Blackwork First

"Stonehenge"

Blackwork with some counted patterns and some freely worked patterns

"Blackwork: Complete and Unabridged"

A teaching sampler with historic patterns and modern shading techniques.

This sampler was taught at he Embroiderers' Guild of America National Seminar

in Louisville, Ky in 1998.

People ask me what my favorite kind of embroidery is. I do and have done a lot of different techniques. But there is no doubt what my favorite is: blackwork.

When I first started doing embroidery that fateful September in 1976, I began with needlepoint. After I had done a couple pieces of needlepoint I started looking around at other types of needlework. I bought an interesting kit for $12 of The Three Kings. It said it was counted work. The threads were brightly-colored rayons. The outline of the kings were stamped on the evenweave cotton. The robes were done in pattern after counted pattern in complex shapes. I loved it. I didn't know for almost two years that I had been doing blackwork. I still have those three kings tucked in a fat notebook dedicated to blackwork past.

Blackwork is an old technique. No one knows how old. It seems to have origins in Spain and North Africa, but that may not be the only place of origin. Chaucer in The Miller's Tale in 1395 mentions blackwork when he describes Alisoun and what she wears.

There is a portrait of Queen Isabel of Spain done in 1494. She is wearing what to our modern eyes is blackwork on her cap and placket. Certainly when her daughter Princess Katherine of Aragon came to England to marry the crown prince of England, Prince Arthur, in 1501 she brought with her Spanish work embroidery, the same sort of embroidery we see on Queen Isabel's portrait.

A century later an inventory was done of Queen Elizabeth's wardrobe, (see Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd by Janet Arnold) and in it are described clothes done in blackwork and clothes done in Spanish work. Now we have little idea as to the differences. Now we call it all blackwork.

So what is Blackwork? My definition, which may not be the classic definition, is counted patterns that create shading and definition in a composition. That's it. How does an embroiderer create those defining patterns, what we also may call value in blackwork? Well, there are at least eight ways. That is a long explanation that will wait for another entry.

Blackwork is now considered a counted work because of the patterns, but classically, during the time of Elizabeth the First, patterning was only a part of blackwork. And it was not always counted. It was called blackwork because it was black silk threads stitched onto white linen., the same as Spanish work. Even then it was not always black, but also red, green, and blue. It was done with goldwork within it. Take a look at the inventories at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London to see it.

Why is this embroidery my favorite? Because of its complexity, because of its versatility. Because of its elegance. And because, of all the embroidery techniques, it is the closest to graphic art. With blackwork I can draw on the fabric.