After a few emails, we decided we would work together on a large scale blackwork project in Italy.
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Blackwork designs (covering your body with massive, black-tinted areas), are influenced by Polynesian tattoos as well as graphic art.
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Currently, Roudaut is a big fan of the young artist Strange Dust, who he says does beautiful black ink work (blackwork).
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One daring (and probably time consuming) style is the blackwork tattoo — a technique that covers the skin completely with thick, black ink.
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His delicate blackwork tattoos, which draw on Venetian lace and Victorian jewelry for their intricate patterns, make that goal seem perfectly reasonable.
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Roudaut is also into guys like Nikki Bold and Olivier Poinsignon, two artists with unique styles based on geometry, blackwork, and the tattoo's position on the body.
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Counted stitch blackwork, 1530s (left), and free stitch blackwork, 1590s (right). Blackwork, sometimes historically termed Spanish blackwork, is a form of embroidery generally using black thread, although other colors are also used on occasion.Leslie, Catherine Amoroso. "Blackwork" in Encyclopedia of Needlework Westport Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007; p.
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Pattern darning is also used as a filling stitch in blackwork embroidery.
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Blackwork embroidery in Holbein stitch. Detail of portrait of Jane Seymour by Hans Holbein the Younger, 1537. Holbein stitch is a simple, reversible line embroidery stitch most commonly used in Blackwork embroidery and Assisi embroidery. The stitch is named after Hans Holbein the Younger (1497-1543), a 16th-century portrait painter best known for his paintings of Henry VIII and his children, almost all of whom are depicted wearing clothing decorated with blackwork embroidery.
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19 Sometimes it is counted-thread embroidery which is usually stitched on even- weave fabric. Traditionally blackwork is stitched in silk thread on white or off-white linen or cotton fabric. Sometimes metallic threads or coloured threads are used for accents. Scarletwork is like blackwork, except it is sewn with red thread.
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Tattoo artist Brücius with a client Brücius is an American born tattoo artist specializing in blackwork tattoos with a preference for fine lines and etchings.
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Blackwork embroidery of the 1530s (left) and 1590s (right). Pattern books for geometric embroidery and needlelace were published in Germany as early as the 1520s. These featured the stepped, angular patterns characteristic of early blackwork, ultimately deriving from medieval Islamic Egypt. These patterns, seen in the portraits of Hans Holbein the Younger, were worked over counted threads in a double running stitch (later called Holbein stitch by English embroiderers).
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Black embroidery silk from outside England, such as Spain, contained less iron in the black dye and so blackwork worked using non-English silk tends to survive in better condition.
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Forte's designs are inspired by sacred geometry and underlying mathematical principles found in nature, and additionally by ancient cosmology, tribal and spiritual art. Forte uses blackwork and dot work tattooing techniques.
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Borgoña's Lady with Hare wears a chemise embroidered at the neckline and on the sleeves, c. 1505, Toledo. Historically, blackwork was used on shirts and chemises or smocks in England from the time of Henry VIII. The common name "Spanish work" was based on the belief that Catherine of Aragon brought many blackwork garments with her from Spain, and portraits of the later 15th and early 16th centuries show black embroidery or other trim on Spanish chemises.
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Conrad's designs have been published in New Stitches Magazine, The Needleworker, Classic Stitches, Needlecraft, Cross- Stitch Gold, and FineLines. He also wrote a section focused on blackwork embroidery in the book The Essential Guide to Embroidery, published in 2002 ().
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Levey and King, The Victoria and Albert Museum's Textile Collection Vol. 3: Embroidery in Britain from 1200 to 1750, p. 16 and 66 Slip motifs are also seen in blackwork embroidery, worked in silk, and in Jacobean embroidery and crewel embroidery in silk and wool.
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Waters specialises in textile arts and techniques, such as embroidery. Waters’ blackwork is considered her signature technique. In her PhD thesis, she used textile arts to explore family genealogy. Her works have been described as deeply conceptual, witty, and using humble needlework to encompass worlds of concern.
