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Blackwork Embroidery is a form of counted-thread embroidery that is usually stitched on even-weave fabric.Counted-thread embroidery is any embroidery in which the fabric threads are counted by the embroiderer before inserting the needle into the fabric. Any black thread can be used, but firmly twisted threads give a better look than embroidery floss. Traditionally blackwork is stitched in silk thread on white or off-white linen or cotton fabric. Sometimes metallic threads or coloured threads are used for accents. Although black was the most popular colour, examples survive that use other colours, including red, blue and purple. Red silk was the most popular
alternative color and such
work was sometimes referred to as Scarletwork.
Blackwork
has been through many incarnations, but the most common types employ simple stitches to create complex scrolling or geometric
patterns. The first such patterns were comprised of all horizontal and vertical stitches, without any diagonal lines to
make shifts. All turns were at a forty-five degree angle which gave it a very square look. Because it is a counted method that requires precise geometric alignment,
even weave (same number of warp and weft fibers per inch) fabric such as linen is the best choice because it produces a symmetrical image as both warp and weft fabric threads are evenly spaced. Blackwork employs just a
few simple stitches to create complex designs with great eye appeal.
History
Historically, blackwork was used on shirts and chemises or smocks in England from the time of Henry VIII. However, Black embroidery was known in England before 1500. Geoffrey Chaucer in the Canterbury Tales describes the clothing of the miller's wife, Alison: "Of white, too, was the dainty smock she wore, embroidered at the collar all about with coal-black silk, alike within and out."
The common name "Spanish work" was based on the belief that Catherine of Aragon brought many blackwork garments with her from Spain, and portraits of the later 15th and early 16th centuries show black embroidery or other trim on Spanish chemises. Catherine of Aragon, the daughter of
Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, was sent to England at the tender age of sixteen to be wed to Prince Arthur, the eldest
son of King Henry VII. She was young and pretty and well received among the English Court. Arthur died shortly after their
marriage, which was never consummated. Catherine was caught in the middle of dramatic political wrangling between Henry and
her father King Ferdinand. There was mutual attraction between Catherine and Prince Henry (younger brother to Arthur),
despite their six year age difference, and Ferdinand wanted to negotiate a union, but things were not to proceed smoothly.
It was not until after the death of Henry VII that the newly crowned Henry VIII was able to actually marry Catherine and she
finally took her place as Queen of England. She was well loved for many decades, but her story did not have a happy ending.
Although she was pregnant many times over the years, and even gave birth to a few boys, her only surviving child was Mary
Tudor. When the King asked Catherine for an annulment, so that he could legally marry his young mistress Anne Boleyn, she
steadfastly refused. Henry punished Catherine for her refusal and took away her home, her place in society, and even her
daughter. When the pope refused to annul the marriage, and Catherine refused to enter a convent, the Church of England was
formed, with King Henry as its supreme leader. He granted himself a divorce and married a pregnant Anne. To his great
disappointment, she bore a girl. Their daughter, Elizabeth would eventually become Queen. Unfortunately, Anne Boleyn would
not live to see her daughter crowned, since Henry had her beheaded just a few years after taking their vows. It was Catherine's love of lace and embroidery combined with keen fashion sense that appealed to the English people, even
before she was Queen.
Catherine was educated in many disciplines including the "wifely arts." She was an accomplished
embroiderer and many people believe she herself embroidered some of the King Henry's tunics. The sudden rise in popularity
of the reversible scrolling designs on collars and cuffs was certainly due in part to her influence. In the early 1500s,
Blackwork had a distinctly Spanish feel, which explains why it was often referred to as Spanysshe Work. The black and white
scrolling designs had an obvious Moorish influence, hence the term "arabesque" is often employed in the description of such
designs. Since Catherine spent her formative years in Spain and was exposed to Moorish art, architecture and textiles, it is
easy to see how the association between her and Blackwork would be made. However, it is important to note that she merely
helped create fascination with this style of embroidery; she did not invent it. The Blackwork of this period, looked like
lace and was reversible, since both sides would be subject to viewing if it adorned cuffs, coifs and collars. Hans Holbein
the Younger, court painter to Henry VIII, meticulously documented these embroideries. Holbein was not only the royal
portrait artist, he was the person responsible for designing the kings robes, buttons, linens and other household goods.
