Embroidery contributions for Gift Basket

Every year my SCA kingdom, Drachenwald, swops gift with another kingdom at this well-heard-of event called Pennsic. I have never visited Pennsic myself, partly because it takes place at the same time as my baronys biggest event, Medieval week, and partly because it takes a lot of money traveling to the States.

However, I like to contribute to the gift basket, since it is a way to show how many fantastic artisans we have here in Drachenwald. This summer I got the possibility, together with lady Lunetta, to emborider badges for the king and queen of Ealdormere, the kingdom with whom we swopped baskets this year.

I made the kings badge, a red wolf on white. and Lunetta made the queens, a rose.

This years basket has been mentioned on SCA today: http://www.scatoday.net/node/21260 where you also se the finished bags with badges as well as all the other contributions.

Drachenwald rocks in so many ways and I am proud to be a small part of it.

We have dragons!

Just yesterday I was remembered about the closing deadline for the Guild challenge, 1st of October, so I have better get going! Since the gold work-experience during the Medieval week in August, I have fiddled with the idea of some appliqué in order to get a 3D-effect. I even got the very useful tip of just putting it on some small parts that really should stand out. So, diving into a basket full of small cloth scraps I found some more of the cherry red that I used for the heart appliqué. It was a bit tricky to get the pieces cut out right since the outline was fixed already, but well worth the effort. The head is all done, appliqué covered in red silk in split stitch and some bright green edged with thin gold thread for the eye.

And since I´m working with silk of different qualities the eye sinks in a bit deeper than the surrounding skin since the red silk is thicker. It is so much fun playing around with the materials like this! Now I just need to fill out the entire dragon with split stitch and then start on the hoard of treasures. I´m really looking forward to this since I´ve stocked up on jewel glass beads and goldthread.

Pouch progress

My first attempt at goldwork is now slowly turning into a small pouch with a 3D embroidery in red and gold. The embroidery consists of cloth appliqué in multiple layers, with edgings in gold and silk. I learned the trick of only fastening the supporting fabric in the embroidery frame and then stitching the top fabric onto this, thus avoiding tension and wear of the top fabric by the frame. I have mixed thicker gold thread (the center cross and the outer edge) and thinner gold thread (edging the heart-shaped appliqués).

This is how the back looks now, after the excess support fabric has been cut down. I will of course line the entire pouch in a steady linnen fabric so that the back won´t be worn by objects carried in it.

For finishing the pouch, I will either do a woven edge all around or a passpoal-edging in red cloth.

Battle of Wisby 1361-2011

Today we went to town to watch the reenactment of the Battle of Wisby 1361, when the danish king Valdemar Atterdag won over the gotlanders outside the city walls. It was hot today, and sunny, and lots and lots of people watching. This is when the danes and the gotlanders engage on the battle field, the danes to the left. I found it interesting, being the first time I watched reenacted fighting like this, and just a tad theatrical. Not as much adrenaline and some of the participants forgot what they were doing and looked at the audience and the cameras... But overall fun and impressive!

Goldwork

Yesterday was spent in excellent company trying to get the techniques of goldwork, one of many interesting workshops held this week in the Battle of Wisby encampment. Now the technique of sewing down the gold with fine silk wasn´t that different from other embroidery stitches I´ve tried before, but fun! And shiny, especially when we moved out into the sun. But I was inspired and will surely do more of it, and I got the tip on different ways for getting a 3D-effect. The one I´ve tried on the green is simply stitching on another piece of cloth on top. I will try also the way of stitching coarsely with wool thread and then cover it with embroidery or even with small pieces of silk.

Radio Ga-Ga

So, today I went early (well, fairly early) into town in order to meet up with the local radio that wanted to make a report on what is and what is not medieval in the dress of the visitors of MTV. I was called in as some kind of expert (hmpf, not sure that´s a good thing). But we had fun and some of the guys that I criticised came and asked about a million questions on whats right and wrong and what they should think about for future projects. The afternoon was spent fabric shopping and listening to Margareta Nockert. Interesting but not that inspirational as Isis Sturtewegens lecture yesterday. Some of my shopping today will most definetly be used for a frilled veil or two.

Todays outfit is the blue dress now worn with an open hood, more french than german...

Now sorting out what I need for tomorrows workshop - I´m learning goldwork!

Going 14th century

Today I will guard the camp for a couple of hours and since I suspect I might have to fill the lanterns or someting else messy, I picked out my best working dress. The dress was my first 14th century buttoned dress in thin brown wool and I love it!