The Steeple Aston Cope

   
This is my Angel Embroidery .  The design taken from the 14th century Steeple Aston Cope .
 Opus Anglicanum means English Work , English embroidery of the church .   
  

The Steeple Aston Cope , it is thought , was made between 1310 and 1340 .

A beautifully embroidered , long semi-circular cape that is worn by bishop or priest , maybe in procession or during a ceremony . For a Holy Mass or Feast day . 

Here is a link to a brilliant video made by the V+A Mueseum of a virtual reconstruction of  how it originally would have looked as a Cope .

 https://youtu.be/bjMl9UNDGkw

 

Threads of linen and fine silk don't last forever . Beetles , woodworm , moths and mould .
 Seven hundred years of history . Wars , plagues , fire and floods , upheaval of the church and Cromwell's rampaging and plundering .

This precious treasure has been kept safe in the Church of St Peter and St Paul , in Steeple Aston for seven hundred years , either on the Altar or folded away in the Sacristy cupboard drawers .  

 

At some point in time , someone thought to make better use of it and cut it up to make an Altar Frontal and it must have been beautiful up on the Altar during mass .

  So for some time , it was left on display up on the Altar , but , it is said that the Vicar became aware that people were coming in and trying to snip off pieces from it . Shocking ! So he arranged for it to be kept safely , and sent it ,on loan , to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London .
  It was on display there quite recently in an Exhibition on medieval Opus Anglicanum  and now put away into safe storage . Good to know that it is being  kept safe for future generations to study and appreciate .

                                                    An Angel on horseback , playing a lute .

All of these pictures are of my embroidery interpretation of it and  my embroidery doesn't come anywhere near the excellence of the real thing .

 Opus Anglicanum was at it's very best during this period . Then came plague times and sadly these fine embroidery techniques were not passed down . 
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           Look at the sweet expression on the horse's face !  I fell in love !
......and on a small scrap of upholstery fabric I drew it on with my pencil and embroidered him with cotton and silk threads , a few gold threads and seed beads .

 I began to stitch and as I stitched , I found myself meeting the minds and thoughts of the medieval hands that originally drew and embroidered it .

 I looked forward to any odd minute that I could grab to sit and embroider it .

I didn't think I would do so much of it , or I would have used a larger piece of material .

I enjoyed making the tiny tassels on the horse bridle and across his chest I stitched a kind of braid, weaving it as I stitched .
 The halo around the Angel's head I stitched with gold threads .
The lute has playable strings !

                In both embroidery and illumination , I love the medieval sense of humour !
  

 This kind of English Ecclesiastical embroidery is known as Opus Anglicanum .

  I am uncomfortable about putting it in a frame.  I don't think it would look right somehow .

 I don't think medieval textiles were ever made to be displayed the way we do today , hung in a frame covered with glass . 

 

 Wall hangings were hung just as they were and Church vestments , albs, copes and altar cloths were worn and then stored carefully away in oak coffers in the Sacristy of the Church or Cathedral .

 I ,m thinking of working on it some more , out onto the green fabric and maybe make a devotional piece of some kind .
 

I hope you have enjoyed seeing  some of my needlework  . 

 Update - here is a link to the V+A Museum's page all about the Steeple Aston Cope - enjoy !

Just in case you were wondering.......

 I embroidered this about twenty years ago and I originally posted it onto my other blog which is mostly about gardening and other more general things .You may have seen it there . I am now gradually moving all my embroidery posts over , to this , my Cornish Needlework Basket journal  .                
                                Debbie x

Needle case Completed !

With Christmas fast approaching , I have really been working hard to get this little project completed which will be a gift for my mother ....and I am pleased to show it to you here .

I had to unpick the little rabbits head and re-stitch it, not sure if you can see in the other photos I,ve been posting , but it looked more like a donkey , so I just unpicked it and made his nose a little shorter . I love the way ,that with this kind of needle painting , you can just unpick and re-model so to speak .
 This Stag turned out much sweeter looking than the other one (which looked more like a Moose ! ). Mum loves all God's creatures , I know she will love these  .

....I found these gorgeous little wooden buttons in Truro Fabrics Store  the other day and thought I,d sew one inside as an extra little surprise for mum  .
I used a simple botton stitch around the edge of the felt cover , stitched a blooming fiddly loop to hold the little glass red berry bead .

 I found some maroon cord to tie around the centre of the needle case... just tied a knot and frayed out the cord to make a simple tassel . I was very pleased to find lots of pretty colours within the opened out cord , see top picture .
 As I am writing this I realise that I haven,t stitched in the scissor holder ....oh...no !
  It wont take long to stitch that in ....but other than that here it is completed now and ready to wrap ,n, send off in time for Christmas .
         Hope mum likes it !  : ) and enjoys gathering all her sewing bits and bobs to put inside it .

In a Medieval Mood

In July my husband had a yearning to play golf at Puckrup Hall in Tewkesbury so we timed it that we could go to the Medieval Festival .
 Very excited , I had bought my beautiful green woollen ,linen lined kirtle back in February , it fits like a glove , so comfortable  ...but I hadn't taken into consideration that it might actually be quite warm in the summer ......  and it was ...32 degrees as it turned out . So my husband took these photos in the town and Tewkesbury Abbey Herb garden very early in the morning . I dont know how they managed to do the re enactment battle in that heat !  I  bought a new handstitched linen coif from a lovely lady, which I will treasure . I enjoyed seeing the beautiful hawks ,everyone in their finest medieval clothes , chatting to fellow belly dancers , I dont remember much else as I then was overcome with heatstroke and had to go back to the hotel ...where I had been given the worst room ever....I couldn,t open the windows more than half an inch ....I flopped onto the bed and spent a few hours stitching ......it was even too hot for my husband to play golf  !