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On these were laid blackwork, partly smelted ore about half a yard thick. Then came ten or twelve trees called shankards. On top of these three or four courses of fire trees were laid with fresh ore. This was ignited and burnt for about 48 hours.
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A versatile stitch which is easy to work, backstitch is ideal for following both simple and intricate outlines and as a foundation row for more complex embroidery stitches such as herringbone ladder filling stitch. Although superficially similar to the Holbein stitch, which is commonly used in blackwork embroidery, backstitch differs in the way it is worked, requiring only a single journey to complete a line of stitching. Basic backstitch is the stitch used to outline shapes in modern cross-stitch, in Assisi embroidery and occasionally in blackwork. Stem stitch is an ancient technique; surviving mantles embroidered with stem stitch by the Paracas people of Peru are dated to the first century BCE.
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Leon Conrad is a British embroidery designer known particularly for historically-styled blackwork embroidery designs. In 1997, Conrad founded the New Elizabethans embroidery arts group. He has participated in over 20 exhibitions and has taught at embroidery seminars in the UK and the United States. He is married to Tanya Conrad.
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French dresses were known as marlottes. In Italy, dresses were known as ropa and semarra. Dresses in the 16th century also displayed surface decoration such as embroidery, with blackwork being especially popular. Women's dresses in Russia during both the 16th and 17th centuries identified a woman's place in society or their family.
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Henry's clothes and surroundings are ornate, with the original painting using gold leaf to highlight the opulence. The detailed blackwork embroidery is especially notable. He wears an array of jewellery including several large rings and a pair of necklaces. His large codpiece and heavily padded shoulders further enhance the aggressive masculinity of the image.
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The monochrome works are classified as blackwork embroidery even when worked in other colours; red, crimson, blue, green, and pink were also popular.Levey 1993, pp. 16–17 Outer clothing and furnishings of woven silk brocades and velvets were ornamented with gold and silver embroidery in linear or scrolling patterns, applied bobbin lace and passementerie, and small jewels.Arnold 1985, pp.
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In recent years Holbein stitch has become fashionable again, along with modern blackwork and modern Assisi embroidery. Formality has given way to a more light-hearted approach, and motifs include cute cats and other cartoon-style animals. Classic map samplers and chessboard designs have also been updated, and the use of colours is much more imaginative and daring.
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The general trend towards abundant surface ornamentation in the Elizabethan Era was expressed in clothing, especially amongst the aristocracy in England. Shirts and chemises were embroidered with blackwork and edged in lace. Heavy cut velvets and brocades were further ornamented with applied bobbin lace, gold and silver embroidery, and jewels.Arnold, Janet: Patterns of Fashion: the cut and construction of clothes for men and women 1560–1620, Macmillan 1985.
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Lester, Katherine and Rose Kerr, "Historic Costume" Chas. A. Bennett Co., Inc. Peoria, IL, 1967, page 105 Small geometric patterns appeared early in the period and, in England, evolved into the elaborate patterns associated with the flowering of blackwork embroidery. German shirts and chemises were decorated with wide bands of gold trim at the neckline, which was uniformly low early in the period and grew higher by midcentury.
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A. J. B. Wace "debunked" the Spanish origin in the 1930s, but if the black trim on these chemises from the 1470s is embroidery that would support an early Spanish origin Black embroidery was known in England before 1500. Geoffrey Chaucer in the Canterbury Tales describes the clothing of the miller's wife, Alison: "Of white, too, was the dainty smock she wore, embroidered at the collar all about with coal-black silk, alike within and out." Blackwork in silk on linen was the most common domestic embroidery technique for clothing (shirts, smocks, sleeves, ruffs, and caps) and for household items such as cushion covers throughout the reign of Elizabeth I, but it lost its popularity by the 17th century. (See also 1550–1600 in fashion.) Historic blackwork embroidery is rare to find well-preserved, as the iron-based dye used was corrosive to the thread, and there are currently no conservation techniques that can stop the decay.
