Since November, 2007, we have received:

Stockings from:

Deb W from MA

Veronica M (two pair)

Virginia S

Melanie Anne (two pair)

Linda F

Liz P

Deb W from Texas

Cindy S

Leslie H

Salley C

Gloves from:

Rosemary C (two pair)

Liz P

Julie S (two pair)

The interpreters have been coming in all week, picking up their period clothes and choosing new knitted stockings from this fantastic collection. So far everyone has found a pair they like and that fit. Thank you all so much; without your generosity we would not have had any knitted stockings to distribute.

Gloves are also going away; some people who had been wearing many-times-mended yet still hole-full gloves have brand-new warm ones now. Thank you.

It has been rather busy in the office this week; people coming and going, trying on things, trading, choosing, taking away….

I will get some photos of interpreters in the new knitted goods and share them with you. Thanks again.

So many people answered our call for volunteer knitters that we have used up our yarn budget for the year. If you’d like to knit, or you’d like to knit some more, let me know and I’ll put your name on our knitters list for next year. Next winter I’ll order more yarn and send out kits again.

Lace samples have arrived from Mary D, Norma B and Carolyn W. They are all just beautiful. I hope to have good news soon about scheduling lace making.

To order a kit for either the embroidery or the lace, send an email to Kathy at kroncarati@plimoth.org or call her at 508-746-1622 X 8114. Kits are $40 each plus $5 for shipping. Included in the $40 is a $20 tax-deductible donation which directly supports the project. For more information, you can email me at jhall@plimoth.org or leave a comment.

May be sent to

Plimoth Plantation

c/o Kim Corben, Development

PO Box 1620

Plymouth, MA 02362

Please write on your check or enclose with your contribution a note saying:

“Restricted to Embroidered Jacket Project” or something to that effect.

And thank you so much for asking!

Cheryl asked how much we need. I will sweep together the estimates and let you know in dollars, but here’s a list of expenses.

Every time we have an embroidery session we need to buy food supplies. It is most cost effective, not to mention most delicious to have Marcia cooking for us, we spend much less than if we bought food through a restaurant, but depending on number of participants and number of days we need $200-400.

We need to buy some supplies for the lace making; pins, prickers, cards for the prickings and some other things.

We need to buy the silver and gold for the teardrop spangles.

We need to buy the gold and silver threads for the lace.

We’ll need more GST, especially the first three colors - bisse, carnation and redde.

These are just materials costs; I’ll have to look up the figures on what we allowed (in the grant application) for a hired embroideress for the vines. Plus, I’m sure I’m forgetting something….

Ah, yes, I was just reminded about buying the sequins, the little round bits that’ll be sewn onto the cloth itself. (These were and, I think, still are made by coiling a wire and smacking it sharply to flatten it, Susan. The teardrop ones, though, were punched out of a flat piece of metal, almost a metal ribbon. The historic spangles themselves told us, by the striations visible at high magnification, by the ‘burls’ on the edges of the spangle and the edge of the hole, and by the irregular spangles, the ones punched too close to the edge of the ribbon or too close to their neighbor spangle. That’s the abridged version, but more will be coming soon, and with photos.)

Tricia has promised more blogs, including instructions for the plaited braid stitch and more on the teardrop spangle quest. I have on hand a few more blogs written by Wendy on spangle history, teardrop and other shapes, and I will start with those tomorrow, hopefully.

See you then.

Tricia writes:

Good Question. Jill has been asking me this question about once a month recently. I keep pretending I don’t hear her.

Of all the elements of the jacket, the vines are the only one that all touch. When it is continuous like that, it is hard to cover up the differences between stitchers. This is a really hard one; I don’t think anyone is prepared to do the entire jacket. Honestly, I had an arm injury three years ago that keeps me from intense stitching (especially anything with time pressure). I need help on this one.

Our plan A was to hire an expert (already identified) to stitch most of the vines in about three weeks and augment with one or two other people (volunteers like myself). But then the grant we were counting on was delayed and might not come until after the jacket is finished, so we have been shoe-stringing this project. Now it is time for plan B.

I can say that we should have a very small group stitch this part of the jacket to keep the uniformity needed to make it look really good. Now how to find that group of people. I would love to hear from those reading the blog with ideas. Is anyone interested in sample kits to try out for this little team? How about a fundraiser to pay for the labor? I am open to suggestions. Email them to me at tricia@alum.mit.edu

Tricia

Boy do I love this blog. I couldn’t find my notes on how much gold thread we needed and then remembered that we blogged about it! Sometimes you might read the blog and wonder why we go through all this detail and mindless calculations. Well, this is a perfect example. Not only did I find my answer, but also my estimation calculations and so I had confidence in the number.

1000 meters. Quite a bit of gold. Our friends at Au Ver a Soie found a cone of silk in a dark gold that fit Bill’s requirements. It is due to arrive here in the US this week and then it is off to England for a second spinning trial. Please don’t ask why this multiple ocean hopping is necessary, it really is the most efficient way at this point with all the language, currency, and industry differences. Trust me, I wish it were easier too.

When we did the stitching trials, I felt that the experimental thread was just slightly thicker than the No. 5 passing size that seemed to work a little better. We were willing to abandon the silk core but Bill really wants to give it one more try. He will reduce the number of ends of silk that are in the core from three to two. We will see if that makes it flexible and a bit thinner - but not too thin. Stay tuned!

Tricia

Tricia writes:

Before we get lots of questions, I thought I would add a blog about what needles we will use for the goldwork. You can see in this picture a #8 embroidery needle and something called a #10 Japanese needle.

In the 1600’s needle eyes were being made by both stamping and boring. Stamped eyes tend to be long ovals with burrs of metal inside where the two halves of the stamp come together. The bored eyes are drilled out and the eye is left smooth and round or oval shaped. There is more to this - but this is it in a nutshell.

There is some scant evidence from German needlemaking documents that goldwork was being done with egg-eyed needles. I have been working with historians/needle experts in Germany trying to find conclusive evidence for this hypothesis in relation to 16th-17th century English embroidery. Certainly I have found that using a needle of this description is the difference between a good experience and not being able to work with these metal threads at all. We do have evidence that needles that look like this were being made at this time frame.

I discovered this in the late 90’s when I was attending Japanese Embroidery classes (Kurenai-Kai) and had recently been studying a goldwork jacket at the MFA. It hit me that the Japanese handmade needles would be great for taking thick gold threads through the linen. I tried and found it worked great. Before that I had resisted teaching these types of stitches, as it was just too hard with conventional needles.

Artisans using ancient techniques make the Japanese needles. I know of one maker. If anyone out there is familiar with other makers in Japan or other countries, I would be very interested in hearing about them as the supply is sometimes difficult to get in the USA in bulk. There are twelve sizes available from the artisan that supplies Kurenai-Kai. Being hand made, they are also quite expensive - over $10 each. You try never to loose one! I have had the same set now for over 28 years.

Tricia