"Project Perugia" is my most complex weaving project to date. The beautifully woven table linens of mediaeval and renaissance Italy, commonly called "Perugia towels" by art historians, survive in considerable numbers and are depicted in numerous artworks from the late thirteenth century onward. Typically they are fustian, with a warps of singles linen and wefts of singles cotton, and have brocaded designs in indigo- or woad-dyed cotton. Although a few are plain-woven or have herringbone grounds, the vast majority are woven in six-harness diamond twills, with the brocaded designs worked over a warp-faced rep. The brocaded patterns can be simple geometrics or zigzags, stylised florals, inscriptions, and designs of birds and animals, with human figures and mythical creatures also appearing. My towels are woven in a four-harness diamond twill, because I have only a four-harness loom, and all the brocaded patterns are worked by a finger-controlled pickup over a warp-faced rep. Linen yarns are expensive, so I used a cottolin warp (60% cotton, 40% linen), at a sett of 30 ends per inch, with a cotton weft. The brocade designs are inspired by designs on surviving towels and representations, or are adapted from similar designs in early embroidery pattern books. My photos here are not the best, but they do convey the general idea.

This towel has designs of birds and flowers similar to those on many surviving towels, and a centre band of dogs inspired by patterns in sixteenth-century pattern books and surviving towels, with plain stripes woven in warp-faced rep.

The design on this towel is also original, though based on surviving towels. The stags are confronted on either side of a fir tree, on top of which is a peacock. Birds also perch on the backs of the stags.

The unicorns on this towel are adapted from a design first published by Johann Siebmacher, in his Schon Neues Modelbuch, Nurnburg, 1597. The floral and bird-and-castle designs are original.

My St George design is also adapted from a design in Siebmacher's 1597 modelbook. The bird-and-castle design here is based on the tablecloth in Domenico Ghirlandaio's "Last Supper" fresco in the refectory of San Marco, Florence, c. 1480.

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