Sunday, August 26, 2007

Elizabethan Embroidered Coif


I actually finished this later period coif about 3 years ago, but have never put more than a picture online. It was a true labor of love, taking 7 years total (not continuously, obviously) and was started as a gestational insomnia project. It is recreated from a textile in the Burrell Collection in Glasgow and the best, upclose photos of it are in Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe unlocked.

It is done on even weave linen in (I am ashamed to say) standard cotton embroidery thread. I now have much easier access to silk and promise my next project will be better! The silver thread
is some nasty-ish stuff I had to hand (money was always a problem when I was working on this). It was very hard to work with, broke a lot and I still wish I had had the money for real metal thread. The silver spangles are nice and real though. I got them from Hedgehog Handworks although Reconstructing History has just added them too. They are pain to work with. This coif should really have them all over - but I had a very hard time working with them, as they were sharp on the edges. I very carefully dulled the outer edges with an emery board, but 'Dremel' never occurred to me for the inside hole (duh), so again, tips for the next project. I will come back and add some more info on this entry, but I wanted to get the pictures up today.