Embroidered Book Cover
for 16th-Century Book of Music
This cover was inspired by the velvet books popular with the Tudor royalty. The images of the four embroidered flowers on the cover were taken from the first page of the music book of Mary Tudor, Queen of France, and the couching pattern is a combination of a few exemplars seen below. The flowers were embroidered in silk on linen, and then transferred as appliqué to the silk velvet used for the cover. The background design was couched using gold-colored thread, and then freshwater pearls were used to embellish the decoration. Silk was used to make the tie for the book.
About the Book and Cover
This is the cover of a book of music in the style of early 16th century. The contents of the book can be seen here, and the process of making which can be seen here.
To read about the entire process in detail, you can read the documentation here.
This book was a huge learning process for me, and one of the most important things that I learned is to know my materials better! It was my first attempt at silk painting, and my first attempt at couching on velvet, as well as my first time making a book. I could have spent months and months on just the flowers, but the deadline demanded that I allow my efforts to be what they were. Most frustrating to me was that w hen completed on the frame, the couching on this cover was nice and straight and tight (see below), but the canvas with which the velvet was backed - despite washing in hot water and drying on high - shrank when the glue bonding it to the book was drying. Nevertheless, I am pleased overall with this first effort at a project like this, and am excited to delve back in to embroidery and bookmaking at some point.
This book project was made with much help from my husband, Lord Dunstan Stonehill. For the book, he built several tools such as a Moxon vise that I used as a press, and the frame for me to sew the pages. He also built the slate frame so that I could embroider the entire cover at once.
Exemplars and Process
Book of Hours, 1500
Walters Museum
The Lord’s Prayer, 1583
British Library
Bible, 1543
Library of Henry VIII, British Library
Exemplar for flowers
folio 5v, MS 1760, 1515; DIAMM
Sketch of cover design
There are several difference between the plan and the finished product :D
Rose exemplar 1, detail
folio 5v, MS 1760, 1515; DIAMM
Rose 1 on linen, attempt 1
...I was not at all satisfied with the results...
Rose 1 on linen, attempt 2
I would still have liked to re-do this...but as it had already taken 20 hours for just this rose, I decided to let it be...
Lily 1 exemplar, detail
folio 5v, MS 1760, 1515; DIAMM
Lily 1 embroidered on linen
There were things about this that I liked better....
Rose 2 exemplar, detail
folio 5v, MS 1760, 1515; DIAMM
Rose 2 embroidered on linen
I could not discover how to make the texture of the painting with the silk..but it was very fun to try!
Lily 2 exemplar, detail
folio 5v, MS 1760, 1515; DIAMM
Lily 2 embroidered on linen
In future embroidery, I would love to add the insects
Four Flowers on linen
The finished flowers prior to transferring them to the velvet
Flowers appliquéd to velvet
I was not sure how to prevent the loss of edge detail...
Slate Frame and Canvas
The slate frame made for me by my husband, with the piece of canvas that would back the velvet cover
Velvet in slate frame
I sewed the canvas to the frame, and then sewed the velvet to the canvas
Outline of couching design
Drawn in chalk, before I realized that I would just rub this off when I appliquéd the flowers to it
Flowers appliquéd on velvet
...the ghost of my chalk outlines can be seen...
Couching almost finished
...before being glued to the book, the lines were relatively straight...
Appliquéd lily, detail
This shows the couched edges of the flowers
Lily 1 in progress
Silk on linen layer 1
Rose 2 in progress
I was attempting to give some dimension...
Rose 1 attempt 1 in progress
This was much less shaded and padded than I wanted...
Lily 2 outline
The silk was lighter, but also picked up the graphite from my pencil sketch
The silk thread as it arrived
...I kind of didn't want to do anything with them, they were so beautiful as is!
Silk threads on spools
Another painstaking job that my husband helped with...
Finished cover, front
Showing the silk tie
Finished cover, spine
The horizontal lines on the spine correspond with the bands in the binding
Finished book, front
...showing the ties untied
Finished book, page 1
at Pennsic XLIX