New Project Planning

Although I have not finished my second sleeve yet, my husband has begged for a second embroidered hood, one that is light weight and can be worn more often. There are a lot of roundels used in Anglo-Saxon art. Anglo-Saxon art also uses stories and myths in it's iconography. I, therefore, decided that I would embroider a series of roundels on the hood that will "tell the story" of Odo's SCA career. I think the overall effect may be a bit later period in look, but will be completely done in Anglo-Saxon stitches.

The roundels will include Odo's heraldry, the Drachenwald populace badge, the ID sun, our household badge, the household champion's symbol (as he won that years ago and retains the right to use the symbol), the Huscarl badge, the Silverguard and the populace badge of our previous Kingdom (which will go in the center of the back to show his past).

I have considered adding an Anglo-Saxon style "border" around each roundel to make them look more Anglo-Saxon and a bit less like a series of late period badges. I would appreciate any ideas or comments on this idea! It will be some time before I get enough progress to post.

Namaste,
Jahanara

Report of Dragon's Needle Embroidery Guild - Drachenwald

Report of Dragon's Needle Embroidery Guild - Drachenwald

2nd report by Reporter / guild head:
Lady Racaire

Time Period:
15.November 2007 - 15.May 2008

Members:
based on the Membership Guild roll started at 18.October 2007:
We have a total of 34 official members:
1) Racaire (Central - guild head)
2) Rakonczay Gergely (Aarnimetsä)
3) Thomas Paumer (Central)
4) Katherina Mornewegh (Central)
5) Lia de Thornegge (Scandinavia)
6) Edith of Hedingham (Crown Principality of Insulae Draconis
7) Baroness Mary Verch Thomas (Crown Principality of Insulae Draconis)
8) Hudd de Peth (Kingdom of the Outlands)
9) Johanna aff Hucka (Aarnimetsä)
10) Eva Grelsdottir (Aarnimetsä)
11) Arnulf der Zeilner (Central)
12) Lady Jane Devereux (Crown Principality of Insulae Draconis)
13) Katharina Woinovich (Central)
14) Lady Eilgri Beccan (Aarnimetsä - Aarnimetsä region guild head)
15) Viscountess Helwig Ulfsdotter (Scandinavia)
16) Katharina von Owe (Central)
17) Sileas von Biuira (Central)
18) Lady Ælfwynne of Eoforwic (Nordmark)
19) Renika Rikardsdottir (Nordmark)
20) Mistress Anya Mstyslavyaya (Central)
21) Alenn von Horn (Central)
22) Halfdan von Veneta (Central)
23) Anna de Byxe (Nordmark)
24) Hedwig von Simmaningen (Central)
25) Sahra (Aarnimetsä)
26) Sinikka (Aarnimetsä)
27) Myfanwy Methig (Aarnimetsä)
28) Rixende of Aarnimetsä (Aarnimetsä)
29) Jahanarabanu Vivana (Insulae Draconis - Insulae Draconis region guild head)
30) Ida Järvinen (Aarnimetsä)
31) Lady Melisende Fitzwalter (Insulae Draconis)
32) Lady Siubhan inghean Fhearghuis (Insulae Draconis)
33) Katarina von Danzig (Insulae Draconis)
34) Mave (Central)

officers:
Guild Head: Racaire
Aarnimetsä - region guild head: Eilgri Beccan
Central - region guild head: Racaire
Insulae Draconis - region guild head: Jahanarabanu Vivana
Nordmark - region guild head: Racaire (until a region guild head will be chosen)
South - region guild head: none (no members in this region by now)

planed guild head tasks for the next half year:
* still working at the restart of the embroidery guild
* rework of the guild charter
* collecting ideas, pictures, handouts,... for theguild homepage
* registration of the guild badge at coronation
* first official guild meeting at coronation

planed guild meetings:
* first official guild meeting at coronation in Insulae Draconis
called up and conducted by guild head Racaire, initiated by
regional guild head Jahanarabanu Vivana


planed projects / projects in progress:
Wallhanging Project/Challenge: of Mistress Anya Mstyslavyaya and Lady Racaire still in progress - two participants - overdue because of other projects, challenges and commissions
Something to keep you warm Project/Challenge: still in progress - finish date: September 2008 - 14 participants
A&S50 challenge: SCA-wide challenge - finish date: celebration of the 50th year (in 2015) of the Society for Creative Anachronism - participants: Racaire & Jahanarabanu Vivana
http://dragonsembroiderers.blogspot.com/: A place for the embroiderers of Drachenwald to show their own work & projects, ask questions, get answers and enjoy each other's company - no finish date - possibility to display finished projects or projects in progress

