Some interesting conversations have been happening in the comments lately. I decided to bring them to the main blog so no one would miss any information. 

Also, I wanted to let you know that over the last several weeks this blog has been the target of spam comments, lots of them. Rich, Plimoth’s patient and hugely helpful web guy, has been deleting them in batches of a couple hundred at least a few times a week. He’s working on a permanent alternative, which may involve closing the comments for a while. We both feel that’s a last resort, but this nonsense is really getting out of hand. The comments won’t close permanently, and if you try to comment and can’t, just send a message to me at work and I’ll post your comment in the next blog. jhall@plimoth.org 

In the top photo of the red petal, (January 7th post) what is the area at the base of the photo that looks as if gold wire has been wrapped many times around the edge of the motif? Is it on the thread, or was it worked onto the edge of the design before stitching the filling? – Mary C 

The bunched up gold in the picture is my first stitching and I didn’t notice that I broke the wire on that reverse chain stitch (so it bunched) until I had worked so much detached buttonhole. I would have taken that one stitch out otherwise. – Tricia 

Hi – I’m in Australia. Is it at all possible to get a kit sent here (if there are any left)? I’ve had a friend recommend the kit as being the best introduction to Elizabethan embroidery.
Do you take Paypal? – Megan

We definitely have kits left, and are happy to send them to Australia, or anywhere else. Tricia did her usual fantastic job with the instructions. They are almost like an intensive class. We don’t take Paypal, unfortunately, but we do take MasterCard, Visa and Discover, as well as checks. Please send requests for kits and payments to Kathy Roncarati, kroncarati@plimoth.org or 508-746-1622 X 8114. 

To answer a similar question, we have plenty of room left in stitching sessions scheduled for February and March. To sign up for a session, please email me at jhall@plimoth.org 

I suspect we will be continuing to embroider into May (another question). I haven’t scheduled sessions that far ahead both because I’m waiting to see Plimoth Plantation’s public programs calendar (avoiding conflicts) and I want to check Tricia’s availability. – Jill 

May I ask how the thread (gilt sylke twist) will be released to the general public? Will the "left overs" from the jacket be sold through Plimoth Plantation, or will it be sold through needlework retailers? – Mary C 

The threads will be sold through Thistle Threads and Plimoth Plantation. Keep checking each for updates on when available. At some point, it will become available to all embroidery stores. Mostly, I have been buying up all of it as it gets made for the Plimoth project and a class to be held in February – so extra is limited at the moment and we just need to make sure that there is enough of the few limited colors before they go for general sale. Plus the final pricing (see earlier blog) must be finished. International readers can also buy through the two ‘vendors’ (via web) as soon as we go live. – Tricia

Jill/Tricia for the sheer pleasure of watching the jacket progress and for the fascinating insights into the whole project, I have tagged this blog for the You Make My Day Award. 

I don’t expect you to follow up in the usual way but I really wanted to include you on my list.  – Coral-seas 

Thank you very much! It is so important (to me especially, I think) to know how many people are enjoying the blog. I had to go look up what this is, and what is the usual response. What a nice thing. I think what I will do is post links here to blogs readers of the Embroiderers’ Story might find interesting. It’s something I’m always meaning to do, and actually have done a couple of times, but have not been consistent with. I’ll be inspired by your comment and try harder! 

For some questions I need to get answers from Tricia, who has been bogged down over the last few weeks by her day job AND by not one but TWO computers that crashed. We can all sympathize there. I’ll post answers and more information soon. Tricia’s computer woes also delayed the production of the lace kits – we were all sending corrections to the instructions to her so she could work her stylish magic. The lace kits will begin going out tomorrow.

Tricia continues the story:

This is a question I still don’t have the greatest answer to, although with the record keeping we are doing on the project, we will at the end. So how to estimate the amount of thread you need to make of each color on a project of this magnitude. Wow. We had anticipated this at the beginning when I did the time trial. I kept a record of the length of thread I used for the trial and what stitch I was doing and where. 

