Friday Inspiration - Blackwork Embroidery

Blackwork embroidery is one of those things I've always known about but have never really looked at much - until I needed to background filling stitches for the moth piece I'm working on.  If you've never heard of blackwork or are like me and never really paid much attention to it, Jane Zimmerman has a great history of it here.  It has a long and royal past!

In more modern times, artists are using blackwork for some very interesting pieces.  Mary Corbet has a wonderful fish that uses so many different stitches it could really be considered a sampler.

Helen Cox uses different numbers of thread strands to get the amazing shading in this embroidery of a horse.

And blackwork doesn't necessarily have to be black!  Maria del Valle has a YouTube video showing how she turns photos into embroidered portraits using blackwork stitches.  Update:  Maria was kind enough to send me a high quality image of Rosita and a photo of the drawing she made from a 1915 photo that inspired this work -  thank you!!

Rosita

After looking at all these, I'm back to working on the moth.  I'll have more to show you on Monday!

Happy Creating!  Deborah