3 Helgeninder - cushion - Tanja Dinesen Skudstrup (TS)

3 Helgeninder - cushion - Tanja Dinesen Skudstrup (TS)

"3 Helgeninder" (Three Female Saints) - cushion - Tanja Dinesen Skudstrup (TS) is an embroidery kit for a decorative cushion with an ornamental motif in blue and light shades. The motif is inspired by an altar frontal from around 1525 from Mørkøv Church, which is now held at the National Museum of Denmark.

The old altar frontal depicts three female saints: Elisabeth or Dorothea, Catherine and Barbara. In this embroidery, however, it is not the saints themselves that are depicted. Instead, the ornamentation surrounding them has formed the starting point for the design.

An old pattern that kept calling

Some motifs you see once. Others keep returning to your thoughts.

This was how it was for Tanja Dinesen Skudstrup with the altar frontal from Mørkøv Church. She had visited the National Museum many times. Each time, she was drawn to the painted textiles and patterns behind the three women.

It was not only the female saints that caught her eye. It was everything hidden around them. The half flowers. The broken forms. The almost concealed patterns.

There was something in the ornamentation that felt both familiar and secret. As if the pattern only revealed part of itself. The rest had to be discovered.

From altar frontal to embroidery

At some point, the idea arose that some of the forms could reappear as embroidery. Not as a direct copy of the old motif. But as a new pattern with a life of its own.

It turned out to be a long process. The pattern was redrawn again and again. Sometimes it felt wrong. At other times, it suddenly fell into place. Then the balance disappeared again.

The project was put away and brought out several times. But the motif would not quite let go.

In the end, the patterns were broken up and composed anew. The half flowers were preserved as an important part of the story. Precisely the incomplete quality was part of what had originally made the motif interesting.

An ornamental motif in three parts

The motif has a calm and symmetrical structure. It is built around a square central field, surrounded by borders, leafy vines and curved ornaments.

Tanja Dinesen Skudstrup wanted to preserve something of the original’s tripartite structure and rhythm. For this reason, the design is built in three parts. It also works with three shades within each colour.

In this version, the motif is kept in blue and light shades. The darker blue fields create contrast and depth. The lighter blue and white tones give the motif air and calm.

The half flowers and broken forms are an important part of the expression. They bring the motif to life and create the sense of a pattern in which you can keep discovering new details.

A cushion with classic character

The finished cushion measures 30 x 30 cm. The smaller format makes the cushion easy to place on a sofa, armchair or bed. It can also be used as a decorative detail together with other cushions.

The cushion has a calm colour expression, but the motif contains many details. The blue shades create a harmonious expression, while the ornamental forms add rhythm and structure.

The embroidery is stitched with Danish Flower Thread. The thread gives the blue shades a soft and lively character. This suits the motif’s fine transitions and graphic structure well.

The cushion is embroidered on Haandarbejdets Fremme linen 10B. The fabric has a classic structure that is well suited to cross stitch and to a motif with many repeated details.

A flexible pattern

Three Female Saints is designed as a flexible pattern. It can form the basis for several different embroidered expressions.

The outermost pattern can be used on its own as a placemat. The innermost pattern can be used as a doily or pincushion. The two inner patterns can also be combined to create a small evening bag.

In this embroidery kit, the motif has been turned into a 30 x 30 cm cushion. Here, the ornamentation of the pattern is brought together in a small textile picture with calm, balance and historical inspiration.

Haandarbejdets Fremme and Tanja Dinesen Skudstrup’s visual language

Haandarbejdets Fremme is known for embroidery kits with fine materials, classic techniques and motifs with artistic weight. In this kit, historical inspiration and contemporary embroidery design meet.

Here, Tanja Dinesen Skudstrup works with what the eye first sees only in part. The hidden forms, the broken patterns and the half flowers are given new life in cross stitch.

Three Female Saints - cushion - Tanja Dinesen Skudstrup (TS) is an embroidery kit for those who love blue embroideries, ornamental patterns and classic cross stitch. The finished result becomes a beautiful cushion with quality from Haandarbejdets Fremme.