holbein · silk · iberian / english
only one thread, only one colour, only counted threads. blackwork is drawing in ink on cloth, with the cloth's own grid as a ruler. the contour is set down first; then the inside of the shape is filled with a counted diaper — diamonds, hexagons, small repeating mercies.
it travelled across courts in collars and cuffs, and then through houses, where any iron-gall ink or any soot-stained silk would do. it survives best because black silk eats itself slowly, and because the cloth around it remembers the holes. see also whitework, which is its opposite, and the inkpot the wrong drawer over.
field-note: the reverse is identical to the front. the holbein stitch was designed for the wrong side to be seen.
sampler · pomegranate · chain stitch · black · word