Egyptian Blackwork 1 Mistress Safiya bint Suleiman Al-Mulima, O. L.

Egyptian Blackwork
by Mistress Safiya bint Suleiman Al-Mualima, O. L. mka Maya Heath
Background - "Blackwork" is a term that generally conjures up images of Tudor and Elizabethan repeated patterns done in monochrome, usually as decorated fill work on garments. It became known as blackwork because, as the name implies, it is generally worked in a single color usually black although it is found in other colors such as red and blue. Its can also be called Holbein Stitch after the Bavarian painter who rendered it so carefully in many of the portraits he painted. However, it had its origins much earlier in Egypt and the Middle East during the 13th through the 15th centuries during the Mamluk Sultanate. Through trade with Spain and Italy, blackwork made its way into Europe, changing with each culture that adopted it each adding its own elements of style, design and motifs to suit the local taste. In the beginning, however, it was far more varied and colorful. Egyptian Blackwork is also known as Square Stitch, Mamluk Blackwork, Egyptian Double Running Stitch, and Holbein Stitch. This refers both to the stitch itself and to the combination of stitches that can accompany it that include counted satin stitch, pattern darning and various kinds of openwork. It reached its greatest popularity in the Near and Middle East during the Mamluk Dynasties - 1250 1517 AD and was used to decorate household items such as towels, napkins and cushion covers, as well as garments such as robes and veils. Technique - One of the joys of this kind of work is that, with very little effort, it comes out double sided, or very nearly so. This makes it an excellent choice for veils and scarves where a light pattern is wanted and both sides are likely to show in the wearing. It also makes a good choice for cuff and sleeve bands, especially when there are wide of long sleeve points and the inside of the sleeve shows as much as the outside. It is executed in Double Running Stitch and Backstitch or Looped Backstitch over 2, 3 or 4 threads. Its angular lacy patterns can stand either alone or as a framework and counterpoint for other counted-work motifs such as counted satin stitch and various kinds of openwork. It is equally suited for use on garment weight fabrics and light linen gauze. It also makes for a convenient project for travel or if space is limited because it is easily worked in the hand rather than on a frame. Ground Fabric Generally, the fabric used was linen, although there are a few examples of cotton being used1. It was plain weave averaging a 20/20 thread count per centimeter (50/50 per inch). There are also some examples as coarse as 12/15 per cm (30/38 per inch) and as fine as 32/30 (81/76 per inch). Some are heavy, serviceable weaves suitable for cushions, curtains, and other household uses. Some were light and fine, some gauzy, for garments. 2 Embroidery Thread There is one known use of cotton embroidery thread3, however, embroidery of this type was traditionally done in silk on linen.

Pattern of birds and cats on a sleeve band Kuhnel, Plate 30 3174 <S 54> detail

Egyptian Blackwork 2 Mistress Safiya bint Suleiman Al-Mulima, O. L. Colors While there are numerous examples of indigo blue on white or cream linen, the field is by no means limited to those colors. There also examples of medium blue (light indigo), red (madder), brown (iron) and green (copper sulfate)5 and golden yellow6, sometimes used alone or at others used in separate motif bands7. When used in combination with openwork and satin stitching, the blackwork is usually the darkest value of the color palette chosen used to frame the other elements. And in the more elaborate examples lighter motifs are framed by darker stitching in alternating panels8 .

Indigo

Blue

Red (Madder)

Green

Stitches

Looped Back Stitch

Egyptian Blackwork 3 Mistress Safiya bint Suleiman Al-Mulima, O. L. Beginning & Ending the Thread Because this is a double sided stitch, it is important to carefully conceal your beginnings and endings by tucking under the tail of your thread when you begin and weaving the end of it back through the reverse of your work when you are done. To begin a thread, pull the needle through the fabric from back to front leaving - inch on the back. Then holding the thread tail on the reverse, be careful to stitch over the thread tail as you work the pattern, until it is anchored firmly. Starting a new thread into the work is done in much the same way. Lay the tail of the thread on the back pointing in the direction you are going to be stitching. Whip over the tail catching only the back of the work. When you reach the point where you left off, pull the thread through and continue stitching. Ending the thread works in a similar way. When you are almost to the end of your thread, pull it through to the back of the work and whip it through the reverse side stitches for about an inch. Highways & Byways Working an Egyptian blackwork pattern is a little like working a puzzle. It is not stitched in a linear way starting from point A and continuing on to B. Instead, it can be looked at sort of like traveling on a journey. For the main roads a looped backstitch is used that carries the pattern from one motif to another. Then, a double running stitch is used to follow the design to its farthest point, adding whatever little side-trips one encounters. When you finally reach the end, the stitching doubles back on itself to return to where it departed the main line of stitches. It then continues in Looped Back Stitch until another motif is reached where the process is repeated. Exercise 1 Small Border Double Running Stitch - This little border is often found used for the edges of motifs and small decorative trim. It can be worked entirely in Double Running Stitch. It is simple to work and still has all the basic techniques in common with even the most complex patterns. This is a good point to start thinking through the pattern. Isolate which elements are the highways, that is, the lines from which all the smaller motifs branch off. Next, look to find the byways, those little side trips that are worked to their end and then return to the highway. In this pattern, the line at the bottom that all the smaller motifs rest on is your highway. It carries you along but will be finished last of all. Each smaller motif is worked as a separate byway. Each of the smaller motifs has a byway of its own. In the case of the arch, its the spike on the top. With the cross, each arm is worked as a separate loop before completing the pattern and returning to the base line.

