Want to learn to paint with egg tempera?

Go to Prosopon School website and click on "The Icon, release of DVD on practice and theory, 2009" to find more information about this DVD and watch clips (which are very good).

I bought this DVD recently, anxiously awaited its arrival, and with great anticipation and excitement watched all four hours of it. It cost $98 but worth every penny! The artist, Vladislav Andrejev, is a master painter and it was a joy to watch him work. I learned several things I have already done incorrectly or would have done incorrectly if left to my own devices. It is really going to help me improve my painting. I'm sure I'll watch it many times, reviewing each section before I start that step. If you are a rank beginner, there are a few things that are not explained enough, such as making bole and shell gold paint. I highly recommend taking a workshop to run through everything at least once. Luckily I already know how to make shell gold paint. The use of wax paper as an aid in handling loose gold leaf was a revelation and makes using it a snap. No expensive gilder's tips, pads or knives necessary; just cheap scissors and wax paper from your kitchen, plus a dedicated gold brush (doesn't have to be an expensive one) and a plastic container for the gold scraps to use for making shell gold paint later.

BTW, I am still working on an embroidery project but don't want to post pictures until it is further along. I also ran out of yellow thread and had to order more. That is taking up the precious little free time I have what with this being spring (gardening season) and working more hours at work and finishing woodshop class for the semester. Too many irons in the fire!

Brick stitch pattern #11

One of the difficulties of making patterns from low resolution pictures, especially black & white pictures, is that some of the patterning is guesswork. The colors are a rough guess as well as some of the stitches. I would love to be able to see better images of most of the known brick stitch embroideries, but I do what I can.

The image above is a comparison of two guesses as to what the pattern is in the B&W photo. I think the one on the right is correct but I am not positive. Anyway, here it is, Pattern #11 (and variation #11a).

Icon and other painting links

I added a new link list on the right that is a list of some of my favorite links regarding supplies and techniques in painting, especially icon painting using traditional methods. The great thing about modern icon painting is that it is little changed from icon painting of the medieval and Renaissance periods, so techniques practiced today easily translate to period techniques. Most of the sites linked to on these websites are in English and the classes are in the U.S. but Iconofile has links to classes all over the world, including this site in the Netherlands. If you are in Texas you are in luck because there are workshops in silver repousse, icon writing and illumination this year so check out Icon Arts.

Kalish Finest Brushes has really nice brushes, my personal favorite. The Series 8 liners (scroll to bottom of page) are awesome for illumination and much better than even the Kolinsky sable brushes from major manufacturers that are sold in art supply stores. Not only are they better, they are cheaper!!

Natural Pigments has the most amazing supply of traditional artist materials. They even carry such traditional and hard to find (not to mention hazardous) pigments as orpiment, cinnabar, lead white and real Naples yellow. They also do the Iconofile website and hold annual workshops in iconography (Yaroslavl 17th century style) and traditional fresco. I'd love to learn fresco but I have too many irons in the fire as it is, unfortunately. Pesky job eats up too much of my time!

I study with Betsy Porter, a wonderful lady who volunteers her time twice a month to teach an ongoing workshop in San Francisco. The cost is only ten dollars per 4 hour session and she shares her bole and pigments with students as well as some of her tools. This makes the cost of getting started very minimal. She studied with the Prosopon School, which holds workshops all across the U.S. at various times during the year. I will be attending the 6 day class in Santa Barbara this summer and I am really excited!

The Prosopon School also released a DVD this year which contains over four hours of instruction in the creation of an icon from preparing the gesso panel to applying gold to painting and finishing. Check out their website to watch clips from the DVD, it looks really good. I think I may have to order a copy!

When I was first interested in illumination and tempera painting I had a hard time finding good references and suppliers and was really at a loss about where to begin. If I had known about these websites and schools years ago I would have been jumping for joy. I plan to add to the links as I find more and have time to look through all my bookmarks. I hope this is helpful to anyone who has a similar interest and if you know of other great places please let me know.

Icon painting, step three

I don't much like driving in the rain, especially on the freeway. Driving crowded freeways through San Francisco after dark is even worse. Lately it rained on a lot of Sundays which is when the icon workshops are held in San Francisco. Before daylight savings and the advancing season the class let out after dark, even worse. Hence my lack of progress. Yesterday I finally went back to the class and this is the result of my efforts.

The background colors are all filled in now. In egg tempera one works from dark to light so these are the darkest colors, the roskrish or base colors. The flesh and hair base color is called sankir. Can you believe that the pink robes of the angel will eventually be light blue? My dark blue came out too roughly textured so I sanded it just a bit. The sankir is supposed to be opaque but the other roskrish colors may have some translucence. I worked a bit thick on some of them. I added another layer of the brown sankir color to the flesh and hair because it was not opaque enough.

