stitch in the tent
Irish stitch - Back-stitch
Fore-stitch - Queens-stitch
Gold-stitch - Satin-stitch
Tent-stitch upon satin
Fern-stitch - Finny-stitch
New-stitch - Chain-stitch
Bread-stitch - Fisher-stitch
Rosemary-stitch - Mow-stitch
Whip-stitch - Cross-stitch
Raised work - Needlework Pearl
Geneva work - Virgins Device
Cut Work - Open cut work
Laid work- Stitch work and through stitch
Lap work - Rock work
Frost work - Net work
Purle work - Tent work
Finger work
All of which are several sorts and manners of works wrought by the needle with silk…'.

........." The clearest exposition of both name and form is to be found in Mary Thomas’s ‘Dictionary of Stitches’, 1934, and in the index she usefully groups stitches according to their function. The great variety of stitches has evolved because each stitch has a particular function."

Lots lots more including technical tid-bits, but I'll let you read it, if you are interested :-)

(gotta have a piccie!)

Exciting new Detached Buttonhole Class

From the Essemplaire newsletter :

"We will start a new on line class early next year of a thimble holder, this is a reproduction from the Burrell and will either run for two or three months. Perfect for those of you who want to brush up on their detached buttonhole skills as well as working the feathers on a separate ground and attaching them afterwards. Details to be posted later. "

Oh my - this is one of the things I've always wanted to make! I've seen a couple of versions.
If he only holds a thimble, imagine how tiny weeny some of these feathers are!

Now ... to find out how much it cost. I'm not doing Glittering Gentleman's Nightcap - $ way out of my range, in spite of all the extra stuff I could learn on top of doing the project by doing the course.

Scraps left for Foundlings

The blog Trouvais (which features antique country French decor) has an entry today about a subject the Needleprint blog has covered in the past - the scraps of fabric Mothers would leave with their babies when leaving then at Foundling Hospital gates.


http://trouvais.com/2011/05/08/threads-of-feeling/

The entry includes some great pictures of some of the pieces, and has a link to a current exhibition of them being held at the Foundling Hospital Museum.

Card of an c1700 English Coverlet in silk and gold

This is a card that I found tucked away. I don’t know where or how I got it – just that it was before I was into embroidery!
It’s advertising an exhibition back in 2005, called “Everlasting – The Flower in Fashion and Textiles”.
Given that flowers are my favourite embroidery motifs, how I would love to go the exhibition now!
It says that the card is an English coverlet, c1700, silk, silk thread, gilt thread.
I haven’t seen anything like it before. All metal flowers, yes. Flowers edged in metal thread, yes. Never satin stitched metal thread mixed in with silk thread as if it were silk.
The stems are satin stitched in gold metal thread.
In the red flower, 2 petals are entirely gilt satin stitched, and the innards of the rest of the petals. It’s centre looks like thick silk, tightly curled then partly unwound, and then couched down.
The blue flower is edged in gold stitches on the edges of each of the two ‘layers’ of the flower. It’s centre looks like stretched gold purl, possibly padded.
The buds and leaves all have satin stitched gold thread at their edges. (It looks black or silver in the scan as well as looking like actual gold in more heavily stitched areas – my camera->computer connection is playing up so I had to scan it, loosing the reflection of the gilt thread).

Goldwork and Silk Pomengranate

This is from the Arts & Crafts Magazine Vol1-2A Practical Magazine For The Studio, The Workshop And The Home, published by Hutchinson & Company in 1904. (and hence copyright free)
http://chestofbooks.com/crafts/general/Arts-And-Crafts-Magazine/
I found this book very hard to navigate. Many of the design drawings are missing – they are in “Supplement A” which is nowhere to be found, even after searching the Net. I await an e-mail about it from the site author. The pages are unmarked. Occasionally, a design will pop up on the wrong and totally unrelated page and some can be found individually under Google Web/Image searches. Nothing under Google Books/Scholar. I was about ready to strangle this book after spending yesterday with it!
However, in spite of all this, I have the following project to offer you from the magazine. I haven’t tried to clean up the design picture itself at all (I’m not Mary Corbet!).
It is an applique piece meant for a superfrontal.
~~~~~~~~~

The design for an altar frontal and a super-frontal given herewith are to be worked on red velvet; or rather the embroidery, first executed on linen, is transferred to the velvet.
The open portion would look well in basket stitch, a good deal stuffed, of gold threads, sewn down with a deep-coloured red silk; or it may be treated as shown in the chawing, with the seeds worked in satin stitch of gold-coloured silk, or with Japanese gold sewn very closely in a circular form, and the spaces filled in with French knots of silk. These should not all be of one hue, but some in deep reds, with others toning towards gold, should he-used.
The lines marking the outlines and the divisions of the fruit should be worked in stem stitch, in the deep purplish red which has come to be conventionally used for pomegranate.
Between these lines the silk used should be golden in hue, shading into reds at the two extremities. Care must be taken, however, to keep the reds sufficiently distinct from the velvet ground.
The crown of petals at the top may be worked wholly in rich gold-colour, with a little red introduced, so as to give richness, and they may be outlined with Japanese gold.
The foliage at the back of the fruit should be lighter in tone than the sprays at the side. It is impossible to give written directions for the hues to be selected, as they must depend on the tone of the ground.
The buds must introduce a brighter pomegranate shade than any used in the fruit. Although they must he kept somewhat low-in tone, so as not to appear patchy, they must follow out to brighter tones the colours used in the pomegranate.
As there is a great preponderance of red and yellow in the fruit and flowers, the greens used in the foliage would need to contain a good deal of blue, but they may be toned off into bronze, so as to carry on the colouring of the former and bring it into relation with the gold thread.
~~~~~
I find that last paragraph giving detail on how to pick the colours absolutely fascinating…..

