STITCH FOCUS | Bayeux

In this video I talk about a famous stitch that you may know under a number of different names including laid and couched work and Bayeux Stitch. I give a brief history of what we know about the stitch and then show how the stitch was worked.
Laid and couched work is famous because it appears on the 11th-century Bayeux Tapestry but there is one other early medieval embroidery that it was also stitched on, a fragment from the tomb of William de Calais (d. 1096), the first Norman Bishop of Durham. It is also found on Later Medieval embroideries, worked in both wool and silk threads.
Interested in making your own Bayeux Tapestry inspired embroidery using authentic materials? Check out kits at: alexandramakin.com/kits/
You can read more about the results of my analyses of the Bayeux Tapestry in:
‘The Front tells the Story; the Back tells the History: a technical discussion of the embroidering of the Bayeux Tapestry’, in Making Sense of the Bayeux Tapestry: Readings and Reworkings, which can be bought here:
www.waterstones.com/book/maki...
www.amazon.co.uk/Making-Sense...
‘Les six châteaux de la Tapisserie de Bayeux: Une discussion technique du travail de broderie de la Tapisserie de Bayeux’, in Sylvette Lemagnen, Shirley Ann Brown and Gale Owen-Crocker (eds.) L’Invention de la Tapisserie de Bayeux: naissance, composition et style d’un chef-d’œuvre médiéval (Colloque International), which can be bought at: www.amazon.com/Linvention-tap...
The Lost Art of the Anglo-Saxon World: the sacred and secular power of embroidery, which can be bought as an eBook or print copy: www.oxbowbooks.com/oxbow/the-...
www.amazon.co.uk/Lost-Art-Ang...
You can read about my analysis and interpretation of the embroidered fragments discovered in the tomb of William de Calais in: ‘The Embroidered Fragments from the Tomb of Bishop William of St Calais, Durham: an analysis and biography’, Gale R. Owen-Crocker and Maren Clegg Hyer (eds), Art and Worship in the Insular World, which can be bought as an eBook or print copy:
brill.com/view/title/60480
www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Worship-...
Other books mentioned in the video:
Traditional Icelandic Embroidery by Elsa E. Gudjónsson (Iceland Review; 1985).
The Art of Embroidery by Marie Schuette and Sigrid Müller-Christensen (Thames and Hudson; 1964).
Dr Jessica Grimm's post about Italian couching can be found on her blog at: www.jessicagrimm.com/blog/cat...
Picture credits
Bayeux Tapestry: with thanks and copyright Ville de Bayeux
The embroidered fragment from Røn: www.unimus.no/portal/#/photos...
The Clare Chasuble: collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O9...
Chasuble: collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O36...
Drawing of Oseberg Tapestry: www.khm.uio.no/english/visit-...
The folios from the Liber Eliensis (fK014v-f001r) can be found here: mss-cat.trin.cam.ac.uk/Manusc...
Dr Alexandra Makin
Early Medieval Embroidery
#embroidery #embroider #Bayeux #textiles #alexandramakin #stitch

[@Lee-ui3ix]

A fascinating lecture and demonstration of couching. Your comments during the stitching include details dear to an embroiderer's execution of couching. Mesmerizing.

[@EarlyMedievalEmbroidery]

Thank you so much!

[@mbzarl]

I love your mix of scholarship in presenting the history of the pieces and stitches you feature with well-presented demonstrations of how they were done.

[@EarlyMedievalEmbroidery]

Thank you so much! I'm really please that you enjoy the videos and how they're presented. It was one of my aims to try and get a balance between the history and the practical, so I'm glad I'm achieving it.

[@cerwelt]

Loved the birds singing in the background. It’s too hot here to work outside (107f).

[@EarlyMedievalEmbroidery]

Wow, that is hot! I think my body would shut down in those temperatures. Hopefully the birds and breeze music helped make you feel a little cooler.

[@indigohalf]

Thank you for this demonstration. I was completely mystified the first time I saw a picture of the Bayeux's back side!

[@EarlyMedievalEmbroidery]

I'm so pleased I've managed to de-mystify the back for you 😊

[@ibolyamolnar2707]

Thank you😊

[@EarlyMedievalEmbroidery]

I'm so pleased you enjoyed it

[@jeffvanlaningham8855]

Thank you very much. This is the exact stitch my kit calls for and I was having a hard time finding it on the internet because of the different names. They called it laid and couch stitch only and I had a dickens of a time ! Now I can proceed with my project in confidence thanks to you!

[@EarlyMedievalEmbroidery]

I'm so pleased to hear this. Good luck with your kit.

[@ashley1577]

This is fantastic! Thank you!

[@EarlyMedievalEmbroidery]

I'm so pleased you like it!

[@jfgbordados]

Thank you

[@EarlyMedievalEmbroidery]

More to come!

[@ottarsdatter]

Greetings from Arlington, Virginia. What kind of wool do you use? Years ago I fell in love with the BT and taught myself the stitches so I could work a tiny sample with Medicis wool (of blessed memory). I chose God's hand pointing down from a cloud, which amused me, and it turned out quite beautifully for a first effort. Later I traced the whole chickens-on-a-spear prandium scene (which also amused me) so I could make a larger sample. Then I went to Bayeux and discovered in the gift shop that I could have bought a kit and saved myself a lot of work. But I liked choosing my own colors and it will be spectacular piece if I ever finish it. Thank you for these fascinating videos!