A list of persons who are willing to share theirknowledge, answer toarts and sciences related questions and help other people in their interest area:
Guild Head: Racaire
Aarnimetsä - region guild head: Eilgri Beccan
Insulae Draconis - region guild head: Jahanarabanu Vivana

Yours in Service
Racaire
Dragon's Needle Embroidery Guild Head

A&S 50 challenge

Summery of my A&S 50 challenge progress :)

...some new progress :)

...here is my latest embroidery progress - 6 designs for the coronation dress for our gentle princess Fiona :)

Embroidery - a winning concept.

Hello all, it's been a while since my last entry, mostly because I have not done any new embroidery. However, I thought I should post a report on a success I had at Double Wars.

Meisterinne Katheryn asked me in the middle of the week to enter the A&S competition with my apron, which I had out at the time to show off, and I agreed. My documentation was not exhaustive or very long, so I quote it here:

ITEM: Embroidery, 16th Century on an apron. PLACE: Italy.
Documentation:
The embroidey on this apron is done in madder dyed silk thread on linen. The pattern is taken from the facsimile of a 1561 pattern book by Giovanni Ostavus(*) and the stitch is long-armed cross stitch(**) which was commonly used in the period(#).
This kind of counted embroidery was commonly applied to aprons, shift, smocks and shirts. Black and red were the most common colours, being very effectful against white linen. Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlockd lists an apron with "carnacion in graine silke"(##) - being a red colour. In Moda a Firenze a photo fo a detail of a painting by Alessandro Allori shows an apron with embroidery done in black(¤).

* La vera perfezione del disegno di Giovanni Ostavus, 1561. Available on-line at the University of Arizona.
**, # Embroideries at Hardwick Hall, a catalogue. Levey, Santina M.
(Stitch diagram drawing here).
## Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlockd. Arnold, Janed. Page 225.
¤ Moda a Firenze. Orsina Landini, Roberta & Niccoli, Bruna. Page 130.

I had no expectations, so when they called my name in court as the winner of the competition it was a complete surprise. But there you go, embroidery can be a winning concept. :)

Dragon Needle Embroidery Guild - Newsletter May 2008

Dear honourable Lords and Ladies, gentle members of the "Dragon Needle Embroidery Guild" & "-eMail Group"!

Less than two months are left until the Summer Coronation event - I am very looking forward to this event and I hope to see some of you there to get to know you better. ...and again there are some very interesting news concerning the kingdom overall "A&S 50" challenge, our Guild Meeting & Guild Display & Classes at Summer Coronation,... therefore again a small summery of all Guild News:

Guild Membership Roll:
No new members joined during April - we have still 34 members :)

Guild Badge:
The fee for the registration of our badge will be payed at Summer Coronation by myself and I hope that I will have a layout for our Badge available soon for you :)

Guild Charter:
In progress - I am very sorry that I still don't have news concerning a new guild charter but I am still very occupied with a lot of different challenges, projects and also with my real life and my rather new job - I am very sorry for this delay and therefore I ask for your understanding. I hope that I will be able to put the Guild Charter down on paper soon (at the latest after Summer Coronation in July/August) and I really hope that we will have a working basic Guild Charter until the end of the year. I am also very looking forward to talk to all of you who will visit Summer Coronation at our Guild Meeting, where we could discuss your wishes and ideas for the new Guild Charter.

