Aethelflaed’s Border – much to consider

Well now. There’s quite a lot going on here!

When I worked on William, I did large gouaches of the design elements and then printed them small and played around with them to make them fit in.

I’ve already done some gouache explorations of the design elements – I wrote about it last November – so I tried something different this time. I photocopied the embroidery, as best as I could, got my paints out, and played with border designs directly on the photocopy.

The first two designs are almost directly inspired by the design I did for William, but swap out the broom for the Plantagenets to put in the bee skeps and beer barrels associated with the defense of Chester. The crosses are still at the cardinal points – two different crosses, both inspired by my visit to the Staffordshire Hoard display – and there are still roses twining around and behind the other motifs.

Then I decided it would be interesting to see whether I could create variations that would still be successful, still create the sense of a Book of Hours, but maybe broaden the space I get to operate in when I move on to Mother Julian and Prior Rahere.

So, this time, bee skep top centre, three barrels at bottom centre, and the crosses only at east and west. I think I got a bit carried away with the roses here – it’s looking a bit cluttered!

Then, back to the bee skeps and barrels in the corners, this time the crosses only at north and south, and roses in between.

Clutter aside, I think what I have here is actually a choice not about detail, but about the entire Medieval Movers and Shakers. Do I keep Aethelflaed’s border looking a little more like William’s, or do I use it to broaden the design choices I can make later? Do I need to do that? Or do the choices remain for Mother Julian and Prior Rahere, regardless of what I do here?

After all, of my four Medieval Movers and Shakers, Aethelflaed and William were war leaders, diplomats, peace weavers. Mother Julian and Prior Rahere represent the clerics and the religious aspect of medieval life. So the pairings are obvious as they stand. None of the four were contemporaries, and the worlds in which they operated were really very different as well.