So I had the beginnings of a database that I could use to estimate amounts. I entered this data into a spreadsheet and then took our master pattern and estimated area of each color on each motif. Using the data, I could calculate the amount of thread per inch of detached buttonhole. Then this number was imputed as a multiplier for the estimated area of each motif as a function of color. (At this point I usually smile, and nod, and hope she doesn’t think I’m a complete idiot. – jmh) 

Phew. Is that enough math talk for you??? (Yes.) Instead of doing it for each and every color, I chose the most prevalent color and estimated that. This would form a maximum that we could manufacture against. I assumed I could make good use of extra thread (i.e. Stash!) After all this data crunching, I came up with a minimum of 500 meters of each color would be needed. Now that’s not trivial and got Bill’s attention.

For the number of colors, I had to go back to Susan North (Costume curator at the V&A). Susan was very kind and took the jacket out of storage and went over it to answer my questions. I gave her a list of what colors I thought each motif was worked in and if I thought it was a wire wrapped silk or not. She verified and corrected my list. She also surmised from the look of the wire that it was silver. We don’t know for sure as it hasn’t been analyzed, but it does make sense as it would have been a nice contrast to the gold stems. She also thought it might be a round wire and not a very thin strip of metal (a flattened wire). I have seen both in the past. 

We came up with eight colors that needed to be made. Red, pink, yellow, cream, white, blue, dark blue, and green.  (In the end we made seven for the jacket and one fun color that wouldn’t be used on the jacket. We decided mid-stream that we would not make both white and cream.)

Now for the silk source…

Tricia

Tricia continues the story of the research & development that led to the production of gilt sylke twist.

At the time we were starting this project, I was aware of only four authentic western style gold thread makers in the world: one in Spain, one in France and two in England. I am now familiar with one in Germany/Italy. I had regularly been working with the two English companies and had recently collaborated with Golden Threads to remake some threads for some of my teaching projects. 

I contacted both Benton and Johnson and Golden Threads and explored if they would be amenable to remaking this thread. If you want to get a better idea of what the thread looked like – check the close pictures of the jacket on the V&A website. While Benton and Johnson was understandably hesitant, Bill Barns (Golden Threads) was willing to talk. Bill pointed out to me that the gilt wire wasn’t that much of a problem to source, but the silk thread base was something that he couldn’t source. 

Understanding that, I set to thinking about the problem. About this time, I was working on a project using the gilt purls (also called bullions) that these companies make. These are small springs made with very thin gilt wire. I was stitching them down to the project by threading a silk thread and needle through the center of the purl. Well, sometimes the wire end catches on the silk and well, stretches. 

Sometimes when you have a ‘problem’ you are working on, a happy accident will show you a way. This was one of these times. When the purl stretches along the silk, it looks like the thread I was trying to convince Bill to make. Hmmmm….could that be a solution? It would certainly be much easier to buy a lot of gilt purl and then thread a thick silk thread of whatever color we wanted through the middle and then stretch the purl out over the silk. Each stitcher could make their threads 12-14 inches at a time. It could solve our silk sourcing problem and would be an economic solution too!

Next time – the experiments.

Tricia

The December session is over; everyone has gone home. We were small in number this time, but you could never tell that by how much was accomplished. Here’s Tricia talking with Cheryl S on the first day.

The second picture is Sharon, who earned the title ‘trefoil queen’ by completing at least four of the complicated multi-colored, 3-leaf motifs during this session. Even more impressive is that she left early the first day due to illness. Oh, and she also stitched an entire cornflower – calyx and all. Whew. In the background of this picture is Alison, whose move to Atlanta was prompted by just the sort of storm we had here yesterday.

Here’s Melanie Anne, whose friends wanted pictorial proof of how she’s been spending all her free time lately. Melanie Anne’s from Maine. They get lots of snow.

Safe travels home, everyone.

These drawings were sent in by Libbet (thanks Libbet). She copied them from some period representations of columbines. These, to me, look much more like a columbine, but maybe it is only because they show a side view. If the motif on the jacket is a different perspective, that might account for it.