Liturgical Fabrics: Design Details

The details are in the design, and so it is with many of my favorite Liturgical Fabrics.  In the next few weeks and months, we will be taking a close look at a wide variety of fabrics available for use in making church vestments.  But for this evening, let’s focus on beauty, created in and by the details.

Venezia is a lovely name for a liturgical fabric. It conjures up thoughts of foreign lands with such a name, and so it should.  Venezia’s name is tied to the Venetian artisans of long ago. The 15th century Venetian artisans, who drew much of their design influence from the ancient Romans, developed a taste for reproducing many of the classical architectural features from that era.  Those features include the use of graceful lines, the classical form of the pottery or jar, in the jardiniere, as well as other design elements such as the birds, plants, and scroll work.

We’ll start by taking a look at a few of the lovely design details woven to create this beautiful fabric: a pair of birds are perched on either side of bent flower stems as if keeping guard over a precious object. Although a challenge to capture in photography, the metallic highlights in the fabric weave create a lovely touch of sparkle, with the use of glittering gold threads. This fabric has a lovely, soft, shimmering effect, sure to capture both light and attention.

A close up of the jardiniere shows the artistry used by the designer in recreating this Liturgical Fabric pattern. Note the skillful use of the textures in the weave of the pottery, combined with chevron and patchwork patterns created with the metallic fibers. Even in this photo, the shine of the metallic threads is highly visible, creating areas of high contrast within the design. The weaving includes sections which mimic satin stitching used in hand embroidery to further outline and accent various design elements. Note the subtle variations in color, and the affect that has upon the design. The combination of satin stitch which is slightly raised, along with the variations in color create depth and dimension with this fabric.

This is the crowning touch to the jardeniere’s elegant floral motifs. Notice the elaborate texture of the weave in the crown and the surrounding design elements.  Many of the weaving patterns and textures are created in such a way as to mimic hand embroidery stitches. One can see imitations of  the  voided stitches, satin stitches, and even areas that mimic fill work like the seed stitch.  The Ogee motif located directly under the crown even has the look of lattice stitching.

One of the nicest features of the Venezia Liturgical Fabric for use in making church vestments is the variety of colors available. Venezia is available in a gold/gold, white/gold and multi-colored version. This fabric is suitable for use in making an entire vestment set, as well as for use as orphrey bands to add detail and contrast to other fabrics. Over the next few weeks and months, we will be taking a closer look at many different liturgical fabrics, and in time, we will pair those fabrics up with others to show design options for base fabrics and orphrey trims.

And now that you may have fallen in love with this elegant fabric, you might be wondering where you can get some for your next liturgical vestment or Ecclesiastical sewing project.  Stay tuned! The details will be coming shortly on Ecclesiastical Sewing.

Solo Dei Gloria

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