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plaiting-work designs
1.About the style
The
decorative arts of the Moorish and the Celts are at the base of these
designs. They exists only of small bands going over and under each other.
If a band cross over another band then the next time it crosses a band
it goes under it.
In designing I wanted to restrict myself using only the 8 basic directions.
That’s to say in the design are only horizontal, vertical and lines
under a corner of 45 degrees. That’s a substantial restriction.
For instance you can’t use regular hexagons.
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An example
of a “plaiting work” design. I have kept the bands as small as possible. In horizontal and vertical direction they are one stitch wide. As a consequence the width of the skew bands is square root 2 (about 1,4 stitches. Although that’s quiet a difference in breath it doesn't’t work disturbing. If you do execute the designs, the bands are in one color, usually black. The small closed plane regions witch comes into being making the bands, you can fill up with cross-stitches. |
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There are some books in English with embroidery patterns based on Celtic motives and plaiting work. Actually they are copies of the original drawings, and carving, but filled in with cross stitches. The designs of mine are different: The bands are of a constant width, of course not the same in every direction. Horizontal and vertical they are one cross stitch wide. The slanting are approximately 1,4 cross stitch wide. Further more I took as less space as possible for going under and across as well as for the bending's (See the drawing). This gave, after creating some designs, the most satisfying results. Much more beautiful as the first experiments of mine, which were much coarser.
2.Working method.
The
most satisfying results are embroidered over two threads, using fine linen
cloth (14 threads to the centimeter) and in black silk. The bands are
made in double running stitch and not filled in. In most designs there
comes some small field into being between the bands. They can be filled
in with cross-stitches (choosing colors for this is a nice activity).
It’s not really easy to embroider the bands. You very soon are out
of your depth. But doing is learning. It’s very wise to start with
a small and simple design and then to figure out a satisfying order of
working. If you, indeed, create one of the designs, I am very anxious
about the result. Please send me a photograph (jpeg, max 640x480 pixels).
3.The designs
You
can find the links to these designs at the beginning of this page.