All pigments are traditional egg tempera: powdered period pigments mixed with egg yolk (and a bit of wine in the egg yolk mixture in the Russian tradition).

Brick stitch pattern #2, different colors

The figure illustrated in the image is from the border of this hanging. I loved how the variation in color gives a striped effect and makes a simple pattern look more complicated.

I put together this picture as a starting point for developing a handout. I would like to teach brick stitch at an event and need something to give to students.

Brick stitch pattern #10, reversed

I flipped pattern #10 to make an "S" instead of a "Z" since both exist among extant embroideries. You could just use the original pattern and flip it in your head, but I find it easier when I have something to look at. I am still busy working on Pattern #7 so I haven't done much else lately.

Pattern #10 as a needle book

I keep coming back to the needle book because it is a way to make a small example of a pattern into something that can actually be used. My goal is to make a small stitched example of most of the patterns, but they can't all be needle books so I have to come up with some more small items to make.

The finished size is approximately 2.5 by 3 inches when closed. Materials are 32 count even weave Zweigart linen ground stitched with a single strand of silk floss from Aurora Silk dyed with Indigo for blue, Brazilwood for burgundy/red, and undyed for white. Natural dyeing of silk floss was courtesy of Renee. The cord used for trim and ties was made using kumi himo technique with four bobbins and two strands of silk on each bobbin to get the required thickness. The lining is burgundy wool scrap from my wool scrap stash.

Brick stitch pattern #10

Pattern #10 comes to us from various sources, including this hanging currently in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum in New York City. The embroidered hanging dates to the late 14th century, in Germany. In this hanging the symbol looks like a letter "S". The photograph I used to make the pattern was of the above reliquary box. According to the info on the photo the box dates to the 13th century and is (questionably) from Köln. In this pattern the "S" is backwards, more of a "Z". I liked the variation of the character laying on its side.

My pattern making has slowed down considerably as I now work on stitching examples of some of the patterns. I am also still working on Pattern #7 but I think I am going to stitch it before I post the pattern.

Brick stitch pattern #9

This is the pattern from the outfit one of the angels is wearing from the same embroidery as Pattern #8. When I did not have such a good image of this I tried to recreate it as can be seen with the scissors case here. As you can see I was close but not perfect when I made the scissors case. As is also with pattern #8, this pattern's stitches are all of equal length, over 4 threads or 3 holes depending on how you count on the fabric.

Brick stitch pattern #8

Here is pattern #8 as per a request from Taschen. (If you use it I'd love to see a picture!) It is from one of the columns flanking an angel from the embroidery pictured in this post. The entire pattern is stitches of the same length (over 4 strands of linen or three holes, however you count it) so it was pretty easy to chart. The original embroidery is German and dates to 1400 and is held in Hannover, at Kestner-Museum Inv. Nr. WM XXII, 10.

Where is Pattern #7, you ask? It is not ready so I skipped it. It is going to be a HUGE pattern. I am over 800 layers in the charting so far and not finished yet. I am working on it 2-4 hours a day so hopefully I'll post it sometime next week.

How I make brick stitch patterns

A few people asked me what program I used to make my patterns and I started to answer those questions individually but then decided that it would be a good idea make a post about my method. (The full color version of the above pattern is shown in a previous post and a photo of the object from which the pattern was charted is here)

I started out by e-mailing Master Richard Wymarc because I thought the way he made his patterns looked really beautiful (and for me it must be beautiful as well as functional). He was kind enough to send me a sample file. As it turned out he had used Adobe Photoshop, one of the few programs besides Word that I can actually use. Hooray!

I started out by studying his template and the recreating something very similar. I finally (after a very long time) developed a basic template that is working well for both simple and complex patterns. I start with the basic shapes for various stitch lengths, then do a lot of copy and paste to get the larger building blocks. In Photoshop this creates a large number of layers. Once I have a basic building block I merge the layers, then copy and paste the various block shapes and assemble the basic pattern. I save a copy of both the basic building block and template file and a separate file with the complete pattern. I then make a third file and use the paintbucket to color in the pattern. I end up with both a colored and an uncolored version of each pattern. This gives me maximum flexibility with the pattern.

Photoshop is a bitmap program and as my boyfriend in all his computer-y wisdom says, a vector based program (such as Illustrator) is a much better choice for doing this type of work. Helene and I have discussed this and she is in agreement with my BF. Helene pointed out that Illustrator allows you to put the stitches against a grid which makes the pattern more closely resemble stitches on fabric. The grid makes the pattern easier for beginners especially to follow. I reluctantly concur. It did take a little trial and error to get the hang of the different stitch lengths but for me that was so many thousand stitches ago that I don't remember having much difficulty.

