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.
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… 😉
…and so it finally begins – a new stamp for my next medieval inspired block printing project is cut and mounted! Romanesque teardrop stamp for the win!
And I already can’t wait to cut the next stamp as the 12th/13th century pattern which I want to reproduce and play with is calling for a set of at least two stamps. And not only that, I also have my eye already set on a third pattern which is quite similar in its outer appearance. I bet that this third medieval pattern would look lovely when added to this growing repertoire of what I started to call “romanesque teardrop stamps”. Yes, one can definitely say for sure that I’ve fallen in love with block printing. And this craft is so amazing and inspiring – I already found several inspiring medieval print patterns with which I would love to play. Yes, the possibilities of this craft appear to be endless. 🙂
I haven’t made anything for myself for over one year, as my dear sweetheart pointed out to me recently. And the good husband that he is, he made me swear that I would start working on a project for myself and my own amusement next. …or as I did put it: as soon as possible. 😉
However much fun it is to make things for other people, one has always to be careful not to work oneself to the brink of creative exhaustion. Therefore I find it really important to do a fun project from time to time in order to recharge the internal batteries. It feels to me like a creative recharge every now and then gets me beyond the point of “just making a thing”. It enables me to go one step further – to open my mind for inspiration, to allow myself to get creative and to execute techniques and patterns I haven’t tried yet. Yes, in my opinion inspiration is a very important part of every creative process and project but it is also a very fragile flower which needs some occasional pampering. And to work oneself into a burn out doesn’t really help anyone as the recovery process can take quite some time. I am glad that my sweetheart takes such a good care of me and reminds me to take a break once in a while. Continue reading
Their Royal Highnesses Timothy & Ysmay at the Crown Tournament
As some of you might have already realized, I didn’t post as often as I normally do during the past couple months. As sad this fact made me, I have a really good reason for it. I was working like crazy at a 12th century coronation dress as well as a 12th century coronation underdress for our future Queen, our beloved princess Ysmay.
But first things first. I was quite surprised but at the same time also tremendously happy when I got to know that our future King and Queen wanted to have a 12 th century themed coronation…
Yes, it’s true, now you can find me on Instagram too! And after taking a look at my rather new account, I just can’t believe how many pics I already posted there… *lol*
One morning I woke up and simply decided to go with the time which meant to embrace yet another app. And to my utter amazement Instagram seems to be quite amusing despite its simplicity. Or maybe it’s just so nice to handle because it is such a rather simple app…
Gloria, my dear mother-in-law, took a lovely selfie of us both at the most recent SCA event – Coronation. This cute selfie allows me to finally show you my most recent 12th century project “in use”:
My new black 12th century fillet
with white silk embroidery! 😀
How come? Well, after completing my new grey/black 12th century dress, I longed for a slightly different 12th century headgear than my ‘normal’ red silk fillet with pearl embroidery. And as the making of a new fillet does not take very long, I decided to simply make a fillet that matched at least one of the colors of my new dress…
And surprise, surprise – I just managed to finish another 12th century dress! 🙂
Well, I admit it, I didn’t post much about my new 12th century dress project till now – only one short posting and that was all. But well, it was also just one of my “small” side projects which I took up or abandoned whenever I felt like it. “Just” some hand sewing in order to relax and to keep my hands busy…
I think it’s quite important to have small side projects like this. Projects which have no time frame or real importance and might not even work out. But projects like these can help to take one’s mind off things or provide some ease to eyes which just can’t make out any difference between the gold thread and the silk thread you are working with…
Continue reading
Todays posting about “how I made the counterpart for the 12th century neckline fastening and some other details…” brings us finally to the last progress pictures of the 12th century grey light-wool tunic project for my husband.
Though I already showed you my period inspiration for this quite special 12th century neckline shape and how my take on this special neckline form based on the 12th century neckline inspiration looks like, it seems like I neglected a quite important detail till now: the period inspired fastening and its counterpart…
It is finally happening – this is my last posting concerning the “reinforcement of neckline stress points“. 🙂
In my most recent postings I introduced you to an old hand sewing technique which helps to provide “reinforcement for neckline stress points”. I also already posted about how I used a simple variation of this old hand sewing technique for the quite special 12th century inspired neckline for my husbands new grey tunic as well as for the slit neckline of my red 12th century silk dress…