Dragon's Embroidery Workshop:
A big "thank you" for every photo of your beautiful work and of your projects in progress that were posted on the Dragon's Embroidery Workshop in April; therefore many thanks to the contributors of the Dragon's Embroidery Workshop Blog - please keep on posting! ...and once again: for all who would like to join the Workshop but haven't dared to show their work till now - please don't hesitate to contact me, I am very looking forward to see your work and would really love to send you an invitation for the blog - http://dragonsembroiderers.blogspot.com :)

Upcoming Events - Summer Coronation:

1) Guild Meeting: First I would love to get to know each of you better and second I would like to talk with you about the Guild Charter, the next project/challenge after the "Something to keep you warm project" started by Mistress Anya and myself, the A&S 50 challenge - I would really love to see more of the great artisans of our beautiful Kingdom involved in this challenge :) ) and last but not least - third I would also love to see some of your great work in real :D and therefore I would also like to mention my next "point":

2) Guild Display: For everyone who would like to show work in progress or finished projects (or who can't or don't want to join the A&S challenge for some reason) I would ask you to join me and display your work at the "Guild Display" - please tell me if you would like to join this Guild Display because I would like to give the coordiators of the event some facts (because I hope that more than one person - me ;) - wants to display something and that we will need some free space at one or more tables) - I hope we will be able to cooperate with the A&S display in some way :)

3) Classes: Maybe some of you know that I will hold two classes at Summer Coronation (my Klosterstich & Refilsaum classes) and besides that I hope that some people will attend my classes, I would love to attend one or two classes also by myself and therefore I hope that all of you who would like to hold a class have allready contacted Lady Jahanarabanu Vivana and if there are some members out there who would like to teach something (like smocking, blackwork, goldwork, beadwork, ...) and haven't written an eMail to Lady Jahanarabanu Vivana till now - please do so! Please share your enthusiasm for your favourite techniques with others - please keep on to inspire others with your work and also with your classes! (If someone of you would like to hold a class and has never done a class before - please tell me, because I would love to attend your class and help you if you like, or to give you some extra encouragement if needed :) )

4) Queens Basket: A very talented lady and good friend of mine who does beautiful embroidery and needlework by herself will become Queen at this Summer Coronation event - Lady Fiona Wiggins - but regardless to this facts the Queens Basket was always a matter of importance for me since I got my very first small precious gift from my very first queen at my very first SCA-event and get to know about what the Queens Basket is. I would love to surprise the new queen with some gifts from our Guild and the talented hands of the great artisans of our Kingdom and therefore I would ask you if you would also like to provide small gifts for the Queens Basket - please contact me if you would like to provide something - I am very looking forward to every small gift you can and want to provide ( ...and I think that the gift has not to be only something embroidered - every small gift is welcome :)

Misc.
..and once again: If you would like to participate in the "Something to keep you warm" Project/Challenge of Mistress Anya and me - there are still some months left for starting and completing a small project! Really! :) ...and if you would like to join the Embroidery Workshop Blog or know someone who would like to join the Guild - please don't hesitate to write me an eMail! :) Furthermore I would like to draw your attention once again to the A&S 50 Challenge - it would be really great to see more artisans from our beautiful kingdom joining this challenge.

Yours faithfully
Racaire
Dragon's Needle Embroidery Guild Head

Sahra´s new hood

Sahra is a member of Aarnimetsä Embroidery Guild, and she has made a marvellous hood. I only helped with posting ;) - Eilgri

Sahra:

I had a small piece of nicecoloured wool, so I made a hood embroidered with few decorations.

Two horses are originally from a piece of whalebone that was used to iron seems, the original piece is in National Museum in London (I think).

I drew the model on silkpaper and sow it on fabric using thin white thread. Then I did the embroidering and took the white thread away.

ALL the thread in decorations is thin wool, dyed with plants from Finnish nature! No, not me, I know an old lady who was a biology teacher and has a private arboretum... she makes wonderful colours!

In horses I tried the Bayeux tapestry´s stich for the first time, as you can see...

Still, I´m pleased to present this work to you, the hood looks actually very nice : )

And of course the hood is all handmade.

Yours

Sahra, Aarnimetsä