Chapter 2 - Stitched columns

Always much happier with a needle in my hand and I love blackwork so this chapter was right up my street!

 Fig. 2:1

I began with a short paragraph about blackwork embroidery which dates back to at least the 15th century and originated in Spain. The repeat patterns found their way onto the cuffs, bodices and sleeves of the British nobility, as can be seen in many portraits of the time (including the one of Queen Elizabeth on this page). Stitched using a double running stitch (Holbein stitch) or backstitch, purists insist that the design should be identical on both back and front of the work. There is sense in this as the black thread can show through fine white fabric if there are large spaces between stitches. Although traditionally worked in black thread with either silver or gold highlights, today coloured thread is often used and beautiful effects can be achieved by using space-dyed or hand-dyed stranded cottons.

I've included a card showing a horse's head stitched by Cluny Chapman, who is one of the York Broderers and who has been to give talks at our branch of the Embroiderers' Guild on a couple of occasions. 

 

Fig. 2.2

Fig. 2.2 has the horse's head image flipped back to reveal my own blackwork design which I've used parts of in the following exercises.

 Fig. 2.3

Column a in Fig.2.3 shows the design being reduced by one element at each stage. It was stitched with a single strand of Anchor stranded cotton on a fine Aida fabric. I worked 2 rows at each stage in order to show the full effect of the 'disappearing' pattern. This works very well as a tonal column.

Column b is again stitched with a single strand of Anchor stranded cotton but this time the design has been spaced apart by one extra 'thread' of the fabric at each stage. This again works well at lightening the tone as the design becomes more widely spaced.

Column c is stitched initially with the full 6 strands of Anchor thread, reducing the number of strands used by one at each stage and again this is very effective at representing tone but in a much more subtle way.

Column d is not really a column at all - this is the one that didn't work. The design was increased in size by one stitch in each direction and immediately became too large to continue. A simpler design would probably have worked better in this instance.

Fig. 2.4

Column e at the top of Fig. 2.4 is worked in cross stitch worked over two threads of the Aida fabric. I worked with a skein of black Anchor stranded cotton and a skein of white and altered the mix of strands at each stage... i.e.

6 strands black; 5 black + 1 white; 4 black + 2 white; 3 black + 3 white; 2 black + 4 white; 1 black + 5 white and finally 6 strands of white.

This produced a very smooth change in tone though would have been easier to work on a smaller count fabric!

Column f is worked in much more random cross stitches using a wide variety of threads including tapestry wool; chenille; perle 8; perle 16; coton a broder 16; coton a broder 25; stranded cotton (various numbers of strands) and Gutermann sewing thread.

I thoroughly enjoyed this chapter and feel that all the methods used (with the one exception) were very effective in producing different tonal values.