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?
Have you ever wondered what kids played with centuries ago? Pictures of toys from the very last centuries are available in quite an abundance but they get more and more rare the further you go back in time. Therefore you might very well imagine my great joy when I found this lovely little doll tunic from the 7th to 9th century on display at the Bode Museum.
Apropos photos – I uploaded some of my photos to facebook and thought you might enjoy them: Special guided tour through the Landeszeughaus/Armory Graz, Austria 2004
Sprang is an old technique that got several of my friends very excited recently. And as I have a certain love for interesting and rare things, I remembered a wonderful example from the 5th century on display at the Bode Museum in Berlin, Germany. I had the great pleasure to get to see and photograph this beautiful piece during my visit in 2014 and hope you’ll enjoy it too:
I haven’t made anything for myself for over one year, as my dear sweetheart pointed out to me recently. And the good husband that he is, he made me swear that I would start working on a project for myself and my own amusement next. …or as I did put it: as soon as possible. 😉 However much fun it is to make things for other people, one has always to be careful not to work oneself to the brink of creative exhaustion. Therefore I find it really important to do a fun project from time to time in order to recharge the internal batteries. It feels to me like…
Today we’re taking another close look at my very first medieval islamic inspired embroidery project – the OvO pouch for Gloria, my dear mother-in-law. The path which starts with the initial inspiration and finally leads to the finished project is not always easy. Sometimes one has to follow a quite difficult way and get rid of one obstacle after another. And yes, this project was one of those not quite so easy ones and sent me on an interesting journey…
My previous posting, “super secret project revealed: OvO pouch with medieval islamic inspired embroidery“, already contained a sneak peek at this very special embroidery project. And today I am going to show you the period inspiration for my medieval islamic inspired embroidery project. 🙂 But let’s talk about the project first. When I took on this project, I was already aware that it wouldn’t be a simple task for me. Being so close to the recipient – Gloria, my beloved mother-in-law – made this embroidery project easier but also much more difficult at the same time.
I am tremendously excited! I was just browsing the internet and looking at pictures of 12th century artwork as I run into a lovely detail photo of a 12th century female statue. And as I followed the picture to its source, I discovered a complete photo album… 😀 Well, after looking at 12th century artwork for about 10 years now, it doesn’t happen very often that I run into really good detail photos of extant 12th century artwork which I haven’t seen yet. But I still look out for them as the excitement of finding new detail photos or a special unique piece still gives me a good thrill… *giggle*
And today let’s take a further look at the 12th century tunic I made for my husband last winter and especially its 12th century neckline inspired by the “blue Dalmatika” and the “white Alba”. I already started to post about this 12th century tunic project several weeks ago but somehow I got a little bit sidetracked after the last posting. It seems like my brain acts like a squirrel at times as I can get easily distracted. Sometimes it can be a hard task for me to keep track of all my projects as there are so many – future, current and already finished ones… However, postponed is definitely not abandoned. I am picking up the thread right…
During the last days I was searching for a new medieval pelican inspiration for my current embroidery project. Well, what shall I say – finding a new inspiration is often difficult enough but if you are looking for something special, it can appear to be even more challenging. Fully aware of this fact, I gathered my favorite books about embroidery around me, sat down and went through my books in order to find a new medieval pelican inspiration for my current 14th century hood project for my friends pelican elevation.
You must be logged in to post a comment.