It's always useful to find out what other writers and artists think about their work. This, from Rosemary Sutcliff:
"The temptation is to try & use everything you’ve found out in…research. That can be fatal, because you…only need to use about 1/10. It’s…like an iceberg…It has to be there, because it gives you the freedom of the period. But you don’t use it.”
It has some relevance to my planning of embroidery projects, especially the #OpusAnglicanum. I need to know something about it, but I'm not trying to do a period-accurate one, so I have to be a bit careful about what I include of what I know.
One entire corner sprig and the largest expanse of #UndersideCouching. Readers of my blog may recall that creating the sprig design took much experimentation with my paints. The distribution of shades of yellow is subtly different in each corner.
Templar crosses in red silk. William Marshall joined the Templars on his deathbed, (not uncommon at the time) and he was buried in Temple Church. I started by leaving them as outlines, but they lacked authority.
Another detail of the border. I chose quite deliberately the order of the edging colours bracketing the blue. This shot shows dog rose and rose leaves (for the garden the Victorian renovation of Temple Church reburied William in), and gives a particularly clear view of the trellis couching. The stitching in the border is not classic opus anglicanum - I've used #FishboneStitch for the rose leaves, #LongAndShortStitch for the rose petals, and #FrenchKnots in their centres.
Close up of part of the border - trellis couching over surface satin stitch, edged with couched borders in William's heraldic colours, and showing the sprigs of broom, referring to the five Plantagenet monarchs he served.
I optimistically bought "The Romance of Rahere and Other Poems" by Edward Hardingham, thinking it might at least give me atmosphere or something for my #OpusAnglicanum#Rahere, and it turned out to be a Civil War era romance about a girl named Rahere, in honour of the prior. She dies, leaving her young man distraught.
So, really, really not helpful! #ArtistsLife#Research
I'm planning to do an #OpusAnglicanum embroidery depicting Dame Julian of Norwich, the anchoress who wrote the first book in English that we know to be written by a woman. So I went to look at the church and her cell.
The church is tiny and beautiful, but everything you see was rebuilt following destruction in the first world war, so I'm not sure how much I should incorporate in the embroidery. I will be making it up as I go along - as usual!
I'll post about the life, times & legacy of Elizabeth de Burgh, #LadyOfClare, a spirited English noblewoman of the #14thCentury whose legacy includes #ClareCollege & #ClareHall at #CambridgeUniversity. She & her remarkable network of friends were influential patrons of books, music, institutions & all the arts in a #GoldenAge for English craftsmanship.