Here is a selection of terms commonly used within this website and on the WCoB email list.
- Appliqué
- Solid fabric shapes, cut out and sewn down neatly on a fabric ground, sometimes with additional embellishment.
- Bayeux work
- Embroidery in the style of the Bayeux “Tapestry” (Embroidery), worked in a wool, usually on a linen ground, using a limited palette of colours.Shapes are filled in with long stitches, held down with perpendicular rows of self-couching. In use from 9th c.
- Blackwork
- General tem for a number
of styles common in 16th c England, Germany and Spain, including
counted and free-for, double-running (Holbein work), counted work in-fill
patterns and speckle stitch. Usually worked in black silk, but gold, red,
blue etc are also known.
- Bone
lace
- A
pre-1600 term for bobbin lace, so called because the bobbins were made of
bone
- Brick stitch
- A form of polychrome
counted work
- Convent stitch
- Also called
Klosterstitch.
- Couching
- A main thread or threads
create the design on the ground fabric, held down using small stitches. The main method of applying gold thread.
- Even-weave
- Fabric with the same
number of threads in the warp and weft. The count (eg 28 count) refers to the
number of threads per inch.
- Frame
- Used to stretch the
ground fabric taut, so that the embroidery lies flat. Essential for metal
threads.Hoops are a simple modern
frame; slate frames were used in period.
- Ground
- The fabric on which the
embroidery is worked.
- Intarsia
- A form of appliqué where
the shape is placed into an identical hole in the ground fabric and the two
joined with small overcast stitches.
- Jap
- “Japanese Gold” Flat gold
wound around a core of silk.Imitation jap is made with fake gold.
- Klosterstich
- “Cloister stitch” or
“nun’s work”. A version of couching where the thread is laid over the surface
then couched down using the same thread.
- LOG
- Lochac Order of Grace
- Opus anglicanum
- “English work” c 1250 –
1350.Linen or velvet background richly
covered with detailed figures in silk split stitch and laid gold (underside couching). Usually used for ecclesiastical work.
- Opus teutonicum
- “German work”. utlines
with fill stitches using linen thread on linen ground and a combination of
darning, drawn work, etc. May be whitework or coloured.
- Or núe
- “Shaded gold”. Gold
threads are laid to completely cover the background. The gold is couched down with coloured
silk so the these threads create the design of colour over the gold – set
closer and further to give depth of colour.
- Passing thread
- A fine flexible metal
thread with a slight texture, wrapped around a core, which can be sewn
through the ground fabric. Used for plaited braid stitch etc.
- Polychrome
- “Many colours”
- Purl
- A type of metal thread
made like a miniature spring. It may be couched down or cut into pieces and
sewn down like beads.It comes in
smooth, purl (coarser) and check (crimped) styles.
- Spangle
- Period term for sequin,
made by winding wire into a coil, cutting into links and then flattening to
produce a ring
- Underside couching
- A form of couching where
metal threads are laid on a loose linen background, with the linen couching
thread pulled tight to form tiny loops on the underside. This technique is
durable, flexible, rich textured and requires considerable skill.
- WcoB
- Worshipful Company of
Broderers of Lochac – the embroidery guild within this kingdom of the SCA.
