Passionate fiber artist, blockprinter, stampcutter, seamstress & more. One of a kind wearable art handmade with love in Florida.
Some people once told me that if I wasn't so nice, they would have to hate me because of my talent. I agree, talent is nice but talent is just one thing and it only gets you to a certain point. To understand a craft fully, one has to allow oneself to imerge into the desired field completely. But what does that really mean?
Woohoo! I am working on a super secret project at the moment! 😀 …and though I can’t really share any information or progress pictures concerning the new project until it’s finished and the recipient got it, you really don’t need to worry that I might take a break from posting until the project is finished. On the contrary! I took so many pictures of my recent embroidery and sewing projects that I can keep you quite busy until I can finally reveal my new, super secret project. 🙂 Which brings me right to the topic of todays posting. In my last two postings I showed you my two work steps concerning the silk shading embroidery for the rose…
Wow! What a week! During the last days I was struggling with fighting off a head cold as well as finally facing my driving test. As easy as embroidery and some other things might come to me, I really struggle a lot when it comes to taking any kind of tests. And the driving test, which took place yesterday, was definitely no difference. I was a complete wreck before, during and after the test and not even my dear husband was able to calm me down…
During the last weeks I was busy preparing for Gulf Wars and actually wanted to work on my “leg armor” for SCA “Heavy Fighting” today. Given the amount of layers and the thickness of the material I decided to do the sewing with the help of my sewing machine. But, well, after several hours facing a never ending fight with my sewing machine, I think I finally have to face the sad truth. My sewing machine really hates me and doesn’t want to cooperate with me at all. *sigh* But life is too precious to end the day feeling frustrated and defeated. Therefore I finally decided to stop fighting my sewing machine…
And today let’s talk about one of my other favorite topics besides Klosterstich and surface couching – pearl embroidery! 😀 Well, pearls per se were and still are something very special. Their availability is quite limited and their price is rather high due to the natural production process. Besides the beautiful appearance and shine pearls possess naturally, their rather restricted availability as well as their quite high monetary value might have added to their great appeal in the medieval age. I think that the usage of pearls for jewelry or pearl embroidery used to reflected the wealth of the person who could actually afford to use them in either high quality (large, round and with a perfect surface appearance)…
Yeah, it’s true and no typo – I made a 14th century cylas / sideless surcote for me! Or how I call the newest addition to my wardrobe: my 14th century “Meridian Cross Cyclas”! 😀 How come? Well, while I was living in the kingdom of Drachenwald – the SCA group covering Europe, the middle East and South Africa – I wasn’t able to make it to many SCA events. Not that I didn’t want to but quite many of the events were out of my budget due to the required travel to the location in a rather far away country like Sweden, Finland, UK,… Therefore my normal event count per year was about 1 to maximal…
In my last posting – “White 14th century XL hood for a friends Pelican elevation – embroidery .4 – how I created the embroidered Pelican patches .1” – I showed you how I created the two different kinds of golden beaks for the embroidered pelicans. After this step and and after finishing the rest of the embroidery for the pelicans, I decided to add even more embroidery. Instead of removing the base fabric in-between the knighthood belt and the pelican embroidery, which didn’t have any appliqué or other kind of embroidery, I made the decision to fill this empty space with lovely purple silk/wool thread.
Yesterday, after a weekend filled with fishing and hanging out with some of our good friends, I finally got back to work at two of my embroidery projects again. First I managed to flatten the seams and also the rest of the fabric of the 14th century XL hood. And I also ironed the lovely purple wool fabric which I got for the appliqué embroidery.
And now, that I already started my new 14th century hood project for a friend – about which I told you yesterday – I would like to take the chance and tell you a little bit more about my other 14th century hood projects. As some of you might remember, I already revisited my 14th century hood with daggings, long liripipe and decorative chain stitch embroidery project last year. This 14th century hood was my favorite hood until I decided to give it away to a very nice friend whom I met at an SCA event in England – at Rhaglan.
Before we get to the next steps of how to sew a perfect fitting medieval 14th century stocking based on my most recent stocking pattern tutorial, I have the very first part of my Klosterstich hands on tutorial about “how to start Klosterstich embroidery” for you. Already some time ago I promised to put together this Klosterstich hands on tutorial as an addition to my Klosterstich technique handout. It is a summery of my experience based on several Klosterstich classes which I hold throughout the last years.
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