Celtic Symbols

I've been slowly pulling together material for a talk  to a tour group visiting Adelaide in August. I want to show,  examples of ancient celtic symbols still used in embroidery. There are plenty of images in books and online, but I am concerned about breaching copyright in my PowerPoint,, so decided to draw my own. Drawing freehand it wasn't easy to get them symmetrical  but after the best part of a day, I had what I thought was a useable set.

That's when I decided to embroider them. 

Before tackling the complexity of the knots, I did a trial  with a much simpler, more recent symbol,  the Awen, created in the 18th century by Iolo Morganwg for Cymry Gorsedd, the society of Welsh bards.The Welsh word awen refers to the divine inspiration powering artists, poets and musicians. The symbol carries, in addition, of course, a variety of additional trinitarian notions  - maid, mother, crone; sea, sky land; and for some, the Christian trinity.

I used my 6" seated hoop for the embroidery, then mounted it in a 4" hoop backed with a darket blue fabric.

It was good practice, but not of a lot of use for my talk on the Early Middle Ages!

The  triquetra and circle, or trinity knot, was more on task. If representa the power of three - past, present, future,  as well as the list above. 

The three interlocking arcs proved quite hard to embroider symmetrically. The original drawing on the linen faded and my eye was not quite true, even though I outlined the edges with running stitch. At least my interlocking line is unbroken!

The Quaternary seemed a little easier, although maybe I was just improving with practice. It may also have been easier to embroider stem stitch lines than a satin stitch fill. While I got the interlocking arcs a bit more even, the circle leaves a lot to be desired!

The quaternary was used to represent the four directions, the four elements (air, water, earth, fire) and the four Celtic festivals, Samhain, Beltaine, Imbolc and Lughnasadh.

Finally I plunged into the Triskelion, quite tricky to draw but a bit easier to embroider using stem stitch. This is a female symbol indicating, as well as the trinitarian notions, the need for balance, harmony and things working together.

I had intended to embroider the shield knot as well, but stuffed up when copying the design on to linen, ending up with another, less effective quaternary.  While the circle is better, the knot is wonky. More haste, less speed.

For now I am planning to use the shield knot sketch rather than an embroidery in my presentation..

I'm satisfied with the less-than-perfect results, which I think will at least demonstrate what I want without breaching copyright.