This coif was embroidered by Kim Brody Salazar as part of a project called an unstitched coif . . . in 2023. The project was created by Toni Buckby, a Collaborative Doctoral student at the V&A Museum and Sheffield Hallam University, exploring many aspects of 16th and 17th-century blackwork embroidery. Toni devised an unstitched coif . . . to reconstruct the creative, mental, physical and social contexts of blackwork embroidery. She found an early 17th-century coif in the V&A’s collection with its embroidery design drawn with pen and ink, T.844-1974. Toni made a digital version of the design, printed 40 copies of the design on linen and sent out a social-media invitation for volunteers to embroider them. The invitation went viral and hundreds responded. After the initial forty designs had been distributed, Toni made the digital design available on her website https://blackworkembroidery.org/unstitched-coif-design/, inviting others to print it on material of their choice. Seventy-seven embroiderers submitted their coifs for display and inclusion in Toni’s PhD and have been acquired by the V&A as the collection, an unstitched coif . . .

Kim Brody Salazar downloaded Toni’s design, transferred it onto linen and here is her story:

"It’s pretty obvious that an unstitched coif . . . project isn’t my first foray into counted blackwork. Even so it was a very welcome challenge. I’ve been stitching in the inhabited style since the late 1970s, and still find joy in the moments when the addition of the dense outlines brings what appeared to be a blob of confused stitching into focus.

My goal for this piece was to evoke the splendor of Elizabethan embroidery. It was an age of more-is-more. Those with wealth and position dressed to impress, with lavish display. Although some of my choices part with historical methods and usages, I think I hit my goal. The overall finished project fairly screams detail and opulence, in a manner incongruent with today’s rather understated aesthetic.

Research and Preparation
Because the piece was too large to use my usual tracing method of taping to a bright window, I improvised a light table from a storm window, two sawhorses and a utility light. I was as careful as I could be to align the design to fabric grain. Based on the proportions of the stitch block (72 x 74 threads is very slightly askew), I laid my design out perpendicular to that of the people who received their materials upon enrolling in the project. Their direction makes for more economical use of the yardage, but I wasn’t concerned with maximizing yield for the specific required size. When I stitch on skew counts I optimize units to be taller than they are wide – no historical reason, I just prefer the look. I did “audition” threads and techniques on a snippet of the linen. I quickly learned that my gold thread was not suited for use as a passing thread, which limited it to being couched. I also learned that stitching over 2x2 threads wasn’t impossible with use of supplemental magnifiers. And (in time) I discovered that the heavier silk I intended for the perimeter outline was also unsuited for plaited stitches and adjusted my expectations accordingly.

As for collecting and using fills – I relied on my own notebooks and the collection provided by Ms. Buckby on the project website. I have compiled hundreds of fill designs, most of my own devising, plus some that I have redacted from historical sources. I chose my fills on the fly, thumbing through my notebooks (freely shared on my blog site as the Ensamplario Atlantio series), and Ms. Buckby’s pages as I stitched.

Historical Usages
Goldwork and black silk together are classic and occur on numerous examples of extant blackwork. I relied heavily on double running stitch for the fills, although I improvised with back stitch and half-back stitch to eke out the edges of the designs where the anticipated outlines so required. I used flat paillettes, although Elizabethan spangles were little C shape bits of wire pounded flat into Os rather than punched toroids. And although most pieces with spangles are not as densely covered as mine, there are some that are equally profligate.

Departure from Historical Examples
While this piece is evocative of Elizabethan aesthetic, I do not assert that this is an accurate historical re-creation of a piece of the time. Here are my departures:

Materials – I use three black threads, none of them totally historically congruent. My fills are in a fine modern-dyed black spun silk. The motif outlines are done in a commercially available spun silk four ply floss that has been small batch/custom dyed by hand with a historically accurate iron and tannin process. In 500 years, it will have eaten itself to death, as have so many black thread pieces in museum collections. The perimeter heavy outline was worked in a modern dye recipe reeled filament silk. The yellow thread holding down couched gold and affixing the paillettes is “art silk” – rayon. Both the Japanese #5 gold and the paillettes are imitation. I believe the #5 to be metallic/plastic foil encasing a rayon core, and the paillettes are probably metal coloured mylar.

The stitches – I used reverse chain for the motif outlines. Jacqui Carey in Elizabethan Stitches cites reverse chain as a stitch undocumented in Elizabethan era works, although a twisted reverse chain was used. I also used heavy chain as described by the Royal School of Needlework stitch index (basically a double reverse chain) for the heavier perimeter outline. Also not documented to the time. For the stems I used a double line of couched gold, then whipped selected portions of the stem line to make them visually distinct from the surrounding gold paillette field. I know of no specific uses of whipped couching in blackwork pieces.

The fills – Although many Elizabethan pieces use multiple fills, none that I know of use them in the sheer quantity of this piece. As a personal challenge, I did not duplicate fills between main motifs. A flower may have two petals in the same fill, but once that flower was completed, that fill is used nowhere else. I used 274 unique fills in the coif, 51 from Ms. Buckby, 223 of my own, with the overwhelming majority of those being my own doodles. In addition to liberal use of non-documented fills, in several places including radial petals and bi-directional insect wings, I rotated a fill when I repeated it. I have not seen a historical piece use that treatment. either.

The Experience
I have rarely worked with the consuming focus that I experienced on this effort. From the moment the linen arrived, did little else, stitching every day, even taking it with me on trips to visit family, and on vacation at the beach. I didn’t keep close count, but my total time expenditure was something between 890 and 920 hours, expended between April and mid-October, which averaged out to something near 5.5 hours per day.

What really stood out for me was the amount I learned. Even though I have decades of blackwork experience, working with this design, at this scale and with these materials brought new insights into technique, composition, interpretation, and approach.

I thoroughly enjoyed working as part of a larger group. I found great inspiration in the camaraderie and creativity of the Unstitched Coif group online, and wish I could have participated in the in-person sessions. I especially valued the insights shared by people new to this form of stitching. It helped me see my own work in a new light and spurred me to completion. I am in awe of the variety and virtuosity displayed. Especially so because I’ve always been a “lone wolf stitcher” – self-taught, and largely isolated from few people who understand or appreciate the embroiderer’s art.

Would I ever attempt something like this again? In a heartbeat. BUT I will never do another piece of this size and stitch count to deadline. While it was a totally enjoyable challenge, I would prefer to stretch production out over a longer time period. I’m afraid that my regular household and garden chores suffered for the neglect. And my recent retirement proved a blessing. I would not have been able to meet the deadline were I still actively working for a living.

I offer intense thanks to Toni and my fellow unstitched coif . . . participants, for the opportunity, the learning experience, the encouragement, and the camaraderie. I am looking forward to the December exhibit, and to meeting as many of the larger coif group as possible, in person."
Kim Brody Salazar