Amazing tutorials: blackwork, klosterstitch and refilsaum

The blogs by Laren and Racaire are some of my favourites (see links below). Their embroidery is stunning, and I really appreciate the way they share their information. This week, they both posted some very interesting tutorials. Do yourself a favour, and take a look!

Laren posted a great tutorial about blackwork embroidery, including pictures, background info and how to instructions. Take a look at her pfd here:

jane_stockton_non_counted_blackwork.pdf

And her research page with other interesting handouts here

And Racaire posted her wonderful tutorials about klosterstitch and refilsaum . These have pictures, background info and instructions too.

Bildindex: interlacing stitch example

I found another beautiful example of whitework in interlacing stitch in the Bildindex:

http://www.bildindex.de/bilder/mi11304a05a.jpg

What I like about this, is that it shows how the interlacing stitch can be used to embroider large and non symetrical shapes too. The big animal with the tail (cow?) in the upper part is so funny!

Tutorial:14th century border in interlacing stitch

Finally I know how to do this type of borders, frequently used in 14th century Swiss and German whitework:


This example is taken from: Kroos, R. (1970), Niedersachsische Bildstickereien des Mittelaters, Berlin: Deutscher Verlag fur Kunstwissenschaft

The original embroidery is done in white linen on white linen. I used red cotton, because I'm still familiarizing myself with the stitches. Cotton is a bit easier to find here, and red thread is easier to distinguish from the background fabric

So, here is what I have done. Click on a picture to enlarge. (The pictures were taken on an autumn day with changing weather, so the light is a bit different in each picture)

Step 1: draw dots on the fabric. Each dot is one interlacing stitch







Step 2: make the 'skeleton stitches'







Step 3: the inner part of the square is embroidered separately. It took me a lot of time to find that out... :-)






Step 4: all the "skeleton stitches' are in place







Step 5: start lacing







Step 6: the inner part of the square is laced separately







Step 7: Yeah! The figures are not exactly parallel, but in the original 14th century work, it seems a bit shaky too (see enlarged photocopy in step 1 and picture above)