Blackwork

In the earliest forms of blackwork, counted stitches were worked to make a geometric or small floral pattern.

Kasuti sometimes uses multiple colors in a piece, and Mamluk embroideries typically were monochrome, but done in black, red, blue, green, and yellow.

Geoffrey Chaucer in the Canterbury Tales describes the clothing of the miller's wife, Alison: "Of white, too, was the dainty smock she wore, embroidered at the collar all about with coal-black silk, alike within and out."

[b] Historic blackwork embroidery is rare to find well-preserved, as the iron-based dye used to create the thread's black colour was corrosive, and there are currently no conservation techniques that can stop the decay.

Much of the success of a blackwork design using free embroidery depends on how tone values are translated into stitches.