About This Blog

My current research obsession is centered around purses and pouches from the European Middle Ages, and the accompanying hardware and passementerie. It is my hope to not only study extant items but also learn via reconstructive experiments; these will be limited for the most part to the textile components, however in the future I hope to explore the production of the metal frames.

18 May 2010

A little bit of progress

The blue latticework purse, at 91 hrs 40 minutes:


Work has been slow on this piece for a few reasons. The biggest culprit is all the little eyelets; not only are they time consuming, but all the embroidery is so tight that the needle often needs extra encouragement to pierce the holes in the ground fabric. I've broken at least a half-dozen needles so far. Modern needles, mind you. I shudder to think about how I'd fare using some hand-made needles.

One of the other reasons progress has been slow is due to this little side-project: I'd decided that, after my class on German counted work, I should really have some examples that use the 2/1 stitch slope (sometimes referred to as Gobelin stitch). The patterns are from Richard Wymarc's A Stitch Out Of Time (patterns 6 & 10 on that page). Both will become small cushions:

16 May 2010

Yes, still alive

Semester finished, so in the next week maybe I'll get some embroidery work done.

Meanwhile, enjoy some great photos at Racaire's blog here (16 May posting), which includes some great detail shots of two purses!