A Great Source for Embroidery Books

Are you after a copy of Erica Wilson? Mary Brown? Theresa Dillmonte? the older crewel books? Lace? Whitework?

I was just having a trawl through the vintage embroidery books on Etsy. I think the Dillmonte (hardback) was $12, and the Erica Wilson (several copies) $8. There's 822 books in the search today. One book on Assisi embroidery selling for over $80, so that one must be special. I don't think a lot of the sellers have a clue what they are selling as their descriptions are sometimes a bit vague.....

http://www.etsy.com/search/vintage?search_submit&q=embroidery+book&order=most_relevant&ship_to=US&view_type=gallery&noautofacet=1&page=1

Of course there are modern books as well - but I'd recommend searching by a particular embroidery subject in that case if you search under "All Items", rather than under the "Vintage" catagory where the link above will put you....or you'll be buried in results :-)

Searching on "embroidery book" in the category "All Items", just to survey the variety of books brought up (way too many pages to look through) I saw a couple of particularly good ones :

http://www.etsy.com/listing/70317327/the-needlework-of-mary-queen-of-scots?ref=sr_gallery_6&ga_search_submit&ga_search_query=historical+embroidery+book&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_ship_to=US&ga_search_type=all&ga_facet

1971 Edition of The Needlework of Mary Queen of Scotts - $US12.

I also saw 2 Helen Stevens (needlepainting) books selling for $8 each.

 

 

Some Ecclesiastical Embroidery Images

I happened to pick image showing details, though most show the full garments (it's actually a search on "copes") (as IF I was not going to pick the rose!)

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=cope+embroidery&z=e

Two pages of images from various people.

If you search on "Vestments" http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=vestment 7 pages come up although many of contemporary made vestments.

Any other good words to search on?

New Historical Embroidery Group and the Mira Calligraphae Monumenta

Just in case you haven't heard, there's a new historical embroidery group on Facebook. It numbered 189 members within 3 days, and there are already many discussion threads as people discuss various images and motifs, and where they are in books etc. The last question I saw asked was how do you fit your head to a coif. And it's so easy to put images in!

It's non-specific historical period - ie all of them.

There's also been several interesting documents and photo albums created (I didn't know you could do that in Facebook!) One album on swetebags, contributed by Melinda Sherbring/Eowyn, and another on Scrolling Stem stitch variations of the weird and wonderful variety, and another with some wonderful Slips (both extant and made by herself) from Louise Pass, ...I could keep going, ......Elizabethan stuff so far, but people will be able to find each other that like Icelandic folk embroidery or ....whatever.

Kimoko Small and Susan Farmer are the moderators.

