GOLD WORK
A metal thread technique.

HISTORY
Goldwork is a metal thread technique as old as the arts of goldsmith and weaver. The beauty lies in the range of colours, the texture of bullions and purls and the way it is couched down, catching the light.

Pure gold is beaten into thin sheets and cut into strips. It was sufficiently malleable to work into warps, stitch through open weaves and wind around a silk core to couch onto the fabric.

Later gold thread was made by covering a silver wire with gold coating which was drawn out into any thickness. The thread was then hammered flat and wound round a core of silk or synthetic yarn for couching, or it could be spun and drawn through a series of holes in diminishing sizes until the thread was fine enough to spiral into purls (fine wire spiralled into a hollow spring) and bullions (bulky purls) which can be cut and used as gold beads. Today gold plating has been overtaken by plated alloys and synthetics.

TECHNIQUE
Gold work is different from most other types of embroidery because most gold thread is couched down. Thus it is akin to jewellery or even sculpture because the surface appears faceted as the light catches different angles of the thread which padding accentuates.

Gold work was and is used in ecclesiastical work and the gold yarn, real gold, was very valuable.
In history, gold from garments was exchanged for money for ammunition, especially during the Napoleonic Wars. Thus people often raided gold from garments, banners and ecclesiastical work.

In England there were laws to forbid folk other than royalty or nobility from wearing gold.
William the Conqueror imprisoned people who wore gold.

PARFILAGE or DRIZZLING was common. A special instrument like an unpicker was used to remove gold thread from garments. In her diary, a duchess complained at afternoon tea, someone drizzled gold from her garment. In the Vatican, ecclesiastical garments are kept in glass cases and often one can see the lines where the gold has been removed.

Copes were kept in large semi circular locked oak cabinets which stood on legs. The legs were poisoned so that rats could not run up and chew through. Other cabinets had a wide round disc around the legs.

RONDALS
As real gold was so expensive, the gold embroidery was worked on rondals and appliquéed onto the fabric. When the fabric wore out the rondals were removed and stitched onto another garment.
Rondals were round in shape indicating infinity - going on forever.

OR NUE (Burgundian embroidery or Italian shading)
This is a method of laying gold thread to completely cover an area, with no background fabric visible.
OR NUE arose from the painting and enamelling that was fashionable in 14th century Burgundy and
was used extensively in ecclesiastical embroidery and for religious symbols such as bishop’s crests.
This was the introduction of colour into gold embroidery.

The gold thread, usually in pairs, is laid in horizontal straight lines and couched over in a coloured thread . as often and as closely as required by the design. Areas not requiring colour, used self-coloured silk or transparent thread. Because the couching thread MUST be vertical, there is often distortion in the design such as faces. The aim is to create an impression rather than exact reality.

© Valerie Cavill, 2009