Racaire's Workshop - Stampcutter, blockprinter, embroiderer, dressmaker & calligrapher

12th century Block Print, 12th century projects, 12th century tunic - printed yellow raw silk, 12th/13th century stamps (misc), 12th/13th century teardrop stamps, Hand-Sewing, Misc., Projects, Projects - Block Printing, Projects - Tablet weaving, Racaire, romanesque teardrop stamp, SCA, Tablet woven bands

Blockprinting & stamp cutting – my new obsessions…

2020/01/14

Some of you might be wondering what else I was up to besides my move from Kentucky to Florida and then our final move into our new home. Well, I would say that I embraced two new art forms completely – blockprinting & stamp cutting. And if I may say so, I think I got pretty good at it.

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Racaire
7th century art, 8th century art, 9th century art, Berlin, Exhibitions, Hand-Sewing, Medieval Art, Middle Ages, Misc., Museum, Museum Photos, Museums - Germany, Photos, Racaire

…a little 7th to 9th century doll tunic…

2019/12/28

Have you ever wondered what kids played with centuries ago? Pictures of toys from the very last centuries are available in quite an abundance but they get more and more rare the further you go back in time. Therefore you might very well imagine my great joy when I found this lovely little doll tunic from the 7th to 9th century on display at the Bode Museum.

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Racaire
Exhibitions, Medieval Art, Middle Ages, Misc., Museum, Museum Photos, Museums - Austria, Photos

…and more museums and photos…

2019/12/26

Apropos photos – I uploaded some of my photos to facebook and thought you might enjoy them: Special guided tour through the Landeszeughaus/Armory Graz, Austria 2004

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Racaire
5th century art, Berlin, Exhibitions, Museum, Museum Photos, Museums - Germany, Photos, Sprang

Bode Museum – Sprang hairnet from the 5th century

2019/12/26

Sprang is an old technique that got several of my friends very excited recently. And as I have a certain love for interesting and rare things, I remembered a wonderful example from the 5th century on display at the Bode Museum in Berlin, Germany. I had the great pleasure to get to see and photograph this beautiful piece during my visit in 2014 and hope you’ll enjoy it too:

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Racaire
Blog - Racaire's Embroidery & Needlework, Misc., Racaire

…and I am back again…

2019/12/25

When I decided to take my break last year, I really didn’t anticipate that it would be such a long one. To call the last months interesting, would be definitely an understatement. We moved from Kentucky to Florida, I started my very own little business, we found our very own home and moved again and my website went through quite a change, as you can see. The move from Kentucky to Florida was probably the most demanding part. Like with every move we had to decide which pieces were really worth taking and what to leave behind. Therefore we decided to donate a lot of things as a moving truck…

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Racaire
Blog - Racaire's Embroidery & Needlework, Misc., Racaire

Merry Christmas!

2019/12/25

Merry Christmas! Happy Hog watch! Fröhliche Weihnachten!Feliz Navidad! Happy Hanukkah! We wish you all a wonderful Christmas!From our small family to yours! Furthermore many thanks for all the support for my little workshopyou all showed throughout the first year as all beginning is hard!Thank you all very much! Conrad & Racaire

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Racaire
Blog - Racaire's Embroidery & Needlework, Misc.

Blog update & Maintenance

2018/06/19

Dear visitors and readers, At the moment we are doing some maintenance work as well as a complete update of the blog system and therefore apologize for any inconvenience. We hope that the new and updated system will soon be up as I can’t wait to write some new postings… Thank you very much for your understanding! 😀

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Racaire
12th century Block Print, 12th century projects, 12th century tunic - printed yellow raw silk, 12th/13th century stamps (misc), 12th/13th century teardrop stamps, 13th century Block Print, 13th century projects, Hand-Sewing, Projects, Projects - Block Printing, romanesque teardrop stamp

…the start of a 12th century printed silk tunic project :)

2018/04/01

Wooohooo! I finally started the 12th century printed silk tunic project for my sweetheart! And you find me quite excited as I was preparing for this very special project for some time now. You might have already been wondering about all the new 12th/13th century inspired block printing stamps which I created during the last months. After finishing the last stamp we were finally able to put the new block printing stamps to good use.

