I have posted a new tutorial, Basics of Opus Anglicanum Embroidery.  It outlines the stylistic details that make opus anglicanum embroidery unique, and provides instructions in the basics of how to emulate the style in your own embroidery.  It’s an online version of a handout I have created for an opus anglicanum workshop I will be giving at Collegium Caidis, a teaching event with the Society of Creative Anacronism, happening May 16-17, 2015.  The handout, Basics of Opus Anglicanum Embroidery (pdf), may be distributed for free, unaltered, for educational purposes.

Kit and Stitch-Along

To accompany the workshop, I am creating a kit, and will also be doing a stitch-along blog as I embroider the kit for myself.  I am not going to be selling any kits, and they will not be available through my web site, but I will provide all the information needed to create your own kit.

The image to the right is the one I will be using for the kit, about 2″ wide.  It is based on one of the drawings in the Codex Manesse, a German manuscript created between 1300-1340.  It will be drawn on handkerchief weight linen, to provide as many threads per inch as possible.  I will be purchasing the threads for the kit through the Japanese Embroidery Center Store.  If you want to use exactly the same threads I will have in my kit, they are listed below.  However, you can use whatever colors you would like from any brand of flat silk.  If you want to use Soie Ovale thread, or just different colors of the JEC thread, be sure to choose a light peach for the skin, black thread, white thread, two dramatically different shades of hair color, three shades of a color for the cloak, and three shades of color for the tunic.  You will also need gold(en) thread, #5 at the largest.

Achromatic (White) #801 – eye & barbette
Achromatic (Black) #809 – outlines & pupil
Peach #211 – skin
Orange Brown #723 – hair
Orange Brown #727 – hair
Blue #504 – cloak
Blue #507 – cloak
Blue #509 – cloak
Plum #684 – tunic
Plum #686 – tunic
Plum #688 – tunic
Imitation Gold #5 (IG-5) – crown, clothing trim, frame

Project: Opus Anglicanum Stitch-Along