Egyptian Blackwork 4 Mistress Safiya bint Suleiman Al-Mulima, O. L.

Exercise 2 Marching Lion - The marching lion motif is found in many different forms from the very simple small one here to larger complicated ones. The lion with the arched tail and one lifted foot was the emblem of Mamluk Sultan Baybars10, a popular ruler and able warrior who came to power in AD 1260 and ruled until his death in 1277. This particular motif comes from the same garment as the border described above as well as the rosette and the confronting birds. The highway line of this one is the top line of stitching and it is worked primarily in Looped back stitching. Each small ladder divider and the lion are byways.

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Step 1
Working from the tip of the tail down to the tip of his toe, then turn back and work back to the belly line.

Step 2
Work across the belly line and down to the tip of the next toe.

Step 3
Then back to the belly line and down to the next toe

Step 4
Come back up from the tip of the toe, up the chest and into the head

Step 5
Now make his open mouth And come across the top of the head

Step 6
Across the top of his head then down the back of his neck and across his back

Step 7
Then bring the needle up where the back line meets the tail. Its time to retrace your stitches until you reach the top line again

Exercise 3 Nested Rosette - The nested rosette is found in almost unlimited variations, from small and simple to large and complex with various whirls, crosses and arms extending from the sides. It is worked with the outer ring as the highway and the inner one(s) as the byway(s). The outer framework (1) is part of the design as a whole as can be seen in the illustration on the first page. The rosette itself is a floating motif, that is, a motif that does not appear to be connected to the main structure of the design.

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(2.) On the reverse of the work bridge on stitch from the upper line to the inner box. Take two stitches and then work one corner motif (3). These are the byways to the boxs highway. Once you have that done work along the edge until you come to where the cross pattern meets the box. Turn in here to Layer (4) taking once stitch, then working each arm of the cross. Work 3 more stitches until you come to the S center pattern work first its short leg then its longer one and return to Layer 4. Continue around the circumference of Layer 4, branching off to take care of each cross motif in turn. When you reach where you began at the first cross turn around and fill in the running stitches. This will bring you back to Layer 2 where you continue around, working each corner motifs until you reach the corner where you entered. Turn around and fill in the final stitches back to the beginning. Be sure to make your final stitch that goes back to Layer 1 a blind stitch on the back.

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Egyptian Blackwork 7 Mistress Safiya bint Suleiman Al-Mulima, O. L. Exercise 4 Confronting Birds - These are just one example of a wide variety of confronting animals and meander patterns that were popular at this time. In the original, they are worked on either side of the nested rosette pattern with the diagonals all pointing in the same direction giving a wrapped ribbon effect. But they can also be worked with the diagonals alternating to give a wavy line look. Either way they are both deceptively simple and deceptively complex. These blocks are made of 4 elements worked one at a time as you move across the pattern. First the bird is worked by itself as a floating motif. Travel 5 stitches in Looped Back Stitch until you come to the next motif that is worked up to the top line Then from the base line the next pattern is worked up to the top in Double Running Stitch. Each hook is worked as a byway as you go up. Then work back to the corner, turn and work forward again and back down the line you have just done. The next pattern is done the same way up with the half-rosettes worked as byways, over, back and down. When you reach the top of pattern 5 go over and do the floating bird motif, then retrace your stitching until you reach the bottom again.

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Egyptian Blackwork 8 Mistress Safiya bint Suleiman Al-Mulima, O. L. Exercise 4 - Peacocks and the Tree of Life Confronting animals, particularly when accompanied by the Tree of Life, are a common pattern found from at least early Byzantine times. Typically we find birds in the pattern but also found are lions (cats), stags and, in at least one example, camels. As a popular pattern it made its way north into Europe and we see it in Eastern European folk embroidery to this day. This elegant confronting peacock motif is found in many different versions worked on both clothing and household articles. It makes an interesting exercise in isolating which are the highways and which are the byways. The running S pattern is worked as an entirely separate unit and would even be appropriate to work in a different color such as a lighter blue or red. The bottom line is also a separate element worked alone and, if you choose to make the S motif a different color, the line below it should be the same color as the larger bird motif. It is interesting to notice that each element, no matter how large, can be worked with double running stitch alone, only stringing them together with the Looped Back Stitch. For the birds, start at the tip of one foot, following the pattern upward and around with the beak, the crest and even the spiraling wings as byways, down into the second foot. Then work the running stitch back around until you return to the toe where you started. The same is true for the tree. No matter how complex it seems, you can begin at one side of the trunk in running stitch, work upwards through the branches and even around the smaller birds until you com to the other side of the trunk. Then you can turn around and work backwards through the tree returning to the ground where you began.

