The Thomasteppich project the embroidery frame

One of the other prerequisites for embroidering a large tapestry is that you also need a large embroidery frame. We liked to make an embroidery frame based on historic evidence (read images) and have used the fresco Triumph of Minerva as a basis. Bram and I have made two frames from beech, because this wood does not splinter. They are wide enough to rest on two trestles, while Anne or Katinka sit between the trestles working on it. While the final trestles are not yet ready, the frames are (and are in use). We have made the frame flexible in size: the long rails can move through mortises in the short rails and fixed with pins at any size. At each end of the long rails are blocks (also with mortise and pin) holding a roller where the excess linen of the (embroidered) tapestry can be wound. The long rails measure 88 x 3.5 x 1 cm; the short rails are 70 x 3.5 x 3.5 cm. The current workspace of the frame, measured from the rows of holes is 68 x 58 cm. The holes (for tensioning the canvas) have a diameter of 2.5 mm and are 1 cm apart from each other. The complete frame was waxed afterwards.

The unwaxed embroidery frame with the linen canvas loosely fitted over it. Only one of the side rollers is attached here.

Detail of the mortise with pin.

With the frame ready, the linen had to be tensioned on the frame. As our tapestry is longer than our frame, the method of tensioning is slightly different from what is shown in medieval images (which show smaller embroidery pieces). We had to fix the linen to the short rails, while the remaining linen was wound on the side rollers. To protect the canvas against to much force of the tensioning threads we used a thicker thread (see photo). The long rail could be tensioned as normal.

Two embroiderers at work transferring the image to the linen. You can clearly see the way how the canvas is tensioned to the frame. Image from the book Embroiderers by K. Staniland from the British Museum Press.

Preparing the tensioning of the canvas to the frame. First the short sides were fixed, then the remaining long sides.

Fixing on the short side, using an extra thick thread to protect the linen against to much force of the (black) fixation thread.

 The long rail tensioned normally in a V-like manner.

The ladies Anne and Katinka at work on the Thomasteppich in Eindhoven and Castle Doornenburg, respectively.

Winding spools

For ease of use, we have rewound the woollen hanks onto spools. During medieval times child labour was common. Thus, our (and visiting) children were employed to wind the spools.

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Progress on the Thomasteppich June July 2013

We have taken one photograph each day when Anne did something with her part of the Thomasteppich and turned these into a small video. Anne first outlined the scene in black and then started filling the parts with the coloured wool.

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Progress on the Thomasteppich August 2013 May 2014

 Anne and Katinka at work on the Thomasteppich in April 2014.

Like the previous progress report on the Thomasteppich embroidery project, I have made a photo for most of the days during August 2013 till May 2014 when Anne did something with her part of the Thomasteppich, and turned these into another small video.

Of course not only Anne worked on the tapestry. Also Katinka made an enormous progress...

 Left: Katinkas part of the tapestry in 2013, and right in April 2014.

Also interesting to see is the back of the tapestry. Only tiny stitches appear at the back of the frame, most of the wool is present at the front of the tapestry. The medieval klosterstitch used has two purposes: it saves weight and expensive wool.

 The front and back of the tapestry in August 2013.

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St Thomasteppich visited by St Thomasguild

The most memorable and impressive event during our visit to Wienhausen (Germany) was the visit to the Thomasteppich or Saint Thomas-tapestry in Kloster Wienhausen. We had made a special appointment with the convent as the tapestries are normally not on display at that time of year (They are in June, during the tapestry weeks). The Thomasteppich is very special for us, as Saint Thomas is the patron saint of our guild, and the tapestry is made in the same decennium as we re-enact: the late 14th century (1370-1380). We were warmly welcomed by the konventualinnen and received answers to our many questions on details of the construction and the tapestry, while our children were kept busy with drawing materials.

The Thomasteppich is a large tapestry, it measures 2.05 by 4.46 meter. The tapestry originally had been even larger, as a small part of the right side and the top has been cut off. Some fragments of the top still remain the depot, which we did not see.

 This image of the Thomasteppich is taken from the blog Medieval arts and crafts and the book Kloster Wienhausen by Horst Appuhn. 1986. ISBN 978-3980131605.
 

Construction of the Thomas tapestry

The tapestry is made in the so-called Klosterstich (cloisterstich, see Racaires blog for a detailed pdf handout on this technique) embroidered in wool on rough linen. The klosterstich is a very economical embroidery technique: most of the woollen threads are at the front and only a small amount is at the back of the linen. The wool itself is a S-turned thread twined of two two z-turned threads. The embroidered wool completely covers the linen (unlike the Bayeux tapestry). The linen background consists of several bands which were stiched together, when the embroidery of these bands was finished. In the tapestry museum in Wienhausen this stitching can be seen on some other tapestry fragments, were parts of the embroidery have gone.

