War Cloak Panels

In the last couple of months I have been honoured to be involved in working some motifs for a War Cloak which was designed by my talented Baroness and presented on behalf of my Barony. This project involved a steep learning curve as I had to learn new skills and techniques with the pressure of a rapidly approaching deadline.

The theme of the project was gold and treasure and I supplemented the beautifully worked pieces done by Countess Sir Eva von Danzig (embroidery on the apples and fleece, appliqué and couching of the sun in splendor) with a golden grail, golden spurs and golden owl. I also added the filler motifs.

There are a variety of metallic gold threads and purl that have been couched down. The black cotton has been worked in split stitch. There are also metal findings and gold Madeira silk.

The end result is beautifully shiny and sparkling, and I am now a bit addicted to goldwork. I plan to learn more about it in the future and develop my skills in this area.


My favourite motif was the adorable little Golden Fleece worked by Countess Sir Eva:

She also worked the beautiful Golden Apples and conceived of, designed and created the cloak. She was assisted by Viscountess Ingerith Ryzka who patiently couched gold on the lettering. Materials were also donated by Mistress Ingerith and Lady Ursula von Memmingen.
The cloak was presented by the Crown to Master Hanbal al-Barbari for his heroic efforts in leading the Kahn’s army at Rowany Festival 2015

I hope to have some pictures of the completed cloak to show soon!

Laurel wreath cloak project applique

I am part of the embroiderer's guild of Lochac  ( http://lochac.sca.org/lochac/guilds/index.html ), and volunteered to do a piece of goldwork applique as part of a group project. The second half of last year was absolutely atrocious, with serious real life issues consuming my family. As I wrote a New Year's list of things I needed to achieve in the first quarter of 2014 I was horrified to realise that I hadn't completed the piece. I was also really nervous about starting it because it is not a technique that I am very good at or confident with, and that can be really intimidating (especially when the article is for someone else.)

However, procrastination has not won me any awards lately, so I took advantage of the public holiday and just started. Nike really is on the right track with their little motto. Once I got into the project, it became less intimidating. Perhaps it was the sparkly sparkly twist braid lulling me into a false sense of security, but I quite enjoyed working the piece. I did the laurel outlining on the first day and was pleased with the result.

I was more concerned about offsetting the two pieces of braid when doing the circles surrounding the laurel wreath. It is not perfect, but not absolutely awful either.

The finished piece still in the hoop

The double twist of gold braid was couched onto the silk with a single strand of yellow silk sewing thread.

I couldn't iron or block the piece - I will leave that to the experts in the WCoB

The piece has been sent to the designer to be added to the cloak. This piece was researched and designed by the talented Mistress Rowan Peregrynne.