When I first hit on the idea for an embroidered chessboard, it was because I wanted to design projects which could be enjoyed as objects of beauty as well as being used functionally in our contemporary life.

I did a lot of background research into the development of the game and became especially interested in how it was brought to Spain with the Moorish occupation, and how it developed from there into the game we now know around the turn of the 16th Century.

It was then that I made a connection between chess and blackwork - both had Moorish/Spanish roots, so combining them in this project seemed absolutely appropriate.

This design is inspired by Moorish patterns - which have a unique spiritual feel, formed by the flow and play of lines and axes around a basic grid. These provided the basic patterns for the black squares on the chessboard, within which I started to place a variety of Elizabethan and Elizabethan-inspired blackwork filling patterns. All the squares are individually named and each gives a clue to the inspiration for that square’s design.

Queen Elizabeth I was apparently a keen chess player, having first learnt the game from her tutor, the humanist scholar, Roger Ascham. The design incorporates a play of black and gold which distinguishes so many of the beautiful examples of Elizabethan blackwork which have come down to us through the ages, hence the title ‘Queene Besse’s Chesse Boarde’, which is conceived as a tribute to "The Virgin Queen".

This design is stitched in silk and metallic threads on 32 count linen.

CHART PRICE: £25.00/$40.00

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