Learning Lacis

Lady Amalia von Hohensee, Barony of Stonemarche 
https://wiki.eastkingdom.org/index.php?title=Amalia_von_Hohense

When it became clear that I might have some extra time on my hands, I decided to use this as an opportunity to finally come to terms with the category of the Athena’s Thimble embroidery guild that has been my nemesis for years: lacis. Thanks to a beginning lacis class taught by THL Agnes berengarii de girona, this method of making embroidered lace finally started to make sense.

Lacis is a curious form of both lacemaking and embroidery that forms pixelated designs through the use of a network embellished with needlewoven threads. Traditionally, the netted background associated with lacis is made from a knotted net that descended from fishing nets, while woven nets, known as buratto, descended from the strong woven gauze used in Italy for sieving flour.

For my first stab at the technique, I  used a pattern from Agnes’s class, a peacock based on several period examples.

Once I had figured out some of the basics, I decided to try my hand at copying a delightful design from the Met Museum collection, accession number 08.180.432.

To make the design into a usable piece, I added a mirror image of this design to create two dueling knights, which will eventually become a chalice cover.