[@EarlyMedievalEmbroidery]

Hello from the North West of England! Fortunately for me, I tend to go to Bayeux when the museum is officially closed so I can't buy anything from the shop. It' be very bad for my bank balance otherwise. I go to meetings and get to see the BT inside the case instead so I'm very lucky. It's funny that you've asked about the wool. I've actually just ordered some for my webshop, so if you watch this space, I'll make a short letting everyone know when it arrives. If you need / want more than the 25 metre skeins I can get hanks in stock as well, so just let me know. If you want specific colours too. It's a lovely soft merino hand dyed with natural dyes in France.

[@lignaquy]

Hello! I have discovered your page,it is amazing,I love this class,tks a Lot from Argentina!

[@EarlyMedievalEmbroidery]

Hello from the UK! I'm so glad you like the page.. Thanks for subscribing

[@zoes_story]

This was awesome, thanks!

[@EarlyMedievalEmbroidery]

So glad you like the video and found it interesting / useful

[@cerwelt]

Love this stitch. Perfect for basket work. I’m thinking it would be good for fences as well. I need to get my books on the Bayeaux tapestry out and check our the color differences on the horses. It seems they changed colors if the horses overlapped. Need to check out that theory.

[@EarlyMedievalEmbroidery]

Yes, they did. There are quite a few variations considering how few colours are used across the whole hanging.

[@lindamusic8476]

Does anyone have a recommended hoop stand? I've been holding my hoop and it is very hard on my arthritic hands. Seems like a stand would be helpful. I have ordered a couple of stands and they are too flimsy to hold the weight of the linen not in the hoop. Thank you.

[@EarlyMedievalEmbroidery]

Hi Linda, I'm so sorry to hear that holding your hoop is causing issues with your arthritic hands. I also understand what you're saying about the flimsy hoops. Personally, I use Elbesee hoops, which have a short pole (can't think of the right word, sorry) attached to them. These can then be inserted into an Elbesee seat frame / stand or one of their table clamps. I use both. Here's their website: elbesee.co.uk/index.html I don't think you can buy directly from them but you can explore their products and see if they'll work for you. I use both the seat and the table clamp and find them excellent. I really hope this helps, Alex

[@katienewell7350]

Thank you for another lovely video, I love your Stitch Focus ones! I noticed you have the inside of your embroidery hoop wrapped with what looks like cotton tape, is that to help prevent the ground fabric from getting sharp bent lines on it from the edge of the hoop? This was lovely to watch while finishing off my own Bayeux stitch project!

[@EarlyMedievalEmbroidery]

I'm so glad you like the Stitch Focus videos! I really enjoy putting them together because it makes me focus on each stitch in detail. Yes, I've bound the inner hoop with a cotton bias binding. I should have bound the outer hoop as well but I found that the binding is so thick that it meant I couldn't put the hoops together properly (shh, don't tell anyone). Its mainly to stop the fabric slipping in the hoop. I'm experimenting with a couple of different ideas to see which is best for stopping that sharp bend in the fabric. I'll keep you posted.

[@EarlyMedievalEmbroidery]

PS, love that you were stitching away on a Bayeux project!

[@katienewell7350]

@@EarlyMedievalEmbroidery Oooo I'll have to try that too! Thank you!

[@margarethastings6010]

Hi Just found your podcast and found it very relaxing and interesting, my daughter lives in France and took me to see the Bayeux Tapestry a few years ago, it is amazing, she also brought me a cross stitch kits of it, as I love cross stitching, I started doing it,but can’t figure out how to do the chain mail, on the men, can you help me as I want to do this as a gift to my husband and he keeps asking me how I’m getting on with it 🙈thank you for any help you can give me, now away to watch your other podcast.

[@EarlyMedievalEmbroidery]

Hi Margaret, I'm so glad you're enjoying the videos and finding them relaxing. The BT is amazing when you see it in really life isn't it. It seems more 'alive' if that makes sense. Photographs can flatten the stitching and texture quite a bit. Your kit - send me an email through the contacts page on my website: alexandramakin.com/contact/. We can then have a look at the kit, you'll need to send some pictures but I'll need to reply to your initial contact to enable you to do that. I would have thought it was possible because its in the kit but seeing it will make it easier (hopefully) for me help.

[@lauravivanco]

I suspect I'm missing something really obvious, but you say that the outlines were usually worked first but to let us see better you've started without them. I don't think you put them in at the end, so were the outlines done in outline stitch/stem stitch (I can't tell the two apart)?

[@EarlyMedievalEmbroidery]

Hi, no, I didn't do the outline in the end. They are worked in stem stitch. I thought I should have mentioned that after the video went live. In split stitch the previously worked stitch is split by the next one, whereas in stem stitch, the new stitch is brought up to one side of the previous worked stitch. This gives stem stitch a more rope-like effect and it can look slightly thicker. I will be doing Stitch Focus videos on these in the future :->

[@margarethastings6010]

Ps, just thinking, would it be easer to buy this as a tapestry rather than the cross stitch kit that I have

[@EarlyMedievalEmbroidery]

Lets see what the cross stitch kit looks like first and we can go from there. A

[@jeanninebellon9277]

Ce serai bien d’avoir les explications en francais

[@EarlyMedievalEmbroidery]

That's an idea! I will look into this. Unfortunately it may take a while because my French, much to my shame, is terrible. Give me time to learn and practice the phrases and I will endevour to upload a French version of the video. C'est une idée! Je vais examiner cela. Malheureusement, cela peut prendre un certain temps car mon français, à ma grande honte, est terrible. Donnez-moi le temps d'apprendre et de pratiquer les phrases et je m'efforcerai de télécharger une version française de la vidéo.

[@andreafulton7829]

😅

[@EarlyMedievalEmbroidery]

Yes, I know what you mean 😄