I brought down the silk lining for the session participants to look at.  We unrolled it and looked for my ‘defect’ amongst Justin’s wonderful weaving.  You can see me pointing it out to everyone.  We all enjoyed looking at the beautiful silk and marveling at the fact it was handwoven for the project.  

Jill, Linda Eaton at Winterthur, Wendy and I are having a debate on if we should line the lining.  We will also talk to a few more textile conservators and Susan North before we make a decision.  We worry about the long term abrasion of the gold thread ends against this wonderful silk lining.  In the end, we may not think that we can add anything inside to protect the silk or that it might be too hard to construct, but we want to make conscious decisions at this point and not “wish we had” later.  

Tricia

During show and tell, I brought two teaching projects from the fall/winter which were a result of the ripples from this project.  One is a sweet bag and scissors sheath that are modeled after the Watson sweet bag and knife sheath at Winterthur.  They have two new fibers on them. One is a gilt tambour made in a size that is good for working that encroaching goblin on linen as a background.  The other is silk wrapped purl.  I have been drooling over that thread for years.  I know many other teachers had been wanting it too.  I know Leon Conrad and Bill Barnes had been trying to make it but using viscose as the English market is more price sensitive.  Also, Bill was unsure of a good silk supply.  When we solved the silk supply problem for GST, I let Lamora know he could do silk purl.  Well, she sent me a box last year of samples and these two projects are the result.  I will post again soon when I have silk purl up on my website.

What fun – new fibers to play with!

Tricia

During the first session we did, we realized that we would want a record of what motif was done by which person.  Originally we were going to give unique numbers to each motif and use that system.  In the end, we were pressed for time and sent our intrepid intern out to Kinkos with our master pencil drawing of the embroidery pattern to xerox it through their blue print scanner.  

Brilliant!  We could just spread out the sheets and everyone could sign over the motif they stitched.  What we didn’t know at the time was how visual this is and how our original system wouldn’t have worked.  Very few motifs are completely stitched by one person.  Often someone is really good at a particular technique and they jump around the piece doing just calyx or petals or centers.  Or they have only an hour or two before they need to go to catch a plane – in that case we find them something small to work on before they go.  I thought you might like to see a close-up of our ’system’.  

Tricia

Now some answers to a few questions in the comments recently.  Yes the Redde silver sylke twist is the same silk base and the Redde gilt sylke twist.  Isn’t it amazing how the color shifts because of the overwrap!  

Yes the blog will continue.  There is much to talk about with historic embroidery.  The floor has dropped out of publishing somewhat and so some projects I had been working for years might need to get out there via the internet instead…so the blog is a nice place to talk.  I am definitely thinking of ‘what next’ already.  Plus there is much to analyize in the data we have taken on the project.  In fact, the data is currently being inputted to a database.  I expect to start letting you in on some of the impressive totals soon.  

Currently, one of the projects I am working on is how to take the ‘fingerprint’ of a stitcher by some image analysis math of their stitching.  The basic theory has panned out and I just scanned into my computer about 20 of the samples that you all sent in for the project!  The potential for this data to solve some of the unanswered questions in 17th century embroidery has intrigued myself and many curators around the globe.  I will be filling you all in as this course of research develops.  Its a bunch of math and detail work, but I have seen that you all are interested in the details too.  I’m looking for a more quantitative way to show the differences you can see by your eyes in the pictures below.

And then there is the plaited braid I keep promising you.   I’ve prepared the blogs… May will be a busy month dissecting the stitch.

Tricia

We can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.  That was really clear during this session.  Many of us were starting to get a little weepy thinking about the end.  Lynn has traveled many, many times from Canada to stitch with us.  This was her last time.  When she got ready to leave and take the long drive north, she looked at all the pieces and said ‘goodbye’.  We all realized that after touching the jacket for hundreds of hours, there would be a time when we would never touch her again.  She would be behind glass and beyond our touch.  Officially a valuable object to be protected from us.

We have come to start calling ‘her’ a name:  FAITH.  Very fitting.  It has been a huge leap of faith for hundreds of participants to make her.

There are many things that I will miss once our sessions are done.  Eating lunch will be one of the big ones.  When you have a very intense passion in something like 17th century embroidery, you don’t know many people as intensely interested as yourself.  This project has gathered those individuals together on-site and in cyber-space.  During lunch we get to share our interests, stories, and thoughts.  Often you realize that if we walked by each other on the street – we may have never known that we shared a passion.  But through this experience we have become friends.  

Often we bring a computer into the lunch room and share pictures of historic embroidery – stuff we are doing research on.  We all geek-out over the complexity.   Wendy teased us all with a picture of a casket during this lunch.  We went nuts.  Something that blew our mind.  Then we kibitz – talk about how things may have been done.  We share thoughts and theories.  It is so enriching.  

Then there are the special things you learn about others.  We have had so many talented people show up.  Sometime during the weekend, they get comfortable and bring out their special things – notebooks of drawings, lace out of GST, original designs, 17th century embroidery fragments, Ukrainian eggs, special jams, costumes, etc.  The list is long and fantastic.  We noted Janice’s sewing basket this time and how wonderful it was.  Then she reveled that she is a basket artist.  We convinced her to bring her trunk shown in the next day.  WOW – it was amazing.  A few went home with me and others.

I will miss these sessions as I will wonder what I would have learned or seen or who would have become a friend if we had been able to have more.

Tricia