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Racaire
Chain Stitch, Embroidery, Lazy Daisy Stitch, Modern Nailbinding, nailbinded and embroidered hat, Projects - Nailbinding, Satin Stitch, Stem Stitch

…some nailbinding again – my finished nailbinded and embroidered hat :D

2018/03/23

My nailbinded and embroidered hat is finally finished! *happydance* And you can tell that it is my absolute favorite as I am wearing my new nailbinded and embroidered hat nearly every day for several hours. 😀 And before you ask – no, my sweetheart doesn’t object to it as he knows that I am always at least a little bit cold. Everyone who has met me during cold weather can tell that staying warm is definitely one of the main objectives of my life. But that’s not only because the cold makes me feel uncomfortable. No, it’s far more than that. Being cold is normally followed by being ill and…

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Racaire
painted wooden boxes, Projects - Largesse

medieval inspired painted boxes for largesse

2018/03/15

As you can see, my husband and I had a lot of fun painting some small wooden boxes for our largesse stash. 🙂 Now you might ask – what is largesse? Well, largesse is a nice tradition within the SCA and it normally describes small tokens of appreciation. Largesse can come in a lot of different forms and shapes. Quite often it is hand made by the person who gives the largesse – or well, like in this certain case, it can be store bought and then hand painted. 🙂

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Racaire
Adding glass beads, Ending a band, Projects - Tablet weaving, Special Techniques, Tablet woven bands

…another tablet woven band finished!

2018/03/09

Wooohooo! I finished another tablet woven band! And this time I even added black glass beads to it while I was weaving it! *happydance* Well, it seems like I made enough tablet woven bands during the last months that I finally gave up on counting them. However, if I had to make an educated guess, I would say this band is number 10(+something). 😀

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Racaire
Misc., Projects, Projects - Block Printing, Racaire

Preparations for my next block printing project…

2018/03/07

After taking a look at the beautiful yellow and blue raw silk fabric which I wanted to use for my next block printing project, I realized that the pre-washed fabric wasn’t as smooth as I liked it to be. Well, after all this years of minimal use of the ironing board and the iron, I had to admit to myself that this lovely time had to come to an end. I had to iron my fabric for my project and I definitely didn’t enjoy the thought of it.

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Racaire
12th century Block Print, 12th century projects, 12th/13th century stamps (misc), 13th century Block Print, 13th century projects, Projects, Projects - Block Printing

…and a new little dragon stamp cut – medieval inspired block printing stamp IV

2018/02/24

You might think that after carving three medieval inspired block printing stamps rather recently, which were all based on extant printed fabrics from the 12th to 13th century, that I might have done enough stamp cutting for a while. But no, I have by far not have had enough from cutting block printing stamps yet. And it definitely didn’t help that my dear sweetheart ordered a nice set of good cutting tools as Christmas present for me. Yeah, he is indeed a terrible enabler when it comes to my projects and, as you can imagine, I definitely do not object to that… 😉

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Racaire
Projects - Nailbinding

…some nailbinding again… .1

2018/02/15

…and here is some more progress concerning my most recent nailbinding project – a nailbinded grey and blue hood. 🙂 I didn’t have much time to work on my projects recently but I still try to achieve a little bit of progress every day. Nevertheless, I think that I won’t be able to finish the hood before the winter is over but I don’t mind as there is always another winter to come. 😉

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Racaire
Books, Books - Nailbinding, Projects, Projects - Nailbinding

…and, for a change, some nailbinding again and some personal news…

2018/02/04

Yes, you see right, I’ve done some nailbinding again… 🙂 It is really nice to finally find a moment of peace which allows me to catch my breath. I feel like I just got off a roller coaster. The last year finished with quite a surprise and it was unfortunatelly not the kind one would normally appreciate. After some initial struggles to find a doctor who would see me on short notice around christmas, I finally received the information that I had to undergo a small surgery. And though the thought scared me quite a bit, I was at the same time also very thankful that my doctor could fit…

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Racaire