New Medieval Art

Using images to create new art from historical and old images is fun. I have practiced laid work, the stitches documented from the Bayeux Tapestry, to apply to other historical images. I focus on the musical instruments and musicians from Las Cantigas de Santa Maria, or loosely translated as Songs to the Virgin Mother Mary, from 13th century Portugal/Spain. I love the images, the drawings of the people, instruments, their clothing, buildings, etc. The process of creating my own patterns for embroidery from rare illuminated manuscripts has offered me countless outs of creativity by creating my own patterns for embroidery!

Laid Work applied to enlarged image of Cantiga 170, from Las Cantigas de Santa Maria, housed currently housed at El Escorial in Madrid, Spain.

Enlarged image of Cantiga 170, laid work embroidery by Julie Carmen.
This image was double the size of most of the patches, depicting women shopping from Las Cantigas de Santa Maria, currently housed at El Escorial in Madrid, Spain.

The process is easy as once an image is enlarged to letter-sized image, I simply print out on iron-on-transfer paper and iron onto fabric. The rest is applying laid work over the image. SO MUCH FUN!

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