Elizabethan Blackwork Embroidery

Blackwork was already an old style in Elizabethan days- one of my blackwork books quotes references to it in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. It was also a favorite style of Katherine of Aragon, Henry VIII's first wife, and so took on the name "Spanisshe Work" as well.

Blackwork is done in double running, or Holbein stitch (so called because Hans Holbein painted a great many portraits in which the subject's clothing had a considerable amount of blackwork on it) on even weave cloth. I like to work on muslin or linen, though many people prefer Aida cloth or hardanger. If you choose to use Aida cloth, I recommend that you not use anything larger than 14 count- I don't think you'll be happy with the result.

I do count threads, and like to work at 16 stitches per inch. I generally use DMC cotton floss #310, and when I'm doing black and scarlet work, DMC cotton floss #816 as well. I occasionally add a bit of gold; for that I use Sulky Metallic #142. I work with very small needles, size 26 quilting. (quilting needles have a ball, rather than a pointed tip so that they will go between the threads instead of splitting them)

I learned to do Elizabethan style blackwork embroidery in 1989 or 1990 from Paula Marmor, who created the Blackwork Embroidery Archives, a site I can't recommend highly enough. She's got an excellent bibliography, by the way. This is the only style of embroidery I do- I've never been able to interest myself in other types of needlework. There's just something about the way that working in double running stitch "grows" a pattern that fascinates me.

In 1999 I was interviewed for an article on hobbyists (and how to sell to them!) in Embroidery Business News, now CorporateLogo.com, though they no longer have the article in their archives. (at least I've got a paper copy of the magazine) I had four paragraphs at about the midpoint of the article. Unfortunately, despite my best efforts the interviewer got the information about Faire sideways. Not much I could do about it, but it still made me cringe.

Below are some samples of my work. Scans of my hand drawn patterns may find their way here eventually.

Handkerchief, DMC cotton floss on fine 32 count linen, done spring 1991. Stomacher, DMC cotton floss on 32 count linen, done spring 1991. Black and scarlet work, DMC cotton floss on 80 count cotton muslin, done spring 1993. Chemise made by The Dye Spot.
Memento mori (remember death), silk floss on 32 count linen, created in memory of Robin Pavlovsky. She was the first guildmistress of the Guild of St. Ives, the folks who play the merchant class at the Renaissance Pleasure Faire South.
Renaissance Pleasure Faire South, May 1997, showing all three pieces displayed above.
Memento mori, DMC cotton floss on 32 count linen, created in memory of a friend's wife, both active in the SCA in Oklahoma.
Not everything I do is Elizabethan. This is the tallis (prayer shawl) bag I made for my nephew for his Bar Mitzvah in 2003. DMC black and scarlet cotton floss and SULKY metallic gold thread on 32 count linen, lined in grey raw silk.

For more on the Guild of St. Ives and other projects of the St. Ives Historical Society, visit http://www.saintives.com/.
For more on the Renaissance Pleasure Faire South, visit http://www.recfaire.com/SouthernCA/.

Photo Credits: portrait by Richard Foss, all others by Lee Ann Goldstein
Last updated by Lee Ann Goldstein on Sun Sep 28 07:50:48 BST 2003


Handkerchief, DMC cotton floss on fine 32 count linen, done spring 1991.	Stomacher, DMC cotton floss on 32 count linen, done spring 1991.	Black and scarlet work, DMC cotton floss on 80 count cotton muslin, done spring 1993. Chemise made by The Dye Spot.
		Memento mori (remember death), silk floss on 32 count linen, created in memory of Robin Pavlovsky. She was the first guildmistress of the Guild of St. Ives, the folks who play the merchant class at the Renaissance Pleasure Faire South.
Renaissance Pleasure Faire South, May 1997, showing all three pieces displayed above.
	Memento mori, DMC cotton floss on 32 count linen, created in memory of a friend's wife, both active in the SCA in Oklahoma.
	Not everything I do is Elizabethan. This is the tallis (prayer shawl) bag I made for my nephew for his Bar Mitzvah in 2003. DMC black and scarlet cotton floss and SULKY metallic gold thread on 32 count linen, lined in grey raw silk.