Color Pictures from Jonalee Crabb, from "Stadt
im Wandel: Kunst und Kultur des Bürgetums
in Norddeutchland 1150-1650", listed in full in bibliography.
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Text
from "Beadwork, (Shire Album #57)", Pamela Claburn"head
in blue beads and coral"
"The american
indians... here the beads are threaded and laid on the ground
material. The attaching thread is quite seperate and is brought
up from below and cathes down the thread between the two beads.
this is in effect, a form of couching." "Exactly
the same method of attachment was used in the german beadwork
of the 12th Century. Here it is combined with with the sewing
on of single beads where the design required it, but it can
be seen that are long strands of the same colours and only
a very few single colors even in such detailed parts of the
design as the faces. Six hundred years later the method was
still being used" |
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Text
from "Bead Embroidery"
By Joan Edwards.
"Long before needlewomen of the nineteenth century discovered
the possibilities of beadwork, comparatively coarse beads had
been used in various parts of Europe for embroidery for a very
long time indeed. A great deal of work was done, for example,
during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in Lower Saxony,
examples of which can be seen in Hanover and Darmstadt. The
beads were usually attached to vellum, and it has been suggested
that the existence of this beadwork might-like the German whitework
or "opus teutonicum" of the Middle Ages-be interpreted
as a sign of poverty amongst the German convents at this time,
and that the beads were perhaps a substitute for work in pearls,
precious metals, and the coveted Byzantine enamels. Nevertheless,
the vestments and hangings must have gleamed with considerable
beauty in the dark, candle lit cathedrals and churches, shining
through the dimness like the stained glass in the windows, and
there seems little doubt that the designs were good and well
drawn." |
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