It was his attention to detail and the unfailing vanity of the nobility, that allows us a look back at this phenomenon and it
is in his honor that the double running stitch is also called the Holbein Stitch.
It was Elizabeth who was responsible for the next shift in how Blackwork would be perceived. Like Catherine, she too was an accomplished embroiderer. Elizabeth brought a more traditional English design theme to this style, utilizing fruits, flowers
and herbs as central design elements in her Blackwork. Each segment was outlined and then worked with complicated geometric
designs, with contrasts of dark and light created by the different fill patterns. This type of Blackwork was not reversible
and was no longer confined to cuffs and collars. The advent of printing presses offered Elizabethan embroiderers a wide
variety of design ideas. Flora and fauna were common elements for black and white plates, which could then be used in
embroidery designs. The very nature of black on white print made it an easy transition to black and white embroidery. During
the Tudor/Elizabethan periods, many people wore clothing adorned in Blackwork, regardless of gender. Despite the political
imbroglio, the wealthy persisted in the daily pursuits of life and there was unprecedented prosperity under the reign of
Elizabeth which made silk available to a wider audience. Clothing connoted status and these people were consumed by it! The
royals of the 16th and 17th century were often painted wearing costumes that were heavily embroidered. No one more so than
Queen Elizabeth, whose royal wardrobe is still the subject of discussion. It is these surviving portraits and royal documents
which explain how this form of embroidery became so intimately associated with the Tudor/Elizabethan periods. In an era
when most every woman was skilled with a needle and thread, Blackwork was fashionable.
During its most popular period of usage, three distinct styles of blackwork emerge, all of which co-existed together.
Design Features
- Linear, Reversable Blackwork - This is the type of work that most people associate with blackwork. It is a usually a counted thread design (though this is not always the case), which is reversable, that is, it looks the same from the front and the back. This style tends to be linear in nature and was mostly used on collars and cuffs of clothing.
- Its popularity can be attested to by the fact that some form of blackwork can be seen in just about every surviving Tudor and Elizabethan portrait. One painter, Hans Holbein, detailed it so well that the stitch used to make this style of blackwork took on his name - Holbein Stitch. This type of blackwork can be done in either double running or back stitch.
- Free Form Style with Geometric Fill Patterns - This is second most popular form of blackwork. This type of blackwork consists of free form shapes, (most popularly, flowers and leaves) that are then filled in with repeating geometric fill patterns. This type of blackwork was used extensively in the production of pillow covers and various forms of clothing, such as large sleeves, coifs, nightcaps, smocks and skirt foreparts.
- Free Form Outlined Motifs - This type of blackwork comes in two versions.
- The first is the use of scattered, individual motifs on items such as pillow beeres (cases) and other bed linens. These are usually done using stem or chain stitch.
- The other form is a repetitive strapwork pattern, again done in stem stitch or chain stitch. Examples can be seen in the portraits of Henry VIII (shirts) and in skirt foreparts.
Technique
The stitches used are double running or holbein stitch, backstitch, and sometimes stem stitch. Since blackwork is a counted thread embroidery technique, it works on a base of even weave fabric.
Historically, there are three common styles of blackwork:
- In the earliest blackwork, counted stitches are worked to make a geometric or small floral pattern. Most modern blackwork is in this style, especially the commercially-produced patterns that are marketed for hobby stitchers.
- Later blackwork features large designs of flowers, fruit, and other patterns connected by curvilinear stems. These are outlined with stem stitch, and the outlined patterns are filled with geometric counted designs.
- In the third style of blackwork, the outlined patterns are "shaded" with random stitches called seed stitches. This style of blackwork imitates etchings or woodcuts.
Stitches
Holbein stitch is a simple, reversible line embroidery stitch most commonly used in Blackwork embroidery and Assisi embroidery. The stitch is named after Hans Holbein the Younger (1497-1543), a 16th-century portrait painter best known for his paintings of Henry VIII and his children, almost all of whom are depicted wearing clothing decorated with blackwork embroidery.
