Ready to Start on William Marshall…
Having spent some time in my stash, deciding that mixing even filament silks might be a bit unpredictable, I finally pulled myself together and placed an order with Devere Yarns. While I waited for them to arrive (it didn’t take long), I went back to Tanya’s book and read the early technique sections again. Homework is always more fun when you’re interested.
I do have some darks left over from the Amarna Family Group, so the outlining is sorted. I’ve got three stone colours, three shades for William’s armour, three greens for grass, three shades for the horse, the three heraldic colours for the shield, and a blue for the slate roofs on the turrets.
The blue is probably also going to be the colour I use for the border.
The Victorians remodelled Temple Church, where William is buried, found a strapping six-footer that they believed – based on what we’ve been told of him – to be William, and in due course, reburied him, and everyone else they’d moved, in the garden. So I’m planning a silk border, of blue laid-&-couched work, embellished with roses (for the garden) and common broom (for the Plantagenet kings he served so faithfully).
The grave slab is shown in a leaflet I got when we visited, which is no longer in existence, but is shown in an engraving from the 17th Century, and was thought to be associated with William. The lion looks right, anyway! I’m wondering whether to include that in my design for the border in some way, and if so, in what orientation..
the grave slab – how about two, both upright, one top ssleft and the other bottom right to punctuate the flowers?
The slightly decorated cross from the stone would make a useful divider for the floral edges – either in the four corners or in the centre of the sides. (You already have the shield in the main picture.) The silk looks inspiring.
Oh this is going to be fun to watch, those silks look sumptuous. I hadn’t heard of Devere Yarns as a supplier of deliciousness, will pop them in my favourites folder just in case.
I think the grave slab image, being quite large, might clash visually with the central image, though the crosses in each corner would make a nice punctuation as Sue suggests. The floral theme for the border sounds beautiful.
I assume you’re seen Elizabeth Chadwick’s 2017 blog post about William? There are some rather nice quotes about his time in Normandy.
https://elizabethchadwick.com/blog/celebrating-the-life-of-william-marshal/
Could you decide on the border later? Devere yarns rang a bell with me, I think it must be from when I did a City & Guilds embroidery course.
The silks look delicious. Will enjoy watching your progress on this one.
Beautiful threads! Looking forward to this developing and what you think about the silk threads.
I’m looking forward to seeing this develop.
Love those threads. I think it pays to take time over their selection.