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Freya the Meownificant!

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  • 7 min read

This piece was submitted in the competition, "Freya's Golden Halls," at Ymir 50. The category was open medium and had to illustrate a piece of the goddess Freya's lore.


Inspiration


It took me quite a while to figure out how I wanted to tackle this piece, as well as identify the subject. Obviously, the subject would be related to the Norse Goddess Freyja given the parameters of the competition, however identifying an element of her lore as my subject was something that I struggled with for quite some time. I had started moving in a different direction and I soon discovered that I absolutely hated it and thought about not competing this time around. But eventually, the inspiration hit me, or rather, bit me. For in my lap, clawing at my thread, was my sweet cat Viviana (Vivi), a gently used black void kitty from Honest Roland’s Gently Used Kitten Emporium. From my preliminary research on Freyja, I learned that she could shapeshift and one of the forms she would take was that of a cat. Thus, Feline Freyja was born (embroidered).


Thank you Sir Roland (Rodney) for our amazing kitty cat. This is for you, buddy 🐢



Definitions


I have employed some embroidery techniques in this project that I will refer to in the “Process” and/or “Historical Tidbits” sections that may need clarification.


  • Appliqué-  “A cutout decoration fastened to a larger piece of material (Merriam-Webster, 2022).”


  • Beadwork - “use of beads in fabric decoration; beads may be individually stitched, applied

in threaded lengths, or actually woven into the material, then weft threaded with beads

before being woven in (Britannica, 2017).”


  • Goldwork - “Goldwork is a style of embroidery done using metal threads. Traditionally, gold

‘threads’ were created by beating gold into flat ribbon like threads which were stitched into

place (School of Stitched Textiles, 2022).”


  • Split stitch- “The split stitch is formed when the working thread, after a small straight stitch, is taken backwards underneath the ground cloth, but instead of coming up next to the thread on top (as in outline stitch and stem stitch), the point of the needle ‘splits’ the working thread, and the needle/thread is pulled through the split portion (Willem, 2014).”


  • Stumpwork - “a style of embroidery that employs different techniques to raise stitches

above the canvas, creating three-dimensional embroidery. Stumpwork embroidery is also

called raised embroidery for this reason (EGA, 2022).”


  • Thread painting- “Thread painting, also called needle painting, is an approach that uses a combination of long and short straight stitches and a variety of colors to produce embroidery that has the same qualities as a painting (Barnes, 2023).”


Process


After identifying my subject, I sketched out a rough outline of a cat head on a piece of stabilizing paper/film and applied it to the fabric. I like to use stabilizers when I embroidery because they add a thin layer of extra support, you can reattempt a design without fear of damaging the fabric itself, and it dissolves should you choose to wash it away after completing your work. 


From here, I began to slowly fill in the shape and outlines of the cat head, using a combination of short and long stitches in various colors, as if I were coloring. This is where I implemented the thread painting technique, as defined above. As someone who traditionally has only worked with monochromatic and B&W themed pieces across disciplines, I found this to be the most challenging part. Due to personal time constraints, I did not go out and purchase new threads that were a better color match for the subject, rather I just worked with what I already had in my possession and tried my best. For the record, my cat mentioned above is black, however I wanted to stitch a cat that seems like it would “be a blonde” if it took a human form (aka, if it were the Norse goddess Freyja in disguise), thus I Googled a Maine Coon breed of cat to serve as my color inspiration. 


Upon completing the head, I decided to stitch a small gold circlet using gold metallic thread on her head with a beaded centerpiece. From my research into Freyja and historical depictions of her in art across time, some kind of headpiece seems to be a common theme, perhaps to denote importance or nobility, given her status as a goddess. I continued the beadwork on the collar of the dress after whip stitching down the fabric that I had cut out and appliquéd to the base fabric. The top portion is filled in with all split stitches, which is a common stitch used in Opus Anglicanum embroidery. The embellishments on the dress are all beadwork. 


The final images depicted in this piece are that of a spear and shield. One of Freyja’s domains is war, and so I wanted to incorporate that into the image of this fierce feline. I wanted to make this part a bit playful and lean into the cat thing, as the tip of the spear is shaped like a fish, and the shield is made of yarn. For the shield, I used the stumpwork (defined above) embroidery technique to build the shape of the shield on a separate piece of fabric, and stitched it into place to the main fabric. Before stitching it to the base fabric, I crocheted a small dome from a gold and tan combination of yarns, and then stitched this to the shield base that I cut out from a separate fabric. I did this to give the piece more of a 3D effect, as it is something that I’ve become quite fascinated with through my embroidery journey and I really want to lean into this technique as much as possible.


