Underside couching of silk thread

I don’t have the drapery of clothes to deal with in my mermaid image, but I will when I come to do the Waterloo artilleryman.  I’m thinking the discovery that you can create the illusion of folds in fabric with underside couching has given me a lot of food for thought.

When looking at medieval images and their language of stitchery, what strikes me most is the mini stage-set of their designs, that convey spiritual sensibilities alongside human endeavour.

St Cuthbert is a figure that has interested me for a long time, especially as iconography connected to him and his life is essentially Celtic.  Here’s an interesting image, not a million miles from my WIP.

It’s fascinating how succinctly they deal with the treatment of the sea.  As a sinuous, essentially triangular shape, it conveys the heaving, perilous, all- about-you -waiting-to-swallow you up feeling as a description of the dangerous and precarious journey these travellers took.  Faith amidst uncertainty is the underlying message.

Pre and post Reformation, St Cuthbert’s tomb still attracts countless pilgrims to visit the Holy island of Lindisfarne.  In fact the name alone ‘Lindisfarne’ holds deep significance in English culture along with the other very famous spiritual island called Iona.

English people feel a connection and reverence for those places, that crosses all borders and generations.  Essentially they represent the early, pure form of Christianity, fresh out of Israel, before being overtaken by the power of Rome.

The manuscripts, relics, jewellery and carvings made by monks and nuns from those times in England are deeply cherished in English culture and the wider Anglo Saxon community.

Cuthbert, although an Anglo Saxon himself, maintained a profound affinity with the graphic preoccupation of Celtic spirals and mind-boggling interlacing and the sense of continuity that reinforced whilst transitioning the people to the new religion.

I like this image a lot....