Medieval Themes

I have tinkered over time with 'Medieval-style' themes in my designs, in fact the printing in my business logo (in the title of the blog) is taken from the Illuminated Manuscripts -- manuscripts from the 6th century into the middle ages. These were manuscripts with very ornate lettering, and often gold burnishing, making them lovely! The script I borrowed for use in my logo is known as 'insular majuscule' and there is also a very 'Celtic-looking' insular minuscule script, the smaller script in the image below.



So, as much as I love these themes, I made a decision this past week to really pursue that idea, and make it my signature. It is a rustic and classical style that lends itself to applique, and, I believe, would also translate well into rugs, although I don't design rugs. The colors are also conducive to the wool arts -- earthy, rich colors, that were plant-based, because that's all there was at the time. (Golly! No sparkly hot pink gel pens?!) The best part of all is that I can borrow ideas with less fear of copyright infringement! Because the art is so old, it is easy to find royalty-free sources. I never copy to the line, anyway -- I only use the inspiration, or general scale.



So I did some research on art books with Medieval images, and I emailed the Hubs with a concise listing of all the books I want, complete with URLs, so he can look for those for the next gift-giving holiday. I find that this is the only way to get anything that I truly want out of him, the poor dear -- he really is gift-challenged. So I figure I'm just doing him a favor! This will give me a nice library to get going.

My wool business is keeping me quite preoccupied at present, so I am patiently waiting to get it into 'cruise' mode, so that I can return to my creative endeavors. At that time, I will develop this idea and work on some projects. I like applique especially, because the payoff is fairly quick -- a nice project can be done from start to finish in a week, even with a lot of embroidery, and I have a short attention span!

Penny Rug Wool