It must have been Rowany Festival 2005 that the Worshipful Company of Broiderers started working on a Company banner that would had lots of small split stitch heraldic devices on it. I made a tiny little device with my heraldry on it for the banner and enjoyed the tiny needlework so much that I came back from festival and decided to do another work in this style.
At that time I did some research into alms purses and wanted to make a silk alms purse in vibrant red and gold silks. The following year, I took my half done panels to the Company guild meeting at festival and got told the work was ‘too good’ and that I really ought do the background in metallic gold thread as this was the technique used by medieval embroiderers on very fine quality works.
At which point, I pouted and said ‘But I don’t wanna metallic gold purse, I wanna red one!’ or words to that effect…. thus relegating the project to the bottom of my embroidery box and there it languished for many… many… months.
Fortuitously, a friend was in the UK and happened to see at the V&A (and kindly document for me) a couching technique done in silk that suited the time frame and style of embroidery (Opus Anglicanum) that I was working my purse in. So I was off and running again…. but then my Dad got sicker, and I went back to work full time and the project got cast aside yet again.
Then one of the allied health professionals trying to put Borys back together again reccommended that I find something I could work on/towards to give myself a sense of accomplishment about my rather pain filled days which prompted me to pick it up again. And… low and behold… several weeks of sitting on heat packs and embroidering to distract myself from back pain later…. here is the finished product!
I finished, I finished I finished!!!
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