Another museum piece.

Well, once again, I'm between being able to show you new work of mine.  So, today I'll show you one of the pieces that was in the recent exhibit at the Met.  This cloth totally blew me away on so many levels.  It is Accession Number 51.147, Cover Containing Animals and Floral Ornaments.   A beautiful linen piece, it is embroidered net (Lacis), cutwork and needle lace.

The lacis is incredibly fine.  I couldn't get the exact gauge, but it is easily 15 holes to the inch or more. In this shot you can also see some of the cutwork and some of the needle lace.


This happy dragon has some little friends -- any surprise I focused on the squirrels for a photo?




Some of the squares showed more wear than others, and there were a couple of places that showed probable repair, but overall the piece is beautifully preserved.

Here is a square of the needle lace, and a couple of the cutwork.  The lacis panels are larger squares, with these smaller squares making up borders.









It's a large piece, and was displayed in a manner which made it really easy to study.  It is so large, it took three photos to get the whole thing. There is a lot of material here for inspiration.

Even when I have a lengthy list of on decks projects I love taking time to look through photos, and search museum collections websites.  There is a creative energy trapped within those threads that flows and renews my energy, even for applying to completely different projects.  An hour with these images and I am usually revved up to get back to my needle and thread.