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I’m building a whole new website.So check back when you have time.

The workroom has been a sloppy mess for the past few weeks because, well, I’d set things down and then not put them back were they belong. I have no less than eight pair of scissors in here and I can never find one. And so now I am cleaning and organizing and making life easier on myself. Now I have piles of things, nicely grouped and ready to put away. I have a full box of silk thread and a nice pile of silk fabric, and separate boxes of charms, wires, vellum, and tools.

I think I would like to prepare a class for this – a straight up history class or a symbolism breakdown class. I’m pretty sure a how-to and hands-on class would be rather long but I think it could be done in a two-hour time slot. I don’t think it’s easy enough to slide into an hour long class even if I limited it to one flower type.

I’d also like to put together all of my landsknecht photos and see if I can find something that my hubby likes so I can make him something to wear. He needs nice garb. And I have collected enough photos at this point to teach a garb class but I need to organize those as well.

And of course I need to make many more flowers for in the shrine so it doesn’t look so barren. I love how the lilies turned out and how that section looks full but even there I could use more leaves. And I could use all sorts of spiky bits for ground cover.

Speaking of ground cover – my fibers experiment produced interesting results. I think rosemary won for ease and ability to plant in it. Corn silk worked well too but would have been better if it had been packed tighter. Goldenrod and lavender also worked well but I didn’t plant in either of them. Rose was a total failure because I couldn’t pack it tight enough to allow it to support anything.

 

So I’ve been working with combinations of different silks and different vellums and trying to find the sweet spot where it all goes together perfectly. It is not working out that way.

Filament silk does not work the same way as spun silk. Spun silk works a whole lot better in many ways but it is not nearly as pretty in the end result.

The best vellum is soft and “felty” in feeling. Not stiff and flat and processed in a way that would make it perfect for paper.

The best silk (of the filaments) I think would be the Trebizond. The reason I feel this way is because the filaments are not firmly melded together like the ones in Au Ver A Soie – Soie Ovale. I think this has to do with the twist – I use one of the three strands at a time with the Trebizond and while it looks all twisty when I use it, the filaments have some give and take in relation to each other. Because the vellum I’m wrapping in silk isn’t in nice even and straight pieces, the silk on one side has more or less space to wrap than the silk on the other side and so when a piece is finished the cut end of the strand is pretty jagged. The Trebizond slides through my fingers and stays straight which I did not expect as the result of the twist.

I wrapped The majority of an Arras rose in a lovely rose pink color and finished the Herrentals poppy in a rich gold color. Both are in the Au Ver A Soie – Soie Ovale. They both look stunning.

I am working on an Arras rose in a white cream color in the Trebizond silk. I will need to finish that one up first before I go buying more silk but it’s clear to me that I will have to do this project with filament silk because it just looks so much nicer.

I’ve decided that the cabinet for the shrine will probably be made from aromatic cedar. I haven’t decided for sure yet but if the cedar prevents moths and moths can eat silk then it is probably the best wood to use. I first need to find out if any of the original cases were of cedar.

And lastly – I picked up two of my ILL books at the library today. They had just come in so they express checked them in so I could check them out.. The other two should be here by Monday. One of them, The Beguines in Medieval Paris by Miller, looks very interesting and has a whole chapter on silk workers around 1300. I look forward to diving into it. Thankfully it’s in English!

After getting the workroom set-up and then taking a week off for holiday activity, I have finally completed the first of the flowers for the shrine project.

It is a detached buttonhole stitch “buttercup” based on the same flower from the Herentels shrine. It took some work:

1. Posted a picture of the original to Facebook to see if anyone knew someone who could point me in the correct direction. I had several people pointed at me and one responded that it looked like detached buttonhole stitch.

2. I had also asked one of my museum friends who said it looked similar to other small pieces from the same time period so the stitch must have been fairly common but didn’t have any other information.

3. Learned how to do the stitch and had to do several test pieces before I felt I could handle an entire petal.

4. Made four petals and four under-petals and stitched them all together to form the flower. That took about three days.

5. Posted my flower and a picture of the original to FB to get additional eyes on the thing to see if other people could determine if I nailed the stitch. It appears that I have.

6. Updated all of my correspondents as to my initial progress.

Additional steps need to be made to complete this flower. I will have to twist the wire for the center and then make the under petals. The under petals are of a style I am better acquainted with so they should not take so long. I would like to complete this flower and maybe one or two more just like it to frame them up for the 12th night A&S competition. I do not however want to jeopardize entering Kingdom A&S because the flowers might eventually find their way into the shrine. We’ll have to see if they even get done in time.

This flower is the first major breakthrough I’ve had in the flower construction. I’m having a ball with it and am getting a great hit of energy as a result. I have also learned that it is considerably easier to work in seclusion without the phone, tv, husband, and nature (like the birdfeeder on the window) to offer distractions. My workroom has lots of natural light from a window at ground level and the view from the desk is of a giant elm tree and some fir treetops that are on the far side of the lawn. Part of setting up the workroom included washing the windows so the light would get in.

I’ve also been able to sort through my silk collection and determine what I will need to complete the project. I will try Kreinik first (since that is where I got the rest of the silk) and then move on to other companies. I hope to find untwisted or low-twist filament silk.

Originally I had the idea that I would setup a workroom where I could just make flowers without interruption and leave my stuff just all over the place – which I can’t do in the middle of the living room. I had thought I’d just set it up in the basement sewing room but the light down there is horrible when compared to natural light.

I settled on the man cave/library as it has really good natural light and is a fairly small room that already has all of my books in it. How could I possibly not do well sitting in the middle of the library. So I cleaned up all the assorted stuff and straightened the books. I brought the TV down from the bedroom because we never watch TV up there and I will hook up the DVD player so I can watch Pride and Prejudice over and over  like I did when I was engulfed in the last project. There is nothing on the TV during the day that would encourage me to work.

I started bringing up the silk and other things I will need to get working on the grand flower project of 2014. I think I also need to wash the windows (which will lead to better light and alleviate my distress at having nasty looking windows) and find the space heater so my toes don’t get cold.

I can then get plowing on the flowers.

It has been a little over a week since we returned to the little house in Wisconsin. It has been a week full of odd sleep patterns and spinning ideas zooming through my brain. So much is going on in my head and I’m forgetful as to which day of the week I’m currently on.

So I have corresponded with about half of the people who have information on the flowers. In the meantime I have also been introduced to several more people who either make flowers or have other information pertaining to them. It’s kind of neat to all of a sudden know that I’m proceeding on this journey on my own.

There is a flower on the shrine from Herentels that is woven and unlike the rest of the flowers from the time. I asked the curator about it and she thought it was a fairly common stitch at the time but was unfamiliar with it personally. I asked some lace folks and they thought “detached buttonhole stitch” so I tried that one and the results look very much like the picture of the original that I compared it to. So now I just have to get the shape corrected.

In the mean time someone posted a circlet of silk and wire flowers from the same period as the shrines and as a result I found one more contact in Germany and someone in England that is also attempting to make the flowers. I was also introduced to someone in Minnesota who knows the Austrian version of the flowers.

So tomorrow is wood carving class and the giraffes are very nearly supposed to be completed. Hopefully they will be completed by the end of the year (which means I need to get busy on it outside of class.) In that way I will have three and a half months to do the entirety of the little holy statue for the shrine. It’s going to be tough to get that, the paper and the shrine flowers all done for the contest but then again, I did the whole damn beaded garden in less than two months so I guess I can do this insane project as well.