{"id":16075,"date":"2025-11-25T09:07:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T09:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=16075"},"modified":"2025-10-21T19:56:32","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T18:56:32","slug":"starting-to-plan-aethelflaeds-border","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/2025\/11\/25\/starting-to-plan-aethelflaeds-border\/","title":{"rendered":"Starting to plan Aethelflaed&#8217;s Border"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-medium\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/AethBord1_Watermarked.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"124\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/AethBord1_Watermarked-124x300.jpg\" alt=\"Dog roses and beer barrels 2\" class=\"wp-image-16079\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/AethBord1_Watermarked-124x300.jpg 124w, https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/AethBord1_Watermarked-422x1024.jpg 422w, https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/AethBord1_Watermarked-768x1861.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/AethBord1_Watermarked-634x1536.jpg 634w, https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/AethBord1_Watermarked.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 124px) 100vw, 124px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>As I get nearer to stitching the border for the Aethelflaed Embroidery, it is starting to become imperative that I make some plans for it.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-medium\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/AethBord2_Watermarked.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"159\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/AethBord2_Watermarked-159x300.jpg\" alt=\"Dog roses growing from beer barrels 1\" class=\"wp-image-16078\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/AethBord2_Watermarked-159x300.jpg 159w, https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/AethBord2_Watermarked-542x1024.jpg 542w, https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/AethBord2_Watermarked-768x1451.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/AethBord2_Watermarked.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 159px) 100vw, 159px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>This is why I started to work on painting, originally &#8211; not to become a painter, but simply to make design mistakes more quickly and easily than in stitches!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As I began thinking about it, and since I am conceiving of four panels which will between them cover four now lesser-known characters in politics and religion during the medieval period, I came to the conclusion that I should keep some themes across the four.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/barrels_Watermarked.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/barrels_Watermarked-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"A collage of beer barrels, Not having found any nearby, these are from Asterix!\" class=\"wp-image-16136\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;m keeping the background of trellis couched laid silk, for a start, and it will be the same blue, although I may make a change to the order of dark and light in the trellis couching itself.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-thumbnail\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/BeeSkeps_Watermarked.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/BeeSkeps_Watermarked-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"Bee skep designs\" class=\"wp-image-16087\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>The dog roses I used for William Marshall will appear in Aethelflaed&#8217;s border as well. My researches haven&#8217;t turned up any specific flora associated with Aethelflaed, but there&#8217;s a tale that the Viking attack on Chester was routed with boiling beer and angry bees, so I&#8217;m experimenting with beer barrels and bee skeps.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Crosses_Watermarked.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Crosses_Watermarked-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"Two garnet centred gold cross designs patterned after one in the Staffordshire Hoard\" class=\"wp-image-16135\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>And there will be a different cross at the cardinal points of the embroidery. These first efforts are patterned after sketches I&#8217;ve made at some of the exhibitions I&#8217;ve visited, showing elements of the Staffordshire Hoard and other items. Garnet and gold is a combination very strongly associated with the Anglo Saxons, and I&#8217;m having a lot of fun playing with details.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-thumbnail\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/AethBord3_Watermarked.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/AethBord3_Watermarked-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"Vague designs of a curved edged, garnet centred cross\n\" class=\"wp-image-16088\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/AethBord3_Watermarked-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/AethBord3_Watermarked-298x300.jpg 298w, https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/AethBord3_Watermarked-768x773.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/AethBord3_Watermarked.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Some of the ideas are not really working, others I think definitely are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;m certainly not yet ready to assemble a finished design. But at least there may be some signs of something to work with, and after all, I&#8217;ve still got a few weeks of thinking time while I do the laid and trellis couched border!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As I get nearer to stitching the border for the Aethelflaed Embroidery, it is starting to become imperative that I make some plans for it. This is why I started to work on painting, originally &#8211; not to become a painter, but simply to make design mistakes more quickly and easily than in stitches! As&hellip; <a class=\"continue\" href=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/2025\/11\/25\/starting-to-plan-aethelflaeds-border\/\">Continue Reading Starting to plan Aethelflaed&#8217;s Border<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[295,24,272,284,249],"class_list":["post-16075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-aethelflaed","tag-design-elements","tag-designing","tag-medieval-movers-and-shakers","tag-opus-anglicanum","radius"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16075"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16209,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16075\/revisions\/16209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}