Anglo - Saxon Brooch Crewel more colour

It's been hard to find time to do my embroidery , we,ve been out and about so much .

I always carry my work with me in this bag and actually there are several projects packed away in here .
  It's a DMC Travel bag with lots of useful zippered pockets for my crewel wool , scissors , needles , it has file binder rings for my notes , pictures and patterns which I keep in plastic punched pockets ...and a pocket on the outside where I slip my glasses , emery boards and hand cream .
   Larger projects get rolled up in a pillowcase and tied up on the outside between the handles ...I find it very useful .

Anglo - Saxon Brooch Zoomorphic Doves

                             What do you think  ?  Could they be doves ?
Zoomorphic - the representation of animal forms in decorative art/ jewellery .

I embroidered the edge of the brooch with a dark olive ..it might be the edge of the brooch or maybe just it's shadow ....but if I make it into a needlecase , then this is where I could sew on a bead for fastening it . I haven,t decided yet what it will become..maybe a brooch ?

                         Now more fun ..adding colour ...I might go over the red and yellow spots , just to make them a tiny bit larger ...but they seem to be flat glass inlays on the actual brooch rather than jewels ..so I want to keep them flat .

                                      Some crewel wool from my hoard.
    American crafters have  "a stash ".....  English crafters have " a  hoard " ! :)

At first sight , I thought the whole of the ribbon cross was blue , but on further inspection it is only half blue and the other half is several shades of green .
 I can see where the little bits of glass have been dropped in..it is amazing and so beautiful !
 I have asked the St Augustine Museum in Canterbury for more information about this brooch and am waiting for some answers ..such as where it was found...who it might be associated with ..what metal is it made of ?
     I forgot to ask how big is it ?
 I,d also like to see some better photos of it as the only two that I,ve found on the internet are not very clear .
  So  I sent a message to the museum and Dito kindly put me in touch with Craig ( who is away at the moment ) I,m waiting to hear back from Craig who is in charge of the collections in the museum  .
It's just too far away for me to visit , although I would like to get there one day .

 Anyway , it's all so interesting and I,m so enjoying myself with all the learning and embroidering this Anglo Saxon brooch .

Anglo-Saxon Brooch Progress

I,m stitching all the guide lines and thinking about the colours that were used in Anglo-Saxon glass and enamel .... the things that were added in the making of the glass , such as iron, manganese , magical cobolt for that gorgeous blue , lead , copper , tin ,antimony .
I want to try and get those beautiful colours .

 Snuggled up on my bed with my hot water bottle and my little friend , listening to Enya , while outside the storm rages .

Actually the storm (Brian) didn't hit us too hard here in Mullion , but brushed past us , still it was wild out . We took a drive to see the waves from a safe distance . Here looking over Poldhu and across to Gunwalloe .

           The tide was going out actually , here looking over Mullion Harbour .

        I used three shades of this green  421 422 and 424 Appleton's crewel wool .

                                         ...and took out my new red scissors !

I suppose  you could say that I,m doing padded satin stich here , but the lines are so thin . I did long stitches for the under stitches  but I,m not really making this padded or raised .

That was all quite tedious , so next I,m going to reward myself with a delightful bit . Those zoomorphic doves .....at least that is what I think they are ....
                         ....... What  do you think ?
 ..The sun just came out and the wind has gone ..blue sky ...we're off to church .
Have a lovely Sunday all !

Anglo - Saxon Brooch from St Augustine's Abbey Canterbury

We escaped the wrath of Hurricane Ophelia and enjoyed a couple of days up in Tewkesbury . I packed up a bit of 10th century embroidery to relax with in the evening .
 I am stitching the beautiful Anglo-Saxon brooch which is in the museum at St Augustine's Abbey in Canterbury . I found the picture of it on the St Louis Community College website , an education site , who in turn got it from the St Augustine's Abbey museum . If I am not allowed to use this pic , let me know and I will remove it .

