Brustflect Baronial Investiture Embroidery

Introduction

​This project sought to deliver a balance between creating a historically authentic artifact and the brief to have a design that would reflect the barony heraldry. As part of the design research I looked at a variety of secondary sources. Below is a survey of the designs I considered when designing the brustflect embroidery. The Cranach Digital Archive https://lucascranach.org/home was the main inspiration.  These designs fall into three broad categories; diapered or geometric patterns, scrolling patterns, and central icons. ​

Based on the sheen shown in many of the above figures, the grounds for the embroidery were very often silk. Further, there is substantial use of gold embroidery and pearls throughout these designs. ​

​Inspiration

The Ynys Fawr baronial heraldry includes a lymphad, or Scottish galley, and the informal populous badge is the Kraken. As the silk grounds I was given to use were in the baronial heraldic blue, it gave me an opportunity to combine the two symbols in the design. This symbology could then represent the joining of the new Baron and Baroness to their people.
The blue silk grounds made it easy to conceptualise galleon sailing towards the kraken and just about to be embraced by the kraken. The pearls at the top were the sky and at the bottom the gentle waves. I used lots of gold in the ship to make it jump out and be very substantial. This also forced the perspective back. For the tentacles, the small amount of gold used in outline, and large size, brings them into the foreground. 

Choices and Compromises

​When undertaking such a project there are always choices and compromises to be made to meet the brief, and to make a piece as historically accurate as possible. While icons were found on brustfleck, these were most commonly botanical, such as sheafs of grain or flowers. While inspired by the scroll and icon styles, the symbolic nature of the piece means it could not fully follow the known designs.
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Further, I used imitation gold passing thread as I could not afford genuine gold and cultured pearls rather than natural. I used a fine imitation gold twist for the rigging. I had about one month to design and finish the embroidery due to the other pieces needing creation for the investiture. I would have liked to add additional design accents and complexity to this piece if there had been time. 

How the design was worked

The blue silk was backed with a cotton lawn. Both were stretched onto a slate frame. The design was drawn on in graphite pencil. Using a medieval goldworker’s Broche that I had made using Mistress Rowan’s excellent design, I laid the gold threads and couched with yellow silk thread. The ends of the gold were sunk using a lasso and stitched down into the cotton lawn. The rigging had deliberate dips and waves to give a sense of movement and drama. 
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The pearls were individually beaded for the suckers and portholes. For the waves and sky these were beaded as a strand with each bead additionally threaded and sewn down to ensure it was robust and to give the tension needed for the waves at the bottom of the piece.

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