Chapter 3 Underside Couching

A. Underside couching Hand stitch

I started to follow the technique using quite a coarse tapestry mesh with thick wools but the scale didn't seem to help so I very quickly moved on to using bookbinders' muslin as a base.  This muslin has a fine even weave with visible holes but also has a lot of stiffener in it, obviously for bookbinder.  This stiffener proved very useful and I found I didn't need a hoop to stabilise the material.

3.1

3.1 I created a chevron pattern with green Perle cotton thread, similar to that seen in some of the borders of the Opus Anglicanum pieces

3.2

3.2 This piece uses a yellow Perle cotton with a metal strand through it to create a kind of basket weave pattern.

3.3

3.3 the backsides of 3.1 and 3.2 above showing the couching thread and the 'dots' of Perle coming through.
These samples were approx 3cm wide.

I actually quite enjoyed this despite it feeling like it was taking forever to do and it appearing to get smaller as you worked on it!  So much so that I started work on a small sample worked on velvet (before I realised that you were supposed to work through a linen layer too then pick all the strands of linen away- aargh!) - very unsuccessful, so bad in fact that a photo of the disaster will not be uploaded.  My admiration definitely goes to those Medieval craftsmen!

I had more success working on 32count linen and put a few samples in my chapter 1 research book on Opus Anglicanum - not quite completed yet....

B. Underside couching machine stitch

3.4

3.4 I picked a background of homespun cotton, hand dyed brown which was stabilised with a woven interfacing.  This first sample was intended to show 4 different squares but I reckoned that the stitch length change was not great enough and there was not enough contrast between the top and bottom threads.

3.5

3.5 This second one was more successful and a diamond was more obviously produced.

3.6

3.6 I found that keeping the lines of stitching evenly spaced was quite difficult, but may have been less apparent on a larger scale.

3.7

3.7 Here the stitch type was changed between plain and zig-zag.

3.8

3.8 Here some gold lurex thread was used in the bobbin.  Perhaps greater contrast between the top and bottom threads would have been better.