I will most likely (OK, definitely) transition to a vector based program for patterns but will still use Photoshop also. I like the clean look of the patterns without grid lines, plus I think it looks prettier on the page. That's just a personal preference.

The image above is a brief visual description of my patterning process. It makes the work of many hours look pretty simple. My goal is to provide patterns that allow those who are not interested in patterning to make these beautiful embroideries. As an additional note, I do take requests and your request will be coming up, Taschen, as soon as I have enough spare time to do it.

Brick stitch pattern #6

This next pattern comes from the embroidery which can be seen in this post. Thanks also to Helene for putting me in touch with Elies who sent me a detail photo of a section of this hanging. Elies took this photo on a trip to the Kestner Museum in Hanover. That's what allowed me to chart this with greater confidence of accuracy. Also of course thank you to Elies for sending me the photo!

I have seen this pattern in other embroideries of the period (14th C Germany); it is pretty basic. It makes a nice simple filler, I think. The blue and yellow colors in the original embroidery still look good, but whatever was in the centers has suffered over time so I just colored it purple.

Brick stitch pattern #5

Here is another brick stitch pattern, this time I do not remember what the source is, I didn't record it prominently so I could find it easily later, sorry. But it medieval and German and it does exist. It is nearly identical to the pattern I used for this purse that I made last year. That was copied from a purse on the Diu Minnezît website. I believe they had a source for theirs from an embroidery in the Halberstadt treasure but my German is nearly non-existent and I couldn't read much about it. I love strapwork and basketweave patterns and I feel happy every time I look at my purse so I had to make the pattern.

Brick stitch pattern #4

Here is the next pattern from this late 14th century German embroidered hanging at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. This is a very simple pattern and is also available in a nearly identical version on Master Richard Wymarc's site here but his version does not have color. I like color to get a better idea of the final product.

This one is so simple it does not really require a pattern but I am trying to be thorough.

A completed item using Master Wymarc's version of the pattern is here, a little needle case I made last year. The zigzag is very bold and strong colors such as the red and white in the original hanging really stand out. For all of its simplicity it is one of my favorites.

Brick stitch pattern #1

Here is the next pattern from this late 14th century German embroidered hanging at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. It is actually the first one I finished so it is a little out of order. Actually, I patterned this one from an embroidered reliquary box that I mentioned in this post but the same motif is also in the Metropolitan hanging. Many motif were used repeatedly in different embroideries in Germany and some of those same patterns can also be found in other places such as weaving, Opus Teutonicum, and more.

Brick stitch pattern #3

Here is the next pattern from this late 14th century German embroidered hanging at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. In the photo of the original it looks like they used blue where I have green but I had already finished the coloring when I realized this.

Brick stitch pattern #2

Now that I have a functional template for building patterns I am making much better progress than my previous one pattern per year. I think I will actually be able to accomplish my A&S 50 Challenge goal of 50 charted patterns.

I started working on patterns from this late 14th century German embroidered hanging at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. It has so many different motifs, there is lots for me to pattern. And it is a color photo so I can try to stay true to the original color scheme when I color the patterns. My colors are not exact but they are pretty close and convey the general idea. I love the way these colored brick stitch embroideries use color so boldly and sometimes inexplicably.

Eventually I plan to make nice PDF handouts like my German counted stitch hero, Master Richard Wymarc. It is thanks to his assistance that I was able to start developing my template in the first place.

I hope you like the pattern and if you use it to make something I would love to see a photo.

Brick stitch patterns are coming!

I have five completed patterns and have already scheduled them to post, one each day. Tune in for more patterns!

Yummy berry colored silk

Look what my roommate tripped over on her way into the house today! Some little thread fairy dropped these off on my doorstep without a note or anything. Looks like my friend Renee has fired up the dyebath again. I just love the berry colors, good enough to eat. The tags say cochineal and indigo. One of the colors is a bit grayer than the others, did she mordant with iron instead of alum? I don't know, I am no dyer so I'll have to ask Renee. These are so pretty they deserve to be used in a project. Soon...

New brickstitch pattern

I was playing with the pattern from the reliquary box as seen in this previous post and I came up with the pattern pictured here. It seems a reasonable extrapolation from the original, especially since many patterns or parts of patterns show up in German embroideries through the centuries (13th-16th in particular). This may even be a pattern used in an embroidery that I haven't seen or don't remember seeing.

Since I do not have documentation for this specific pattern I consider it period plausible, not period.

I used the basic template to create three color schemes because color will strongly influence the finished look. Each of these color patterns is a combination used in an extant embroidery (ie. alternating colors for diagonal rows). I think it is both fun and useful to look at different arrangements without having to make an example of each.

Finally, I think I may have a basic pattern template that I like. It worked out for a simple pattern and if it works out for more complicated patterns then I will finally start working on patterning some of the motifs from various embroideries.