Embroidery of the 11th Century English Artisans
A small vignette: “Mairwen and the Lady” excerpt from the soon to be released book two in the series “The Shadow of Black Mountain.”
“The Lady opened the door to her chamber and welcomed Mairwen inside. The room was a marked difference to her own chamber, where the walls remained unadorned, this was full of fine furnishings. Tapestries hung on all the walls giving the room a warm rich atmosphere. The colors the Lady had chosen for the hangings and bed curtains were deep burgundies and golden yellows. Embroidered pillows and covers adorned two wooden seats that faced the narrow window opening. In front of one of the seats an embroidery frame stood, the light of day filtered in catching the silken threads in a blaze of bright color.
“What a delightful chamber.” Mairwen crossed to the embroidery frame to admire the beautiful linen cloth on its stretcher. The scene was of hunting dogs and heraldry.” This is beautiful my Lady; you have a fine hand with the needle.”
Women throughout the ages, just as today, have used embroidery to embellish clothes, purses, cushions, table linens, samplers, and tapestries. Unlike today, where fabrics, tools, and threads are easily accessible and inexpensive, during the medieval period, everything had to be made from raw materials wool off the sheep, and linen from flax. The beautiful embroidery threads we take for granted had to spun then dyed with available plant dyes and luxury items like silk had to be imported. Like now, mothers taught their daughters how to sew and stitch, but even in the 11th century places like Wilton Abby had schools for young noblewomen and embroidery workshops.
English artisans were renowned throughout Europe for their superior embroidery. William of Poitiers, 11thC, wrote “The women of England are very skilled with the needle and in the matter of tissues of gold.”
Opus Anglicanum, or English work, is fine needlework of Medieval England done for ecclesiastical or secular use on clothing, hangings, or other textiles, often using gold and silver threads on rich velvet or linen backgrounds. They became one of the most prized luxuries of the European Middle Ages.
There are only a few samples of these early 10th and 11th century items that have survived.
The Bayeux Tapestry depicts the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England, culminating in the battle of Hastings in 1066. It is thought to date to the 11th century within a few years of the battle. The cloth is composed of 70 scenes and is 70 meters long, created by English embroiderers. The material used as the background was linen, the depictions in wool thread. The tapestry is on display in Bayeux in Normandy.
Almost a thousand years later great tapestries are still being made.
The Great Tapestry of Scotland is one of the world’s largest community art projects, hand stitched by 1,000 people from across Scotland. It is made up of 160 linen panels and 300 miles of wool. It depicts the country’s history, heritage, and culture from 8,500 BC to present day. The tapestry is on permanent display in its own purpose-built gallery and visitors center in the town of Galashields in the heartland of the Scottish Borders.
Medieval embroidery threads would have come from wool readily available throughout the British Isles. Flax was also grown, but the luxurious lust to be gotten from silk thread had to be imported.
Flax was a plant fiber used in the Anglo-Saxon period. The plants were pulled up and dried. Once dried the seed-heads had to be removed and used for planting the fields the following year. The usable silken fibers were encased in the hard-woody stems. The stems had to be placed in water to soak for 3-6 weeks, this was called retting. Once they were partially decomposed, the flax would be dried out, then beaten to remove the fibers from the outer surface by pounding with mallets. Scutching removed the bits of woody stem from the silky fibers inside. Combing the fibers into separate lengths that could finally be spun into threads, then into cloth, was done using a comb with long iron teeth. This was known as heckling.
Gold thread was very popular for ecclesiastical or royal garments. One of the ways gold thread would have been made was by hammering gold into thin plates, then cutting it into thin strips. They would have been “worked into blue, purple, and scarlet yarn (Grimm).” Gold thread would have been very expensive and made the garment quite heavy to wear.
Simple tools were required to produce beautiful embroidery. A thousand years ago needles could be made of bronze, iron, or bone. Scissors are another sewing tool that has changed very little through the centuries. With threads, and cloth, and imagination beautiful articles both large and small, have been created.
I hope you enjoyed this small sampling of history.
References:
Carol McGrath. “Embroidery of the 11th Century.”
Jessica Grimm, “The origin of gold thread.”
“The Great Tapestry of Scotland Center.”
If you would like to receive future monthly posts, updates, and giveaways, please leave me an email at marilyn@storyteller.space or visit my website for more about writing and the history behind the scenes. HTTP://STORYTELLER.SPACE
Marilyn