Who is Racaire?

I was born in the late 70’s in Warschau/ Poland. I moved to Vienna/ Austria as a kid and spent most of my life in this beautiful and great city. In 2014 I decided to move to the USA to marry my dear sweetheart and in 2018 we finally settled in Crestview/ Florida.

As a teenager I spent my time reading books about the medieval times – about Parzival, Lanzelot and other great knights and their adventures. Not knowing that making a part of this stories come true for myself could be possible, my world changed completely when friends took me to my very first medieval market in Kaltenberg, Germany! I was blown away by the colors, the beautiful dresses, the tournament, the awesome atmosphere… That all happened about 2000 / 2001.

Internet was already available during this time but good information (like tutorials, helpful blogs or websites) was really rare back then. Therefore I started hunting down every little piece of information I could find. I also bought some fabric and sewed my very first dress by hand as I had no sewing machine at this time. As soon as my first dress was finished I decided that it would need some decoration on it. This was in 2001, shortly before I made my very first embroidery stitches.

Then I started to embroider more and more things while embracing and researching period medieval embroidery techniques. I started to collect many rare and out of print books, academic publications and photos about period medieval embroidery and medieval art. I travelled to several museums all over Europe to see the extant pieces and to take close-up photos whenever possible.

 

With the embroidery research came also the research concerning medieval clothing, patterns, hand writings which lead to many new hobbies I once would not have dreamt about. Finally – some years ago – when I refused to paint another fighting favor for my husband and decided to take up a technique again which I once learned at school – linoleum / stamp cutting – we never anticipated what impact this decision would have on our life. After so many years of research and with the full support  of my husband we finally decided to make my dream come true and embrace Racaire’s Workshop full time! Now I am can do every day what I love to do – making lovely things for awesome people!

 

 

 

Attended workshops

• 2006 March – Workshop “It doesn’t always have to be cross stitch” – introduction to historical embroidery techniques
  Bayerisches Nationalmuseum / Bavarian National Museum
• 2008 April – Workshop “Magic in white” for historical embroidery techniques
  Bayerisches Nationalmuseum / Bavarian National Museum

Where you can find my works and photos

From time to time I get requests for permission of usage when someone wants to use my photos or handouts. I get requests of usage for my museum photos as well as for photos of my projects – following you will find a list of my favorite picture usages till now:

• 2008-9 – museum photos used in a thesis: “Een gouwen rync ende een ransse” :
  de gerimpelde hoofddoek in het modelandschap van de Lage Landen der late middeleeuwen : een interdisciplinaire studie by Isis Sturtewagen
  I am very happy to say that I could provide some museum photos to a great thesis about frilled veils by Isis Sturtewagen.
• Winter 2008-9 – photos of my work & part of my handout in a newsletter:
  Filum Aureum
  The dignified Needleworkers Guild of the mighty Kingdom of the West (SCA) featured my Klosterstich work in their beautifully made A.S. XLIII Winter issue of their newsletter Filum Aureum.
  

• 2012 – photos of my work in a book: “Nadelbinden Was ist denn das?
  Geschichte und Technik einer fast vergessenen Handarbeit
  by Ulrike Claßen-Büttner
  You can also find pictures of my modern nailbinding work in a book.
  Ulrike Claßen-Büttner included pictures of two of my modern nailbinding projects in her book “Nadelbinden Was ist denn das?” about nailbinding.
  Abb*. 151 & Abb*. 153 –  you can find them on page 112

• November 2012 – my handout in a newsletter: The Halbert
  The great Barony of Bryn Gwlad in the Stellar Kingdom of Ansteorra (SCA) featured my Refilsaum handout in a special edition of their newsletter “The Halberd”.

• 2013 – one of my museum photos on tv: Deals From The Dark Side –
  Season 1 / Episode 11 “Harem Belt“
  One of my museum pictures made it on tv – an international broadcasting company used one of my pictures from the Hofjagd- und Rüstkammer in Vienna for “Deals From the Dark Side“.
  

• 2013 – one of my museum photos in an re-enactor magazine:
  Moyen Âge 95 – Un témoin des modes et mentalités médiévales : La ceinture, 2ème partie.
  Tina Anderlini from France used one of my photos for her article “Un témoin des modes et mentalités médiévales : La ceinture, 2ème partie.” for the French re-enactor magazine Moyen Âge (pp 32-41; the picture can be found on p. 39)

• Further use of my handouts & photos
  Some nice ladies got the permission to teach classes at SCA events using my handouts as well as a lady who thought a class based on my handout at an European textile symposium.
  If you are living in England or Germany you might have already seen one of my pictures without even knowing it – some local SCA groups got my permission for the use of several photos for demos,…
• last but not least Racaire’s Workshop is also on facebook, Pinterest & Instagram

SCA:

On the 28th of July 2004 I became a member of the SCA. Shortly after I joined I also took over the office of the Minister of Arts & Science as well as the Webminister of my shire for several years. I retired from this two offices in order to become the guild head of the Dragon’s Needle Embroidery Guild of the SCA Kingdom of Drachenwald (September 2007 – December 2012).

• Award of Arms – July 2005 / Hunting Season / Kingdom of Drachenwald
• Order of the Panache – Oct. 2006 / Crown Tournament / Kingdom of Drachenwald
• Order of the Meridian Cross – Sept. 2012 / Meridian Grand Tournament / Kingdom of Meridies
• Popular Company of Sojourners – May 2015 / Double Wars / Kingdom of Drachenwald
• Order of the Velvet Owl – Sept. 2016 / Meridian Grand Tournament / Kingdom of Meridies
• Grant of Arms – Sept. 2017 / Meridian Grand Tournament / Kingdom of Meridies
• Argent Comet – Jan. 2020 / Panhandle Skirmishes / Kingdom of Meridies 

A&S competitions:

• Stella Nova A&S competition at Magna Fair (Dec. 2015, Kingdom of Meridies)
  Entered my “Weiberlisten Wallhanging” – perfect score for the embroidery project as well as the project documentation. My wallhanging project won the Stella Nova competition by popular choice.
• Champions A&S competition at Gulf Wars (March 2016)
  Entered my “Weiberlisten Wallhanging” due to royal invitation for the Kingdom of Meridies. The embroidery project and the project documentation scored 24 out of 25 and 25 out of 25. Unfortunately due to a severe weather event Gulf Wars was cut short and no winner of the Champions A&S competition was announced this year.

…and last but not least – many thanks to the awesome guys from Austrogate who sponsor this blog.