Medieval Scene Embroidery and Dealing with Cheap Pearl Cotton

Right so here is the completed side one of the little cammera case!
Yes i know i should have been studying, but i was litening to lectures on the computer while embroidering. I just stopped the video when i need to jot down notes... It was great it took my mind of the borning lecture that normally makes me cringe.. :-)

Medieval Embroidered Scene: Side One Finished

Close up of Medieval Embroidered Scene: Side One

Medieval Embroidered Scene: Side Two - Prior to starting

Side Two: Different Cotton and Different Stitch

 I am playing with the threads on the other side... This is a very very very cheap Pearl cotton. I got it in bulk

Cheap Pearl Cotton

Here is the cheap pearl cotton i got. [ see this post for the pictures of the cotton] While i was happy with it for doing the tassels for the pouch, i wasn't expecting to be able to embroider with it. It looked too poor a quality.

However i spend about and hour to prepare the thread and so far i have been very happy.

1. Remove all the sticky sticky sticky labels (1/2 hour)
2. Open up and cut in to the lengths. Fortunately i just chopped it as it comes in a workable length (5 mins)
3. Washed in warm soapy water
4. Washed again in hair conditioner (yes strange) to make it feel nice
5. Hung unceremoniously over my lamp in my room to dry.
6. Started embroidery.

I am quite happy with the way it is working. No breaks only one slight tangle and quite workable (compared to some i have tried) it doesn't have quite the 'sheen' of some but it was quite nice. 

I purchased it of EBAY in a bulk lot from a supplier in England (although probably India). It was very cheap.

We shall see how it goes

Bayeux Wool Arrived

Whooo exams over!! Thank goodness.

Nice surprise today as well, my wool from Bayeux Broderie has arrived.

the Bayeux Broderie wool is a very thin wool. It comes already cut in 70cm stitch lengths. About 100 per skein. I have done a quick little test and i got about 1cm square out of the one piece(doubled over). So a skein will be about 10cm squared. ish, perhaps less with wastage. I don't know how this compares to other wools, so will be making some investigations.i will guess 9cm2 with wastage and whoopsies.

It is fairly nice to work with better than Appletons but not quite as good as the Renaissance wool (is anything as nice as that) In the stitch length provided there was very little thinning, and no signs that it was going to break. It did appear a little "thready" on top. But this seems to be the nature of the wool. I don't mind it.

i did some costings and it actually may appear that the Renaissance might be a touch cheaper... (certainly worth the extra extra extra good quality.)

I havn't included the maths but, i got nearly double the coverage for the same length of wool in the renaissance. The skeins are shorter in Renaissance, but the postage is better. So in the end if i can GET the colours, i will want to get some more of the Renaissance. This is the problem getting the right colours.

Hopefully now that i have the colours from Bayeux Broderie (which are still great wools and i will certainly be using them) I can sort out what i want from Renaissance dyeing.

I wonder if i can send them a little snippet of the colours and just get them to send the closest that they have??? hmmmm that is a thought. They might do that.... will have to ask Renaissance dyeing methinks.

Come on Sarah...get cracking....


Progress 15 hours??? (cottons)

Procrastination Abounds

Well why is it that when i HAVE to get some study done, the best forms of procrastination occur!!
If i had to be Queen of something. It would be distractions and procrastinations.
My Bulk lot of threads arrived today for tassel making and general "have in the background threads" they were cheap and will do just nicely for the purpose. Some of the pearl cotton that i got (while it was multi dyed) the piece are long enough in some spots that i can just cut one colour out and use it. Certainly enough for a tassel. So i am rather happy about that. It's not variegated like every 5 mm its a different colour.

Last night i was reading some of my NZ friends blogs (Kerrin) and (Nicole) who are both writing novels. I got out my old novel i was writing and rewrote the first chapter. Talk about procrastination!!

Then of course, this morning my threads arrive. And i HAD to unpackage them.

anyway with no further ado, here they are. Now i HAVE to get back to work. I'm off out tonight and shan't be back till Saturday so i must get this dammn study done.

ABout 200 skeins of thread here :-) Pearl cotton, Rayon and some silks (i think)

What colours should i use to recreate the Bayeux Tapestry?

Here is a post of mostly research notes and links on my study. I have not included the images for copyright reasons. But all the links take you to the pages.

I shall add and re-update this link as required

My question: Where to find images that are representative of the true colours. Either the original colours, how it looks now and what other people have recreated. How do i then translate this to modern thread.

ORIGINAL COLOURS:

Web Gallery of Art: has some really good images of the tapestry close up. Click on the zoom to see it very close. You can really see the bright blue that is in this image here.
This image shows the colour of the terracotta rusty colour as being a very bright colour. I wonder if this was close to the actual colour.

Here is the Reading Museum website showing a replica of the tapestry with small details only. The colours appear different.

Here is a CD that you can buy that shows the tapestry in full down the the weave itself. I have not bought this but has anyone found it good?

