Embroidered Collage

I truly enjoyed my trip to Europe, for a number of reasons, and I didn't want to lose what I learned.  I spent some hours on the airplane home rewriting my notes from the official business portion of my trip.  Then I applied the approach to the artistic inspiration I received.  What might I do with it?  I hope to follow up on at least a couple of these.

This is my last blog entry about my sketchbook and my trip.  It was a great exercise and it inspired me to start keeping a more regular travel and event sketchbook and to put a new moleskine in my purse for everyday sights.

The highlight of my trip was receiving this large handful of lace remnants.  Over 80% of it is handmade bobbin lace and it is all gorgeous. 

I had stepped into another lace shop in Bruges to pick up another couple of doilies in different styles.  One of the ladies was teaching her helper how to make bobbin lace.  The one end was in a little baggie, ready to be sealed up for sale, so I asked if they had more yardage.  She brought out a book with samples and I was looking them over, trying to decide how much money to spend, when I figured I better ask how little I could buy.  Ten centimeters, was the answer, with fingers held out for illustrations.  While I was thinking again she asked me if the ends would work.  Ends?  The leftovers, the remnants.  She ducked into the back room and came back with double handfuls.

While I was gleefully looking through the bits she asked me if I would be using them and how.  So I showed her my business card and explained how I created art that used fiber and lace on canvas along with paint and such.  Then she said that I could have the remnants.  I blinked and protested that I had intended to pay for them.  She confirmed with me that she would see them again on the website and I agreed, just warning it might take a while.  And she restated that she would give them to me.  So I asked her to pick, and I ended up with a nice large handful of remnants! 

I was absolutely thrilled.  I told her it was the highlight of my trip, and it was!  She said that she always saved the ends because she couldn't bear to throw them out, knowing what went into them, but that she never knew what to do with them.  So we were both very happy.  I sketched out some of the patterns later in the evening.

The two central squares in Bruges, one for the guilds and one for the government, were about a stones throw apart.  Neither had quite the intense wow factor of the Grand Place in Brussels but both were very nice to look at.  I was reaching burn out about this time, because the horrid thought of "more buildings, how nice" kind of floated across my brain and I really didn't want to sketch or photograph much of anything, even though I was enjoying it.  This was something I hadn't really anticipated when I set my goal for sketching during the trip and it is something I will have to make sure my ambitions accomodate if I should ever get such a chance again.

I actually didn't get a very good look at the Burg because there was a security force and bleachers and quite  a few people.  Apparently a British prince and a Belgian prince were attending a concert and would be coming by in an hour or so.  I had dinner at one of the restaurants with tables outside on the Markt and saw a brass band and a contingent of the British Royal Guard pass through one corner on their way to the Burg.  The latter marched into the Markt and did a couple maneuvers in their red coats and black hats before moving on.  It was very dramatic and fun to watch.

I did do this sketch of the top of Belfry tower on the Markt.  There was quite a bit more of it that wouldn't fit on the pages.

Goldwork.  Luscious embroidery.  Nicely encased in glass so I could get my nose and eyes only a few inches away.  I probably spent as much time in this room in the Treasury of the cathedral as I did in the rest of the cathedral.  It cost an extra couple of euros to go through the mini-museum, but it sounded interesting.  So I walked by and enjoyed paintings and silver and such until I was captivated by two large cases containing formal ceremonial robes.

I'd never been so close to the historical goldwork before, although I had seen recent embroidery in the same style.  Much of each design was done in couched gold wrapped thread and the rest in shaded silk embroidery in deep, rich colors.  I could tell how the embroidery had been done on a slip and then attached to the garment, even as I'd read about.  There were some nice variations on robes, as well as some shoes and pockets and hats.

I sat on the floor to take a closer look at a long tapestry that sparkled.  I was absolutely delighted to find that it was an extremely detailed embroidery.  There were stones in jewelers setting attached at key points.  There was a subtle use of gold throughout.  The stitches were varied more here than they had been on the clothing and I could pick out various laid work patterns in silk.  I enjoyed the viewing.

I've been confusing myself with spelling because I remembered seeing the Dutch language signs of Brugge but was adding on the "s" from the English version of Bruges.  I looked it up before I started writing this entry.

  I was very impressed by my visit to the cathedral of Saint Saviour.  It was brick on the outside and perhaps more Romanesque than Gothic in nature, although with some very elegant window tracery.  On the inside it was huge and just soared.  The side portions were all highly decorated.  The choir stalls had beautiful wood tracings in Celtic knots.  Many of the pillars were painted in patterns, which was a surprise to me, although the paint had worn off near ground level.  Red and yellow were the predominant colors with a little green.  The ceilings of the chapels surrounding the sanctuary were also painted in an assortment of patterns.  Another unusual feature was the art collection.  There were huge paintings from various eras hanging up on the walls  and a small exhibit to one side of a modern abstract sacred artist.  Around one end of the church on the outside was a collection of wrought iron crosses in various ornamental forms. 

I spent about five hours in Brugge and I think I have five different blog entries to describe that time.  The town was gorgeous and the weather perfect.  I could have easily spent all day there, or at least two, within a walkable radius of the center, and that doesn't count extra time for serious drawing.

  I took one of the canal boat tours, just to see a little bit more of the city.  The guide was very entertaining, having a spiel of informative bits that he repeated in Dutch and French and English.   This included pointing out the smallest window in the city where a tax collector would sometimes watch the boats go by and sometimes not and you couldn't tell.  There was the place where the canal to the major port branched off and you could envision the waterways being used for business.  Multiple buildings had doors and openings onto the canals, as in Venice, and there was one interesting bridge we went under where you could see from the stonework how its width had been expanded over the centuries. 

  I wasn't sketching during the trip, but I did get in some photos.  The most important thing I picked up on visually was the change in perspective.  Being on the actual waterway changes which images become possible and interesting.  I don't know if I'll use that information anytime soon, but it was good to see it.