Natural Pigments on sale!!

Right now Natural Pigments is having a sale. Buy one item and get the second item 50% off. Good for stocking up on things used a lot, such as gold leaf. Or get together with a friend and buy items you both want. Enter code b50X2nd. Sale ends on 29 November at midnight Eastern Standard Time.

Pattern #7 and some comment responses

There were some interesting comments on my last post. Here are the comments and my responses:

From Laura Kathleen:
"This pattern definitely caught my eye, as I charted the same motif while charting Russian patterns from towel ends. I wrote about it on my blog here.

I wish I knew enough about the history of the two styles to connect them, though it may just be a coincidence from working with geometric patterns."

Laura Kathleen - yes, your Russian pattern #7 and my German pattern #7 are identical, except for the stitches used. Coincidences abound...

From Elina (and I really enjoy your blog):
"What a lovely pattern, that no 7. I tried looking for the instructions on the blog, but for some odd reason couldn't find it, altough I found patterns #6 and #8. Could you please point me in the right direction?"

Elina - sorry, I haven't posted #7 yet. I'm about to correct that.

From Krista:
"That is interesting - it's like the one in Wymarc, only smaller. Very cute! Doing these in one color is fun, but be prepared for 1) getting sick of the color and 2) having people not notice the embroidery."

Krista - both true statements. As for the pattern being like Wymarc #4, it is true that they are very similar. If you look at lots and lots of these embroideries you'll see the same or similar patterns over and over again. What I like about that is that I feel like I can vary the colors or I could vary the pattern and it would still be plausible for the period. I feel like it gives me some freedom if I should ever wish to make a period plausible pattern instead of trying for reproductions. It also allows some freedom in color choices.

I was holding back on publishing Pattern #7 but I think I might as well post it. It was the most challenging to create so far; it is more complicated than many of the other patterns and the source photo was a challenge as well. I am using this pattern for the front and back panels of my reliquary box (one is shown almost finished in the photo above).

Embroidered reliquary box, fourth panel started

This is the motif from Pattern #7, with only the main color filled in. The fill colors are white and yellow. There are a total of four side panels; the sides are Pattern #2 (seen here and here), the front and back are Pattern #7. Actually, I think it looks interesting as it is and I'd love to see it as a white-on-white embroidery. Someday...

One last picture...

My cartoneria skeletons at night. They looked really good. I'll have to do more for next year...