Historical Tidbits

Freyja:


Freyja is known as the Norse goddess of beauty, fertility, gold, love, magic, sex, and war. I chose to depict the gold, magic, and war aspects of her lore through the way that I embroidered this piece. Gold was depicted through the materials used and overall color scheme, magic through the way that I touched on her shapeshifting aspect through the cat head and anthropomorphic body, and war through the depiction of the spear and shield. She is renowned for her shapeshifting, particularly into a falcon, hence the feathered falcon cloak she wears in many artistic renditions of her (Kajora, n.d.). Of course, I chose to represent her shapeshifting abilities through a cat instead, as she is also well known for her chariot drawn by cats. Her hall, Sessrumnir, is where half of the fallen warriors go after battle, with the other half being welcomed by Odin in Valhalla.

  

Opus Anglicanum:


Opus Anglicanum is Latin for ‘English Work’, and refers to a style of embroidery practiced in England in the 12th and 13th centuries (Eileen, n.d.). Notable features of this style of embroidery include underside couched gold and silver thread, the use of the split stitch, as well as the use of long and short stitches to create a layered and shaded effect through what is now known as “thread painting” (Eileen, n.d.). Opus Anglicanum was highly prized across Europe, particularly in France and Italy, where it was commissioned by the Church and nobility.


Goldwork embroidery:


Traditionally, goldwork embroidery has always been fairly three dimensional, however in the 15th century, “raised work” became a popular style of embroidery (A History of Goldwork Embroidery, 2022), and embroiderers would use techniques like padding or couching to help create a more raised effect. To do this, you can use felt cut into the shape of your work and stitched into place as appliqué, or you can take soft thread and lay down a series of short stitches and then lay the goldwork overtop. You can find this raised method by couching via the circlet that I stitched atop Freyja’s cat head. In the 15th century, embroiders would use wire purls through thread stitched over layers of rows of laid thread underneath (A History of Goldwork Embroidery, 2022). For my work, I used 1mm gold painted French Bouillon gimp wire to achieve this.


Stumpwork:


At its peak in the mid-17th century, stumpwork was a style of raised embroidery that evolved from padded ecclesiastical embroidery, and depicted popular motifs such as the “Stuart monarchs, lions, mythical beasts, exotic flowers, fruit, birds and insects, many of which feature in combination with no regard for scale (Longstaff, 2023).” Stumpwork is the more modern name for this technique, and it was mainly referred to as raised or embossed work before then.


Beadwork:


Another historical technique used is beadwork embroidery. Beadwork can be traced back thousands of years, about 5,000 to be exact, and was used as embellishment on embroidered work, clothing, boxes, pictures, and robes, among other things (Lippin, 2021). Lippin mentions in her article, “The art of hand-beading is derived from skills and techniques that require precision, patience, and consistency (Lippin, 2021).” These are all qualities that I…lack, especially patience. Nonetheless, I appreciate the historical aspects of beadwork and the time and skill that it must have taken for artisans to create such beautiful works. Like the historical use of this technique, I too chose to use it to simply embellish the rest of the embroidered piece.  



Lessons learned


  • Practice thread painting sooner than this. This was my first time attempting the thread painting technique, so it is far from perfect. I should take time to really practice a new technique before implementing it into a competition piece. That way, I will feel less pressure to make it look good and be self-conscious about it, and can spend more time effectively implementing the technique.


  • Sometimes the inspiration you need to start a project is sitting right in your lap, headbutting your arm for more rubbings. Thanks, Vivi 🐈‍⬛


Gallery



Works Cited


Barnes, S. (2023, August 15). Embroidery Artists Are Using a Needle and Thread to “Paint” Gorgeous Stitched Art. My Modern Met. https://mymodernmet.com/thread-painting/


‌Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2017, August 1). Beadwork. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/art/beadwork

EGA. (2022, April 13). 5 things to know about stumpwork embroidery. Embroiderers’ Guild of America. https://egausa.org/5-things-to-know-about-stumpwork-embroidery/ 


Kajora, Lovely. (n.d.). Freyja: Norse Goddess of Love, Witchcraft, and War. https://www.kajoralovely.com/lovely-blog/2019/9/10/freyja



Longstaff, Emma. (2023, July 17). What is stumpwork? Homes and Antiques. https://www.homesandantiques.com/antiques/what-is-stumpwork




 
 
 

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