And again I got another beautiful embroidered patch for my wedding cloak project! 😀

This time I present to you a beautiful hand embroidered patch for my 12th century wedding cloak project by courtesy of lady Grima in Rauda.

This patch was hand embroidered by the talented lady Grima in Rauda. She sent this beautiful hand embroidered patch from the SCA Barony Styringheim situated in the Principality of Nordmark, a part of the beautiful SCA Kingdom of Drachenwald. 😀

About the artisan:

• Name: Grima in Rauda
• From: Barony Styringheim / Principality of Nordmark / Kingdom of Drachenwald
  (for non SCA members: Gotland, an island of Sweden in Europe)

Thank you very much Grima! 
…and heartily greetings to the Barony Styringheim in Nordmark!

I would also like to share with you some words from lady Grima in Rauda about herself and her work. It will give you a better idea about the artisan who created this patch as well as where this lovely patch comes from and what inspired her:

“My SCA persona name is Grima in Rauda and I’m a member of the Barony of Styringheim on the island of Gotland, Sweden. We’re a part of the Principality of Nordmark and Kingdom of Drachenwald. Styringheim is one of the biggest SCA groups in Sweden which is not strange given Gotlands impressive medieval history. It’s the place for Visby Medieval Week which is coming around soon, it’s a busy time!

I have been a member for many years and enjoy sewing, embroidery and heraldry most of all, apart from all the amazing people I’ve met over the years. Mostly I do blackstitch, so it was fun trying out something new.
There are several very interesting medieval intarsia items in Sweden, mostly church finds, and I used them as the inspiration for your patch.

A happy marriage to you!

Yours,
Grima”

And now some in-depth details about the technique Grima used and a picture of this lovely patch without all the extra text for you. Enjoy! 😀

The design is simple but very beautiful – I really like how Grima combined the black and red wool fabric and outlined it with the gold thread. 🙂

…and the promised in-depth information about the used technique for the “Premium” and “Advanced” members: [emember_protected not_for=3-4 do_not_show_restricted_msg=1]

…I am sorry, but the following content is restricted to members with Advanced and Premium membership.

The difference between “Intarsia” & “Applique”

In one of her emails Grima refers to the technique she used for this patch as “Intarsia”.
As far as I can tell this patch is not worked in the “Intarsia” technique. The backside of the patch is a solid red fabric to which a piece of black fabric was appliqued/applied. Therefore “Applique” is the technique which was used for this patch and not “Intarsia”.

And now lets talk about “Intarsia”. Some of you maybe already run into some furniture, chests or boxes with “Intarsia” wood work. Though the medium for this “Intarsia” work is wood, the technique is somehow similar. Like the embroiderer also the the artisan who works with wood needs to remove the wood in the places where he wants to insert his “Intarsia”. Or like my sweetheart calls it – “puzzle work”.

We need to do something similar when we use the “Intarsia” technique for fabric. That means we not only cut out a patch and applique it on the basic fabric – we also cut out the same pattern from the basic fabric.
Actually, this way we get a negative and positive form to work with and two patches instead of one. How this works? Well, if you have two patches of fabric and cut out the shapes carefully without cutting through the whole patch you can swap the insides. This way you actually prepare the base for two “Intarsia” patches even when you just work on one patch. 🙂

When you sew the “Intarsia” patch into its place – normally via small stitches at the backside – also a small “band” is inserted along the edges between the basic fabric and the patch. You remember that the patches are just as big as the cut outs – this extra band gives you some play for your hand sewing.
Based on some intarsia embroidery which I already saw on display at the museums I can say for sure that wool was used for this extra band in-between the fabrics. It is possible that leather might have been used as well but I have not yet found information contrary to this idea – this point will need some further research. I really can’t wait to get my books back. 😉

Btw. felted wool fabric is a great and easy to work with medium for the “Intarsia” technique (and also for Applique). Please let me know if you would like to know more about “Intarsia” or “Appliqué”. 🙂

I hope you enjoyed my new posting and now back to my current embroidery projects… 😉

PS: You can find more about this wedding cloak project and all the beautiful embroidered patches I got till now here:

• Project category: Patches for my 12th century wedding dress project
• Project details: Racaire’s 12th century wedding dress project
• Patch #1 & #2 from Ireland by Hilkka Susinen
• Patch #3 from Denmark by Else Marie Pederson
• Patch #4 from Canada by Sorcha de Lenche