The Once and Future King
designer/seamstress: rachel murphy

The Once and Future King is a one-off, original design Irish dance dress created by Rachel Murphy of Silverlode Needlecraft. The base fabric is a rich black dupioni silk, and the appliqué and satin stitch embroidery are various shades of silver, gold, and black. The appliqué is comprised of lamés , brocades (especially the stunning crusader's cross brocade), and glitterdots. The steel-silver glitterdot of the sleeves echoes chain mail. All of the embroidery is freehand machine work using the satin stitch. The scalloped edge is designed to vaguely resemble the Roman influence in the armor of Arthur's time. The dress is accented with over 550 Swarovski (genuine Austrian) crystals.

The Latin phrase is embroidered in Celtic script, and is the epitaph on King Arthur's supposed burial site in Glastonbury:

Hic jacet Arturus, rex quondam, rexque futurus.
"Here lies Arthur, the once and future king."

This dress, which has been a joy to make, is in the midst of completion for mid-Janurary 2007.

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