To be one of the crowd, you'll need a Facebook page and then join the group http://www.facebook.com/groups/156337781110182/ You need to wait permission to join - that's just an anti-spam strategy.

~~~~~~~~~
 Baroque_Embellishments (Kimberly) did a very nice analysis of the insect/butterfly shapes in one of the images shown in my post on the Mira Calligraphae Monumenta.

Francesca mentioned that she'd been using the book as a source for china painting. I got it (as my most expensive book, and a special treasure) when I was doing calligraphy and illumination - I love the Bastarde calligraphy and the cadeaux (the very large flourished letter). It would be great for a botancial illustrator/painter as well.

A Wonderful Or Nue Frog and some pearls

"......The frog was just begging to be done in goldwork.
This picture is a closeup of the Or nue and patterned goldwork embroidery.

Japan gold, and blue and red silk on blue and red velvet ground, apliqued onto faux suede.

The frog emblem has several layers of wool felt padding under the embroidery to "poof" it up. 

The frog is outlined with gold pearl purl, and the device is outlined in freshwater pearls." 

- "rezansky" (Flickr name)

See the frog hanging out at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rezansky/430805806/

Rezansky also has a wonderful detailed description of a pair of very heavily pearled cuffs he made, using the traditional Russian pearling method, for an Orthodox Priest's outfit, based on a Russian piece from the 1600s :

http://sites.google.com/site/rezansky/project-gallery/embroidery-projects-1

An Artist's RSN Embroidery Gallery

Kelley Aldridge's work is shown here : http://www.kelleyaldridge.com/photo_501525.html#photos_id=501523

Grab a cuppa, and enjoy!

A beautiful blog about Elizabethan embroidery

I've just met Kimberly Servello through Stitchin Fingers. I've met lots of wonderful historical embroiders through the Elizabethan/Jacobean and Stumpwork groups on S.F. :-) as well as received wonderful, specialised, technical embroidery advice in some great discussions we've had. There are some very knowledgeable people in those groups that are most happy to chat.

Kimberly's blog seems outstanding to me, because she is very talented at design, has a wide knowledge of Elizabethan stitches, and makes beautiful pieces. Her blog entires show photos of various motifs, close up, with comments on their stitching.

She also includes quotes from literature of the period, as relevant to, or being inspiration for her work. She has few or no comments on her entries, and I personally think that is a great great pity, which is why I'm "advertising" her blog now. It's well worth the trip!

For some reason, both a general link to Kimberly's blog is having trouble (thankyou Lakshmi for pointing it out) and a specific link to her latest entry. You can still get to the blog from the "page not found" page Blogger brings up, but I don't know if this will work for everyone.

Links to try :
http://baroqueembellishments.blogspot.com/

http://baroqueembellishments.blogspot.com/2011/06/what-im-doing-today.html 

or Google "BaroqueEmbellishments embroidery blog" (http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&q=baroqueembellishments+embroidery+blog ) and will show you various entries to get you in.

(I wonder what's wrong with my linking ?!?)

Oh, if only it fitted!

http://www.etsy.com/listing/76534826/vintage-silk-black-sheer-bodice-open?ref=sr_gallery_7&ga_includes[0]=materials&ga_search_query=Pure&ga_filter[0]=handmade&ga_filter[1]=needlecraft&ga_filter[2]=supplies&ga_noautofacet=1&ga_search_type=vintage&ga_facet=vintage

From Voilavintagelingerie

Perfect for any formal glamorous occasion is this floor length pure silk black beaded evening gown by d’ore. The sheer silk bodice, full sleeves and open back make this evening gown red carpet worthy!

Designed with a high collar two hook and eye closure it is embellished with chandelier beading and sequins throughout the evening gown.

~~ Go to the link at the top to see the thumbnails as full pictures - particularly the last one!

Extracting the colours from an image of an embroidery

I'm nosing around for a new project at the moment, (yes, I know, weeks ahead) and having picked one possible extant item as a prospect, I went to work extracting the colours from the image. This was just for fun, and to have a bit of a play.

Of course, working out the colours by eye isn't impossible, but it's maddening when there are lots of colours close together. Plus, being close together, the appearance of a particular hue (did I get that right?) is affected by the hues that surround it.

I discovered an awfully useful link -
http://www.templatelite.com/color-scheme-palette-generators-pickers/   

It lists 30 plus scheme generators and other color tools. So far, they've all been free, except one that had a 15 day trial period.

So far, I like the Colors_Pallete_Generator (free) the best. It generated  49 colours. (The most I got from the others I tried was up to 10).


Of course, I'll print out all the schemes, and compare them to the image before actually picking the colours. But I find having automatically generated colour schemes a great way to start off picking out the correct colours on an extant embroidery :-)

Lost medieval embroideries and Tudor Roses/Rosettes

Embroideries worth millions found in London flat clearance.....check it out ....http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2011/jun/07/embroideries-worth-millions-found-london

If anyone finds some follow up details, I'd love to find out more....
~~~~~~~~~

On the Textiles blog today, http://thetextileblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/stained-glass-design-in-1820s.html they feature a book by Nathaniel Wittock about stained glass, written in 1828.

There are a few samples of Tudor Rose and Ecclesiastical designs shown  - enough to get me very interested.

From the blog :

I found the FULL book at http://books.google.com.au/books?id=NCoBAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=nathaniel+whittock&hl=en&ei=hArwTfCfKIXCvgO3zdiPCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

It is about *how* to make stained glass, so there's a lot of clicking needed to find the images. There's only a few suitable for embroidery, but hey - I have a big weakness for Tudor Roses/Rosettes.

This paragraph from the Textile Blog, caused me great amusement

"It must be remembered that the book was published in 1828 and the date does set a certain amount of definition to the parameters of the decorative work featured in the book, particularly that of the glass work. The 1820s was the period of the reign of George IV, rather than his regency, and was therefore part of the dying days of the Georgian period. Many during this period were well aware that the best days of the House of Hanover were long gone. It was considered by the later Victorians in particular as a tasteless episode where every whim and eccentricity was indulged. They were particularly scathing as far as the architectural and decorative arts were concerned. The irony that later generations would feel the same about the Victorian world was probably beyond their understanding, as it no doubt is when concerning our own contemporary world."