Although superficially similar to Back Stitch the Holbein stitch produces a smoother line and a pattern that is identical on both sides of the fabric. It can be worked in straight lines, diagonally, or in a stepped fashion to make a zigzag line and is well suited to creating outlines or intricate filling patterns.
Holbein stitch is also known as double running stitch, line stitch, Spanish stitch, Chiara stitch and two-sided line stitch and is used mostly for reversable blackwork. It is used on collars, cuffs and any items where both sides would be visible.
Holbein stitch is usually worked on on an even-weave fabric where the threads can be counted to ensure perfect regularity and is worked in two stages. Firstly, a row of evenly spaced running stitches is worked along the line to be covered. Then the return journey is completed, filling in the spaces between stitches made on the first journey and sharing the same holes:
Stitch diagram for working Holbein stitch
Backstitch or back stitch and its variants stem stitch, outline stitch and split stitch are a class of embroidery and sewing stitches in which individual stitches are made backward to the general direction of sewing. These stitches form lines and are most often used to outline shapes or to add fine detail to an embroidered picture.
Backstich is used as an outline stitch when doing free form and geometric blackwork.
A versatile and easy to work stitch, backstitch is ideal for following both smooth and complicated outlines and as a foundation row for more complex embroidery stitches such as Herringbone ladder filling stitch. Although superficially similar to Holbein stitch, commonly used in Blackwork embroidery, backstitch differs in the way it is worked, requiring a single journey only to complete a line of stitching.
Stem stitch is an ancient technique; surviving mantles embroidered with stem stitch by the Paracas people of Peru are dated to the first century BCE. Stem stitch is used in the Bayeux Tapestry, an embroidered cloth probably dating to the later 1070s, for lettering and to outline areas filled with couching or laid-work.
Backstitch is most easily worked on an even-weave fabric, where the threads can be counted to ensure regularity, and is generally executed from right to left. The stitches are worked in a 'two steps forward, one step back' fashion, along the line to be filled, as shown in the diagram.
Variants of backstitch include:
- Basic backstitch or point de sable.
- Threaded backstitch
- Pekinese stitch, a looped interlaced backstitch
- Stem stitch, in which each stitch overlaps the previous stitch to one side, forming a twisted line of stitching, with the thread passing below the needle. It is generally used for outlining shapes and for stitching flower stems and tendrils.
- Whipped stem stitch
- Outline stitch, sometimes distinguished from stem stitch in that the thread passes above rather than below the needle.
- Split stitch, in which the needle pierces the thread rather than returning to one side.
Braid or plaited stitches - used for making stems or adding texture to free form and geometric blackwork.
References
- Arnold, Janet: Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd, Leeds: W S Maney and Son Ltd, 1988. ISBN 0-901286-20-6
- Digby, George Wingfield. Elizabethan Embroidery. New York: Thomas Yoseloff, 1964.
- Gostelow, Mary. Blackwork, Batsford, 1976; Dover reprint, 1998, ISBN 0-486-40178-2
- Readers Digest Complete Guide to Needlework, 1979, ISBN 0-89577-059-8.
- Wace, A.J.B.: "English Embroideries Belonging to Sir John Carew Pole, Bart", Walpole Society Annual, 1932-33, Vol. XXI, p. 56, note 2.
- Caulfield, S.F.A., and B.C. Saward, The Dictionary of Needlework, 1885.
- Eaton, Jan. Mary Thomas's Dictionary of Embroidery Stitches, Revised by Jan Eaton. London: Hodder&Stoughton, 1989. ISBN 0-340-51075-7
- Enthoven, Jacqueline: The Creative Stitches of Embroidery, Van Norstrand Rheinhold, 1964, ISBN 0-442-22318-8
- Reader's Digest, Complete Guide to Needlework. The Reader's Digest Association, Inc. (March 1992). ISBN 0-89577-059-8
- Levey, S. M. and D. King, The Victoria and Albert Museum's Textile Collection Vol. 3: Embroidery in Britain from 1200 to 1750, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1993, ISBN 1851771263
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