I’ve been fascinated by the little c12th purse from chelles for years, and it’s been on my to do list. But one of the probelms is that it appaers to be incredibly badly documented, and the museo alfred bono where it lives, is closed for renovation.

THe description says silk threads on linen, but…

Those wear marks look like a red silk cloth over a linen backing – which would be pretty standard for the period.

In a lot of the photos the stitching (I can’t find anywhere that says what stitch it is) looks like underside couching. and underside couching with a silk background showing is also a thing until about 1200.

I’ve seen loads of reprodcutions of this piece, but always too big. Like WAAAAY to big. The original is listed as 10×13 cm, which is about four inches by five, so teeny wee.

So I drafted the pattern about the right size – in a ten by thirteen box. It may not come out that size once I’ve assembled it, but ti will be close

I left my scissors in for scale.

I’ve transferred it onto red silk twill (which is a complete bastard to work with) backed with linen.

twice

I’m going to do the same image twice, once in silk, once in underside couching(which would technically make it a very early form of opus anglicanum).

I’m going to start with the silk

top is devere filament silk, bottom is some naturally dyed, plied silk. both stem stitch.

I think I’m goign to go with the plied silk, the filament is too smooth, and there is a definite texture to the original.

Of course, once the embroidery is done I’m going to have the challenge of those funny little knobs to deal with…

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Tags: c12th, embrodiery, embroidery, medieval, medieval embroidery, natural dye, norman, opus anglicanum, silk, stem stitch