Here are some more images of the tapestry . Click on the sections to view them.

Here is an image of a print. Not embroidery, but does help with deciding on colours.

One of the most close up pictures of a scene that i could find online. very detailed

The picture below can be found at this website. It has Really close up views of the stitching. I have used the picture as it is no longer copyrighted. Can really see the detail.

Another Image: Behind glass

Create your own Bayeux Tapestry game (very very cute)



FOUND IT. HERE IS AN IMAGE of the colour scheme i want!

look what i have found!!! the Bayeux threads all packaged up !!! SEE HERE (fixed up the URL)

Has anyone tried these?



UTube Video showing the tapestry. (in Polish but we only need the images)
UTube video showing a couple of images of the actual tapestry. behind glass but still interesting
UTube BBC video showing the actual bayeux tapestry. Behind glass but really good images in parts
UTube - Yes another one. Scrolling view of Bayeux


REPRODUCTIONS:

Here is an image of a reproduction. Note the colours here.


BAYEUX KITS:

Here is a link to the kit that Mary Corbet has of the Bayeux tapestry. Look at the close up pictures of the threads. The colours are beautiful.

Tapestry House kit.

NON RELATED SHOPPING:

You can buy Bayeux trim here.



Unrelated Crewel embroidery UTube video. I love the design

Playing with Bayeux (again)

Update 8 hours:

 here is some more been done:

My choice of colours obviously :-)
The least said on the topic of finding a good match for the original the better!!!
very briefly:
Very tricky business. I want to do them in Renaissance wool, (which is totally delicious but pricey to get to Australia) but i have a cheap supplier of the appletons wool which is not quite as nice.

However i have been told (by a fellow stitcher)  that if it is worth doing, it is worth doing properly and to splurge on the beautiful wool. I am beginning to agree with her.

Playing with Bayeux (again)

Well so i got sidetracked!  So what :-) I wanted to have another play with the bayeux stitch, so that was what i did.

 I havn't quite got the colour combination right yet i don't think, but it isn't toooooo far off. They don't show very well here actually.

The ones on the left are DMC the ones on the right Are Anchor threads.

I would have love to do this in my Renaissance threads, but didn't have the colours.

I used Racaire's Handout  to think about the stitch again. (thanks Racaire).
She recommends filling in the little holes that are created, (which i havn't done yet as you can see)

It's obviously not finished but it's looking good for about 6 hours work??  It would be much quicker with wool but it is certainly faster than say split stitch.


I also got the direction of the cross threads wrong on the left leg (totally) it was the first thing i did. The initial stitches should have gone down and the couching ones across. opps.
will keep on going

Yet more threads

YAH... My last lot of Renaissance Dyeing Threads came in the mail today. I am very happy. Unfortunately as i am trying to study i didn't have more than an hour (ok it was two) to play with them.

They work really smoothly. they are really really easy to stitch with if the thread is doubled, but i prefer the effect if they are single. So far they are really consistent in their stitching with no real "stretching" and "thinning" and i havn't actually broken a thread yet, (came close when the phone rang though)

 As you can see they threw in a couple of "bits and bobs" (see the little bits at the top) as well which was really nice of them.

I also unwound some of my silks and rayons from bobins and hung them up to "defrizz" you can see the ones on the left have been treated by the good ole kettle steam and the ones on the right have not. I obviously havn't had enough tea today.

Then as a fellow embroiderer had given me some advice on my stitching i set to trying to turn my satin stitch into something respectable.

This if you remember was my first attempt ever at satin stitch. The thread is wool and it is padded underneath. As you can see it is rather bumpy.

 Here is my next attempt. It is starting to look better. I don't know if i like the varigated on this flower, it was my new thread and i just wanted to try it. However, i think the lines are somewhat neater.
Following that i tried a pattern over the top to see if i could make that stick in the lines.

There is a bumpy bit on the side of the circle on the right (The phone rang and i tried to pull the stitch through and buggered the back) if this was a proper piece and not a trial i guess i would be re-doing that. It looks worse from the other side too...

While it still needs more focus i think it is looking better :-)

In the meanwhile i ordered some beads and pearls today to make up a Paternoster. I love this site http://paternosters.blogspot.com/ has some awesome stuff.

Will see of i can get some more done tonight.

renaissance dyeing

Thanks to Renaissance Dyeing for such quick delivery of my new threads. They are in France and i am in Australia and my thread arrived in 4 working days. (6 if you include the weekend).

Not only have they arrived quickly but they are beautifully soft and the colours look wonderful.


These are the colours i got, resting on my new navy blue 100% wool i got for $9 a meter at my local fabric store. I was doing a bank run at work, nearly got knocked over by a hoon on a bike turned around to abuse him and there in the distance i saw the words ...."Fabric...." being new to the area i ran there, regardless of the whole "should be at work thing" and found my wool.