Museum photos: 1584-90 doublet and hose (Dresden)

Doublet and hose belonging to the Saxon Electoral Regalia.

c.1584-90, outer fabric Italian, tailoring Dresden, Electoral tailor’s workshop. Warp-faced satin, warp crimson silk, weft light salmon silk, pinking pattern with cut warp threads, the weft threads being left intact. Trim: crimson silk velvet (faded).

Dresden Residenzschloss Museum

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Video: Beginner’s guide to brocaded tablet weaving

When I taught myself brocaded tablet weaving, I was looking for videos that would show the basic steps, and visualise some of the process that seemed difficult to follow when reading them written down. I couldn’t find any, so I produced my own. I hope these how-to videos are useful.

I have read many tablet weaving publications, and my favourite one for history of brocaded tablet weaving, historical patterns, and especially technique is Spies, N. (2000) Ecclesiastical Pomp & Aristocratic Circumstance: A Thousand Years of Brocaded Tabletwoven Bands, Jarrettsville: Arelate Studio. Available for purchase as PDF on Etsy and Nancy’s website.

Videos: key steps during brocaded tablet weaving

I created a short video that focuses on the key steps involved in brocaded tablet weaving: silk thread shuttle, followed by picking of the pattern, then gold thread shuttle through temporary weft. I find brocaded tablet weaving much easier than the normal one, as there is no complicated turning of individual or groups of tablets involved.

I also created a video that shows the steps taken for neat edges, which avoid gold loops showing.

Project Management for practice research

I took part in a Project Management workshop. I hadn’t been sure what to expect, as I’d never got to grips with the MS Project software, and was pleasantly surprised at how our trainer used the sticky-note activity (and many more hands-on ones), which fit my way of thinking.

One of the trickiest parts of my research has been to figure out how to proceed with the artefact creation. What would I need to do first? What was essential to complete before moving onto the next step? How long would it all take? And so on. Of course, at this stage all of the duration for each task are estimates. One would think that after a lifetime of sewing and embroidering I would have looked at the hours it took me, but unfortunately I had not.

Creating a network diagram with coloured sticky notes on cheap IKEA kids’ drawing paper taped together, then using pens to work out the connections, has been an excellent exercise in focusing on the tasks required for creating the first Object and its components. The red line indicated the critical path. Unsurprisingly that’s the embroidery.

1200-object-a-network-diagram

1586 Lauenberger Fuerstengruft: silk velvet and metal embroidered coat

1586 coat of Duke Duke Wilhelm V, silk velvet, heavily embroidered with a variety of gold and silver threads. Found in the Lauenburger crypt and displayed in the Bavarian National Museum in Munich. Tradition has it that Duke Wilhelm wore this coat at his wedding with Duchess Renata of Lorraine.

1586 coat Lauenburg 11 1586 coat Lauenburg 10 1586 coat Lauenburg 01

Please note that photos have been adjusted via increased highlight and brightness. Full set on Flickr:

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c.1400 embroidered silk chasuble (paraments)

Photos taken in December 2015 in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg.

Chasuble, formerly in St Mary’s church (Gdanks) now in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg.
Italian silk damask, lining Portuguese silk lampas, silk and gold metal embroidery Prague c.1400.

1400 chasuble 01 1400 chasuble 02 1400 chasuble 05 1400 chasuble 09

Flickr set:

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