This type of woollen tapestry was entirely made within the cloister: the design, the drawing of the design on the linen with special ink and the embroidery were all done by the nuns. But also the making of the linen, the spinning and colouring of the wool (the right side of the tapestry shows a spinning nun and one working flax) was done by them. And finally, even the use of the finished tapestry was restricted to the convent. Once finished, re-enforcement bands were stitched to the back of the tapestry, such that it could  hang safely.

More than one nun worked on the embroidery, though it is not known who worked on the Thomasteppich. On some tapestries individual styles can be distinguished, proving that more nuns worked on a piece. Tapestries took several years to embroider, but also the preparatory work took a year.

The colours used in the Thomasteppich are a bit faded, but for a more than 600 year old tapestry they are still bright. The only colour that has suffered through the ages is the black, which is nearly gone due to the oxidation of the iron. This means that there is little detail on the faces, eyes, nor any accents in the folding of the clothes. Colours used for the Thomasteppich are yellow, red, pink, bluegreen, yellowgreen, dark blue, metal blue, brown, dark grown, beige, lila, natural, and black.

Images of klosterstich and the backside of the Bartholomeuslaken from the book by Tanja Kohwagner-Nikolai "per manus sororum.." Niedersachsische Bildstickereien im Klosterstich (1300-1583). Martin Meidenbauer Verlag, 2006. ISBN 978-3-89975-082-9.

Details of the tapestry

The Saint Thomas tapestry describes the life of the apostle Thomas (doubting Thomas) based on the apocryphal book of Thomas, which tale later became included in the Legenda aurea. The scenes are presented in three rows with two rows of text in old-German, which is very similar to old-Dutch, between them (the text is also likely the place where the linen bands are connected). 

The clothing style, except for Thomas and Christ, is like that in the mid/late 14th century. One can notice the hood, the male cotehardies with many buttons and the female cotehardy with streamers hanging from the arms. The important persons, such as the king wear mi-parti hoses. The knight on the horse is wearing a bascinet with a movable visor, a popular helmet at that time.

In the corners of the tapestry were four shields with coats of arms. Two of them are still complete, of the third only remains a part, and the fourth is missing  Coats of arms on these woollen tapestries were often connected with donors or the abbess, prioress or noble ladies in the convent. It is however not clear to whom the heraldic symbols on the Thomas teppich belong. The griffin (black on a yellow shield) has been suggested to belong to the Earl of Wolgast, but the colours are different and the shield is halved. The lion (blue on yellow shield) could represent Luneburg, but the hearts on the yellow background are missing. The black and yellow striped shield could represent the Family Pallandt.

All detail images from the Thomasteppich were scanned from the tapestry image in the book by Pia Wilhelm "Kloster Wienhausen band III - Die Bildteppiche. Starting from top right and continuing clockwise are: the Indian king and his brother wearing a mi-parti hose; two court members wearing buttoned cotehardies and low-hip knightly belts. The person on the right also wears a hood with a long liripipe. The feet of the hose have pointy toes, also becoming more popular during this time; Next, the female playing the musical instrument has streamers; Finally the knight with the bascinet with aventail and klappvisor. 

Use of the tapestry 

The woollen tapestries were used as hangings on walls and as screens to divide rooms (e.g. the church /choir).  Tapestries also served as Memoria, items to help to remember - not only the life of the saint  depicted on the tapestry, but also that of the abbess who ordered the tapestry and its embroiderers, for which it served as a way to conquer death. The legend of Thomas on the tapestry does not strictly follow the official Legenda aurea. The last scene is from the legend as told by Hermann von Fritzlar (a 14th century German mystic), where Saint Thomas returns from the death at Eastern to spend the communion with the faithfull.  

The Thomasteppich is connected to the holy blood (Thomas touched the wound in the side of Christ and as such the blood of Christ) and as such to the cult of the "shrine of the holy sepulchre" in Wienhausen. The Thomas tapestry also links with the ritual of the oblatio, the entrance in the cloister, where the nuns became brides to Christ: Saint Thomas converted some maidens to the Christian faith and they decided to live a celibate life, like the nuns of Wienhausen. The angry husbands forced the Saint  to worship at a heathen temple, which resulted in its destruction and the death of Thomas by the sword of the priest (3rd row, 4th scene on the tapestry). All in all this provides plenty opportunity to display and use the tapestry during appropriate Christian rites.  

Dragons are vegetarians

Is the dragon in the lower left corner of the tapestry a vegetarian? If you look at the the decorative dragons on the tapestry they seem to be eating plants! You can clearly distinguish a leave on the stem at which they are gnawing.

Information on the Saint Thomas tapestry was kindly provided by one of the conventualinnen of Kloster Wienhausen,  as well as from the books "Kloster Wienhausen band III - Die Bildteppiche" by Pia Wilhelm and "per manus sororum..." Niedersachische Bildstickereien im Klosterstich (1300-1583) by Tanja Kaohwagner-Nikolai.

