Now back in stock!
The depth of this black color sometimes startles people who had heard that in Olden Times, people couldn't dye black colors as deep as we can today. Our 16th Century Black thread has been dyed with our own custom amalgam of the dyes and techniques used to dye black in the Plictho, a dyer's manual compiled and printed in Italy in 1548.
This color represents high achievement the black-dyer's art in that time and place, but is historically appropriate for a fairly wide range of time and space. The entire process takes several days to a week of active and passive work, which is why this thread is more expensive than most... just as deep black was more costly than sky blue in 1548.
Sold in 50 yard hanks, it is primarily used for embroideries, especially 16th-century inspired blackwork, but can be used to weave small tapestries or narrow trims, braid into cord, etc. If embroidering, you can take apart the 4 plies for very fine work- each 2/130 ply is much finer than a single ply of DMC cotton floss.
Both color and thread are hardier than one might think: one happy customer has used this thread to embroider a head cover with blackwork that has seen numerous hours of sun and have been washed by machine repeatedly with no fading or visible deterioration of the thread after several years. (Note: blackwork embroidery typically uses short, linear stitches. We do not recommend machine washing anything with longer or more complex fill stitches such as satin stitch!) Photo used with permission of the creator, Kim Brody Salazar; see more about the pictured pieces and learn about blackwork in general here: https://string-or-nothing.com/2020/11/06/blackwork-thread-thickness-and-grounds/