This reliquary pouch was done as an item in the auction to raise funds for the La Prova Dura event that happened in April 2005. Countess Mari Alexander, who was a lead in setting up the event, had asked for donations of items for the auction. I just happened to have been working on a length of embroidery that would work well as a reliquary pouch so I decided to work it up into a finished product.

Tiny, heavily-embroidered reliquary pouches were popular in 14 th and 15 th century Germany. It’s known as simply German work amongst my embroidery friends who do this stitch, but it’s also known as patterned brick stitch, or even German counted thread satin stitch. No matter what it’s called, I enjoy this stitch a great deal because it’s counted! And I love anything I can count.

I learned the technique from the Compleat Anachronist Master Wymarc had written entitled “A Stitch Out of Time.” Master Wymarc went to the Victoria and Albert museum in London and got up close and personal with a number of the German pieces in their textile vaults. He worked out the patterns and provided lots of important details like stitch direction, dimensions of pieces, and DMC color matches. He has several other patterns available on his website, including my favorite of a vine-looking design, as well as a sketch of the being-sawed-in-half-saint vignette from the Hildesheim cope that I’m doing for Magda.

The pouch was done on Wichelt’s white 28 or 32 count (the exact count has since been forgotten) linen in 4 strands of green (829) and yellow (877) Splendor silk. Despite this being a tiny project it really gobbles up thread, since it completely covers the front and most of the back of the fabric. The strings are braided silk from the project, and the lining is that maroon stuff (probably a suiting wool I had on hand). A piece of this size would probably take me about 15-20 hours to complete. Although you can’t see the other side of the pouch in this picture, it’s exactly the same as the front. To give you an idea of how small it is, that’s my hand holding it up in the picture below, which was taken by Mistress Catherine Lorraine. I don’t think the pouch was much more than 3”x5” once finished. As you can see, the finished construction isn’t the greatest because I am not proficient at making drawstring pouches. It works, but it doesn’t look very pretty.

In case you were curious, I believe the pouch went for about $40 in the auction.

The picture on this page was taken by Catherine Lorraine (Conny FitzSimmons), who gave me permission to reuse it on my website on 7/10/06.