Bibliography / Suggested Reading

Dye R eci pes from t he S t ockhol m P apyrus , t rans l at ed by Earl e R adcl i ffe C al ey and publ i s hed i n t he J ournal of C hem i cal Educat i on, Vol 4, No 8 i n Augus t of 1927 Ellis, Marianne, Embroideries and Samplers from Islamic Egypt, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 2001. F i gue, Gerard and Ous s am a Kal i b, La M em oi re des Ti s s us : Et udes des t i s s ues M edi evaux de M gharet Aas i El Nadat h, M ars hm al l ow Graphi cs , 1999 Hai dl er, M ari a, M at eri al s and M et hods of t he Anci ent Weaver: Dyes , Art of t he Anci ent Weaver: Text i l es from Egypt (4 t h 12 t h C . AD), Kel s ey M us eum of Archaeol ogy, Uni vers i t y of M i chi gan, Ann Arbor, 1980. Kuhnel , Erns t , Is l am i s che S t offe aus Agypt i s chen Grabern, Verl ag Erns t Was m ut h, B erl i n, 1927 Li l es , J . N. , The Art and C raft of Nat ural Dyei ng: Tradi t i onal R eci pes for M odern Us e, The Uni vers i t y of Tennes s ee P res s , Knoxvi l l e, 1999 Lam m , C arl J ohan, C ot t on i n M edi eval Text i l es of t he Near Eas t , Li brai ri e Ori ent al i s t e P aul Geut i ner, P ari s , 1937. Lam m , C arl J ohan, "S om e M am l uk Em broi deri es " i n Ar s Is l ami ca. Vol . 4. 1937. 65-76. Ti s s us d' Egypt e Tem oi ns du M onde Arabe VIIIe-Xve S i ecl es C ol l ect i on B ouvi er, S oci et e P res ence du Li vre, M us s ee dart et dhi s t oi re, Geneve, 1993

Lam m , C arl J ohan, C ot t on i n M edi eval Text i l es of t he Near Eas t , Li brai ri e Ori ent al i s t e P aul Geut i ner, P ari s , 1937. p. 164-167 2 El l i s , M ari anne, Em broi deri es and S am pl ers from Is l am i c Egypt , As hm ol ean M us eum , Oxford, 2001.

Egyptian Blackwork 9 Mistress Safiya bint Suleiman Al-Mulima, O. L. Lam m , p. 165 Ti s s us d' Egypt e Tem oi ns du M onde Arabe VIIIe-Xve S i ecl es C ol l ect i on B ouvi er, S oci et e P res ence du Li vre, M us s ee dart et dhi s t oi re, Geneve, 1993 5 Hai dl er, M ari a, M at eri al s and M et hods of t he Anci ent Weaver: Dyes , Art of t he Anci ent Weaver: Text i l es from Egypt (4 t h 12 t h C . AD), Kel s ey M us eum of Archaeol ogy, Uni vers i t y of M i chi gan, Ann Arbor, 1980. 6 Dye R eci pes from t he S t ockhol m P apyrus , t rans l at ed by Earl e R adcl i ffe C al ey and publ i s hed i n t he J ournal of C hem i cal Educat i on, Vol 4, No 8 i n Augus t of 1927 7 Ti s s us d' Egypt e Tem oi ns du M onde Arabe VIIIe-Xve S i ecl es C ol l ect i on B ouvi er, S oci et e P res ence du Li vre, M us s ee dart et dhi s t oi re, Geneve, 1993, p. 289-292 8 Kuhnel , Erns t , Is l am i s che S t offe aus Agypt i s chen Grabern, Verl ag Erns t Was m ut h, B erl i n, 1927 p. 64 and P l at e 37 3273 < S . 64> 9 Ellis, p. 84 10 Ellis, p. 9 11 Kuhnel, Plate 30 - 3174 S 54 detail Fragment of a garment 12 Kuhnel, Plate 30 - 3174 S 54 detail - Fragment of a garment 13 Kuhnel, Plate 30 - 3174 S 54 detail - Fragment of a garment 14 Ellis, p. 48, Plate 30Detail of a towel border, Mamluk period, late 14th-15th century, linen embroidered with silk in double running stitch
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