This Anglo - Saxon brooch has glass inlays , at first sight I saw it as being bold primary colours of blue , white , red , green and yellow....and pull these colours from my mighty hoard of wool ...but as I look closer I see many more subtle shades within it and end up with many more little bundles of crewel wool in my basket .

I begin by stem and crewel stitching , a mixture of both , around all of the design lines....I,m not all that happy about this dark brown....it might not work..but let's see how it goes .
 I try to always begin and finish on the front , so it is kept tidy with no knots or bumps on the reverse . ...if you can do this , then that is brilliant...keep on perfecting it !
......but as a beginner ,  I always did tie a knot and make a terrible mess on the back and if thats where you're at and you are having fun , then I say , you should just carry on having  fun  ! Knots , tangled threads, loops and all !
Dont worry about it !
 Dont block your beautiful imagination and fun ..the reverse wont be seen by anyone when you,ve finished it . I know there will be people who will disagree with me , but I think you should let your creative imagination flow and you can learn to perfect it later on , especially if you are a very young person .

      Here I am snipping the thread that I have woven through the stitches on the front .
                                   I cant wait to start throwing in some colours .

           Here is the reverse , not too bad , but there are a lot more stitches to come .
 I,m home in Cornwall again now ....they had a lot of rain here in Mullion , but the wind wasn't too bad . We didn't have any trees down and my greenhouse is still standing . Everyone is telling me how awesome the waves were !  I love to see the sea when it's wild  ! (from a safe distance)
   However ..there's more stormy weather coming in on Saturday ....and it is feeling colder now too ....sigh... haul in another basket full of split logs for the fire .
 I had my flu jab ....ouch !   It's Australian Flu this time ... it's going to be really bad they say .

The last few stitches ... little medieval witch .

I thought I,d finished , but as I looked at this more close up photograph , I noticed on her shoulder , under her chin , a very small area unfinished still , just a few more orange stitches ....maybe just three little stitches ....
                                      I,ll soon put those in and then away . . .  . .

                                                ......and on to the next thing ....

Little Witch - medieval crewel embroidery - nearly finished

       Nearly finished , just her veil and boots to stitch ...oh ...and that little bit of orange on the folds of her gown that I missed .

Little Witches - medieval

 These illuminations come from a manuscript of a french poet Martin Le France 1410-1461 . Titled- Le Champion des Dames  .  (public domain)
 I have always loved these two endearing little witches ..said to be the first ever depiction of witches on broomsticks .

                   Sweet little medieval witch ...I am going to stitch you today !

I,m stitching her fast to try and capture the fast action of the medieval scribe's quill and brush .

 I wonder about the children he watched at play outside , in the courtyard below his window  Two little girls riding their hobbyhorses ..using their mother's broom sticks ...maybe ...

                                                     She cast a spell on me !
I,m just needle painting here really ..... using stem stitch and crewel stitch to outline before filling in ...shading  and  painting with long and short stitch  .
 I,m using Appleton's Crewel Wool .

                            I love using these the gorgeous Autumn colours too !
                That picture came out a bit dark ....but look there's a little rainbow !
                               

 That's better....a bit more light ...
Halloween is a simple affair for me here in England ..no money spent on fancy costumes or trick and treating.... I need every penny for Christmas ! But I might put out a hollowed out swede or mangelworzel with a candle inside ..as children we played Bob-apple ..trying to bite an apple up out of a bowl of water ....we had toffee apples..battled with conkers . ...told simple spooky stories ...and talked about old superstitions ....nothing more than that really .
When I did my family history,at around the 16th century, I found two girls of my family who had been put on " the ducking stool "or  "swum" in  Coldred , a village in Kent . I was so shocked to find that and it really brought it all home to me .  So very sad ...and there are still today many other places in the world where being accused of being a witch is a terrible frightening thing .
 Anyway .... my little witch , is a little sweetheart  ....maybe I,ll stitch her friend too  !