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Elizabeth I wears a blackwork chemise and partlet and a gown embroidered with gold thread and studded with pearls. The Phoenix Portrait by Nicholas Hilliard, c. 1575–76 The second great flowering of English embroidery, after Opus Anglicanum, took place in the reign of Elizabeth I.Digby 1964, p. 21 Although the majority of surviving English embroidery from the medieval period was intended for church use, this demand decreased radically with the Protestant Reformation.
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Assisi work uses a method known as voiding in which cross-stitch fills the background while the motif itself is left blank. Holbein stitch, a style of linear blackwork, is used to outline and emphasize the motif and to create surrounding decorative scrollwork.Catherine Amoroso Leslie, Needlework Through History (London and Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007), pp. 19-22. Traditionally, Assisi embroidery was rarely executed in cross- stitch but was most often in long-armed cross-stitch.
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Counted- thread embroidery is more easily worked on an even-weave foundation fabric such as embroidery canvas, aida cloth, or specially woven cotton and linen fabrics. Examples include cross-stitch and some forms of blackwork embroidery. While similar to counted thread in regards to technique, in canvas work or needlepoint, threads are stitched through a fabric mesh to create a dense pattern that completely covers the foundation fabric. Examples of canvas work include bargello and Berlin wool work.
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This smelted lead, which ran down channels provided for the purpose and was cast into sows of about 11 hundredweight. A single firing produced 16 fothers of lead (about 18 tons) from 160 loads of ore (about 40 tons) and 30 tons of wood. Much of the ore was left incompletely smelted having become blackwork. Some of this was smelted in a foot-pump blown furnace, but some was left to be used when the bole was next fired.
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While traditionally needlepoint has been done to create a solid fabric, more modern needlepoint incorporates colored canvas, a variety of fibers and beadwork. Different stitching techniques also allow some of the unstitched, or lightly stitched, canvas to show through, adding an entirely new dimension to needlepoint work. Some of these techniques include "shadow" or "light" stitching, blackwork on canvas, and pattern darning. Needlepoint continues to evolve as stitchers use new techniques and threads, and add appliqué or found materials.
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The double cross- stitch, also known as a Leviathan stitch or Smyrna cross-stitch, combines a cross-stitch with an upright cross-stitch. Berlin wool work and similar petit point stitchery resembles the heavily shaded, opulent styles of cross-stitch, and sometimes also used charted patterns on paper. Cross-stitch is often combined with other popular forms of embroidery, such as Hardanger embroidery or blackwork embroidery. Cross-stitch may also be combined with other work, such as canvaswork or drawn thread work.
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Detail of the brocaded velvet. Eleanor is depicted wearing a formal gown over a camisa or smock of linen trimmed with narrow bands of blackwork embroidery at the neck and sleeve ruffles. Bronzino's painting captures the dimensionality of the brocaded silk velvet fabric in the gown with its loops of gold-wrapped thread and black pile arabesques against a white satin ground. Clothing made of such rich textiles was reserved for official occasions and was not typical of Eleanor's everyday wardrobe, which featured solid-coloured gowns of velvets and satins.
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24 St. Osyth was known for her intricate embroidery skills. On one occasion she constructed a small wooden box, embroidered on the lid were Mary, Queen of Scots, Elizabeth I and Anne Boleyn, all copies of portraits in the National Portrait Gallery in London. The likeness to the original portrait of Mary Queen of Scots is very striking, right down to the stitched blackwork detail on the chemise. Perhaps it was this 'royal' connection that caught the eye of one of Queen Mary's ladies-in-waiting who saw Mrs Wood's work in an arts and crafts exhibition in Blakeney, Norfolk, in the 1950s.
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Twists or Torsade, threads made of multiple strands of metal twisted together are also sometimes used, some of which, such as Soutache, sometimes have different colored metals or colored non-metal threads twisted together. These are either couched like passing, with the couching thread visible, or with the thread angled with the twist to make it invisible. In addition, paillettes or spangles (sequins of real metal), small pieces of appliqued rich fabric or kid leather, pearls, and real or imitation gems are commonly used as accents, and felt or string padding may be used to create raised areas or texture. Silk thread work in satin stitch or other stitches is often combined with goldwork, and in some periods goldwork was combined with blackwork embroidery as well.
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