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Thomasteppich wool has arrived

Today we received a parcel from Renaissance dying from France containing the wool hanks for the Saint Thomas tapestry project. It is amazing that all the kilometres of wool fit it a relatively small parcel. How many sheep would have given the wool for our tapestry? Anyway, Anne has started already embroidering with the colours.

The parcel with the wool hanks for the tapestry.

 

All the 12 colours for the tapestry, plus some extra. First row: ivory, light gold, dark brown, mid corn, black. Second row: dark red, golden yellow, orange, mid brown, cinnamon, mid blue grey, dark peach. Third row: dark blue, medium blue, light beech green, dark green.

Anne is using the first colour (light beech green) on a tree on the second row of the tapestry.

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Progress on the Thomasteppich May July 2014

Like the previous progress report on the Thomasteppich embroidery project, I have made a photo for most of the days from May till July 2014 when Anne did something with her part of the Thomasteppich, and turned these into another small video.

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Thomasteppich the first panel finished!

Last weekend we were at the historic open air museum in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. While the men of the St.Thomasguild did all the hard work, the ladies were very busy embroidering. But with results! The first panel of the tapestry was finished; and the second one is nearly finished as well!

It was indeed hard labour for the men of the St. Thomasguild ...

  The first panel finished. Details and faces that were also on the original tapestry, but have disappeared (or better faded) through time.

Katinkas panel is also nearing completion. At the end of the day she only needed to do a small piece of green and the details of the faces.

With the first panel finished Anne moved the canvas roll to the next the next scene of the Thomasteppich: St. Thomas spending the money for the Kings palace to the poor and his imprisonment. But there was a surprise! We we unrolled the canvas it became apparent that some years ago Anne already had outlined some of the scenes and windows with black wool. The new canvas panel was fastened again with extra thick thread (as shown in a previous post in July 2013) at the short sides first, followed by the long sides. The tensioning is necessary, as embroidery will cause the canvas to "shrink". When we measured both the embroidered panel and the unembroidered canvas, a difference of 1 cm had occurred. This difference would have been much larger without tensioning of the canvas.

  

The next scene is unfurled ... with already some embroidery on it!

First the short sides of the frame are attached to the frame, followed by the long side. Note that the thread is first attached in the middle of the frame.

The second panel at the end of the weekend. One the left side, a horse of the first panel is watching the new scene. You can also see the difference in height of the embroidered and unembroidered piece.

Do you think we get some apples at the end of the day? No, Thomas will surely give them to the poor - as always

Sire, I have seen Thomas cheating on you with your gold. You must take care of this untrustworthy unbeliever "I will send my noble knight to seize him!

Here rides the gallant knight on his noble quest, to imprison the vile stinkard Thomas.

 

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Progress on the Thomasteppich August 2014 April 2015

Anne embroidering in the great hall of castle Hernen. The beautiful sun rays were created by the smoke of coming from the fireplace in the next room which had a badly working chimney. Photo made by Geldersch Landschap en Kastelen.

Like the previous progress report on the Thomasteppich embroidery project, I have made a photo for most of the days from August 2014 to April 2015 when Anne did something with her part of the Thomasteppich, and turned these into another small video. During winter time not much was done on the teppich as we were working on our new house. However, the first panels of the tapestry are nearly finished, both that of Anne and Katinka.

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The Thomasteppich project

As the Saint Thomasguild, we have the ambitious plan to recreate a Thomasteppich after the 14th century original in kloster Wienhausen, Germany, in klosterstich. Our plan is to make a smaller version, 1.20 m by 2.40 instead of the 2 m by 4 m of the original. It is still a daunting task to undertake by Anne and Katinka. Yesterday we have started with the transfer of the scenes of the Thomasteppich on the linen cloth. We will use three rows, one for each row of scenes. Finally the rows will be sewn together as well the outer border. Whereas the life of St. Thomas will be unchanged to the original, the outer border will be changed to something more appropriate to our trade - woodworking - and city - Nimweghen. Also the text will slightly change from old German to old Dutch, which are in fact very similar languages.  

 First, the basic lines are set on the linen with a ruler and pencil

 Bram is busy drawing Saint Thomas.

The tree on the first scene of the tapestry.

Saint Thomas of the first scene.

At the moment we are still looking for the correct wool to use for the embroidery. We have tried the Appleton 2-thread embroidery wool, but this was found to thin for our use. DMC wool is much thicker but it is only available in strands of a few metres while we need hundreds of meters for the tapestry. If anyone can recommend a specific brand or type of wool suitable for our tapestry, we would be very happy.

On the left of the eastern wall  of the Palazzo Schifanoia (Ferrara, Italy) the Triumph of Minerva has been painted by Francesco Cossa, 1476-1484. On the right side of the fresco a woman is busy with an embroidery frame on simple trestles accompanied by other women doing needlework and weaving.

As woodworkers we will of course make the embroidery frames and trestles ourselves. They will likely look like the frame held by the embroidering lady on the Italian fresco shown above.

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