Resurrection of the Pea
Its been a while since I've done anything with the blackwork'd caul of swirliness. It lay forgotten in a drawer for many months, but I recently took it up again and finished all the swirls. Its pretty rough-looking embroidery, unfortunately. I think this is due to the choice of linen embroidery thread, but I'm going to go ahead with it anyway. I'm just taking the lesson home that next time I'd like silk thread.
With the swirls done, I must choose what to put inside them. In the original post, I was drawn to peapods, and that hasn't changed. But I was having a time trying to pick WHICH peapods exactly. Last night I threw together a quick and dirty sampler on powder pink linen to test a few:
pea test
#1--The open peapod is from a jacket at the V&A.
#2--The Triplet peas from a jacket in the Maidstone museum (pic from Gostelow's Blackwork)
#3--the curly-q pea is from an alternate sketch inGostelow's book, Blackwork, said to be taken
from a late 17th century blackwork cloth.
#4--is from a nightcap, also at the V&A museum
#5--the double sided peapod is from one of my many books, but now I can't find it. Whoops!
They all obviously need to be worked more delicately and carefully than in the above sampler (especially where the fill patterns are concerned), but this should give a rough idea. I'm quite certain that 4 is my least favorite. But other than that one, I kinda like them all. So...any opinions would be appreciated. Right now I'm considering two options:
1) Pick one and do it in every swirly on the caul. If i did this, which is your favorite? I'm leaning towards 2 or 3, I think.
2) Do a variety of peas, alternating in my swirl pattern (perhaps doing only the 4 I like). Do you think that these look okay together in my sampler, and would that look translate well to a caul?
With the swirls done, I must choose what to put inside them. In the original post, I was drawn to peapods, and that hasn't changed. But I was having a time trying to pick WHICH peapods exactly. Last night I threw together a quick and dirty sampler on powder pink linen to test a few:
pea test
#1--The open peapod is from a jacket at the V&A.
#2--The Triplet peas from a jacket in the Maidstone museum (pic from Gostelow's Blackwork)
#3--the curly-q pea is from an alternate sketch inGostelow's book, Blackwork, said to be taken
from a late 17th century blackwork cloth.
#4--is from a nightcap, also at the V&A museum
#5--the double sided peapod is from one of my many books, but now I can't find it. Whoops!
They all obviously need to be worked more delicately and carefully than in the above sampler (especially where the fill patterns are concerned), but this should give a rough idea. I'm quite certain that 4 is my least favorite. But other than that one, I kinda like them all. So...any opinions would be appreciated. Right now I'm considering two options:
1) Pick one and do it in every swirly on the caul. If i did this, which is your favorite? I'm leaning towards 2 or 3, I think.
2) Do a variety of peas, alternating in my swirl pattern (perhaps doing only the 4 I like). Do you think that these look okay together in my sampler, and would that look translate well to a caul?
posted by Julebug | 3:56 PM
2 Comments:
I like number 3. It screams 'pea' to me. The others.. I can tell they are peas because you said so. That's not saying they aren't nice... I guess it depends on the look you are going for :P
That being said I like number 3 the best, with number 2 coming in second.
Was that much help? :P
I like pea #2 and #3, but have you ever been here? http://www.extremecostuming.com/gallery/embroidery.html
While somewhat intimidating and on the HOLY MONKEIES!! scale of workmanship, she is also into peas and has done several projects (including a orange jacket and coif) that involve "swirly peas" You might take a pea'k.. (OK bad pun, sorry long day)for how some of this looks when completed for further ideas/inspitation. I go there just to drool sometimes....
Although, one thing I have noticed, (if you are going on the authentic side), is that "random peas" (ie multiple pea patterns) appear more often mixed in with other flowers, vegetation and even critters. I've never seen one with just different peas. Although you might ask Mistress Isobel (see website above), she might be able to provide more insight if you're going there. If you're going for coolness factor, multiple peas with linking vegitation/swirlies would look very cool indeed.
Either way, I can't wait to see how it looks!!!
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