More than just an embroidery

As a stitcher, with an interest in history, I feel rather ashamed to say that I have never seen the Bayeux Tapestry (the embroidery), or even the copy by the Victorian ladies of Leek that now resides at Reading Museum.  It is on my "to do" list, but obviously not very high up.  However, as I mentioned in last week's blog, I have been reading Carola Hicks' book The Bayeux Tapestry: The Life Story of a Masterpiece, which although it has been print since 2006, I only discovered last week.

The book starts with a description of the work, with a run down of the narrative alongside explanations and suggestions of major scenes - not all of them completely understood.  Then it looks at possible patrons of which Queen Matilda and Bishop Odo seem the front runners.  Carola suggests another could suggestion might be Edith Godwinson, widow of King Edward, sister of King Harold, friend of King William and makes a good case for this possibility.  After discussion on how the embroidery could have been physically made the story goes on as to how it has been the subject of various interpretative studies by antiquarians, used as propaganda by both Napolean and Himler, been copied on paper and in thread, claimed as equally likely to be British, French or Norman (with links to Vikings) and how it has been used in advertising, modern satire and of course turned into a profitable tourist destination.

Along the way there are asides about novels and films that have used the embroidery either as part of the plot or in the background.  The embroidery was also once the subject of a musical play.  The work has also been the inspiration behind many other embroidered works such as the Overlord Embroidery. I also know of the Maldon Embroidery (and seen both).  By coincidence my local paper mentioned that the Maldon Embroidery (local to where I live) has its 25th anniversary this year and the Maldon branch of CAMRA ("the beer people") are celebrating this fact with its beer festival, raising funds for the Heritage Centre it is housed in.  It just shows that a work like this does not end when the last stitch is made.

There may have been parts of the book I enjoyed more than others but there were many times when I just could not put it down.  I felt the author had researched it so well and it has a lovely collection of notes and an extensive bibliography - which I always think is the sign of a good book.  The good research was perhaps not surprising as the author taught Art History at Cambridge.  What is sometimes unusual is the ability to turn good research into what I felt was an easy and entertaining read.   I felt I had gone on the research journey with the author and was quite saddened to learn that she had died about four years after publishing.

For anyone interested in embroidery and history I think this book is a must read and I will search out some of the authors other work.  Also trips to Bayeux and Reading  are now much higher on my list.  

Q: When is a tapestry not a tapestry!

A: When it is an embroidery

How often is a large scale embroidery given the title "tapestry" despite the fact that they are techniques as different as ceramics and glasswork, metalwork and carpentry, being a plumber or an electrician?  Apparently the original brief for the Hardhome Embroidery (see above) was to create a "tapestry" like the Bayeux Tapestry (which is an embroidery).  I purchased a book on the Bayeux Tapestry later on the day I saw this exhibition*.  Although I am still reading, it suggests it is probably down to some (male) antiquarians who were interested in all types of things but usually with little expertise.  Now it seems almost any large scale textile works is given the title of tapestry, and many despair.

This particular embroidery was the creation of members of the Embroiderer's Guild, the Royal School of Needlework, Hand & Lock and Fine Cell, under the direction of Embroiderer's Guild Creative Director, Anthea Godfrey.   It is a combination of hand and machine stitching, applique, beadwork, metal thread work, quilting, and digital printing.  One press report highlighted the fact it was made by pensioners and prisoners but it was also made by students and people of working age too - men and women.  How many hours it took to stitch was another questioned asked, but as any embroiderer (or other craftsman/woman knows) we rarely count.  Also does anyone consider how long it takes to plan and organise, etc, etc?  Did anyone ask Picasso or Van Gogh how long they took to paint something - I think not.

Rant over!

Luckily I had already planned to visit London on one of the days it went on display at Central St Martin's, near King's Cross in London.  It is hoped that it will travel over the coming weeks and months.  The Embroiderer's Guild website should have details when available.

I have never watched Game of Thrones, where the character of the White Walker, (the central image of the piece), comes from but seeing this did tempt me to seek it out.  I am told that some of the costumes have some fantastic embroidery too.  

The edge of the embroidery has a border of family crests (see above) - emblems of allegiance and kinship.  I think most (if not all) of these were made by individual Embroiderer's Guild members.

An impressive work, in a short time scale - an achievement in terms of creativity, technical skill and a logistical challenge.  A chance to show that embroidery is a cutting edge art and at the same time built on traditional techniques.

Look out for it if it comes your way.

*"The Bayeux Tapestry: The Life Story of a Masterpiece" by Carola Hicks (2007), Vintage Books

Oh what beautiful mourning

Nine times a year, East Anglian Stitch Textiles (E.A.S.T) meet at Braintree Museum in Essex.  It seems an appropriate home for a textile group because of the strong textile links that exist with the town's heritage.  One of the major technical processes that made Samuel and George Coutauld so successful was it's production of mourning crepe.  The museum has a really fascinating display in their permanent collection on the connection between Coutauld's and mourning costume.  It includes rollers (see above) used to create what is an absolutely beautiful type of cloth, were it not for its sombre use. 

The commercial success of mourning crepe was made even more lucrative because it was believed unlucky to keep the fabric in the home.  So for each new bereavement, new clothes had to be made, and new fabric purchased.

On Sunday 15th May 2016, E.A.S.T will be at the Braintree Textile Fair, which is spread over three sites - the museum itself, the town hall and the Warner Textile Archive.  The mourning crepe was the inspiration behind one of the pieces in the Threads of Time collection, which will be the subject of the group's talk at 2pm.  

Olympian threads and textile treasures

Last week my friend Susan and I, went to the Knitting and Stitching Show at Olympia.  Unlike Alexander Palace, the exhibition was smaller and unfortunately we were disappointed that there were no book stalls, no art supplies and too much knitting and dressmaking for our interests.  Despite that there were some absolute gems to be found that made our trip across London worthwhile.

There were only about six main exhibitions by textile artists or groups, but if there was little in quantity, there was certainly quality.  The first stall we particularly enjoyed was the work of Neil Cheney, an artist working in Ireland who uses mainly digital techniques.  He had created a body of work based on the Forest of Arden from Shakespeare's As You Like It (see above).  The pieces were built up in layers, and showed real skill in their designs.

Next door we visited the stall of Mary Sleigh and Jan Miller and their exhibition, Somewhere in Between.  I had met Mary a couple of years ago at an Eastern Region Textile Forum conference, and we had both met Jan Miller as she had run a workshop for the E.A.S.T group we both belong to.  So not only was it a delight to see their work, but we spent quite a lot of time chatting too.  

(Work by Mary Sleigh)

(Work by Jan Miller)

Another stand we spent quite a while looking in detail at was the work of Louise Baldwin (below). 

All three exhibitions made the trip to Olympia worth the journey plus there was one other gem in the trade stalls.

Linladen is Swedish for "the flax barn", and the company has developed from a old factory, closed in the 1960s, with a supply of beautiful linen yarn left behind.  They are now selling it in reels or in sets, and also sold pieces of fabric and books of Swedish embroidery designs.  The threads were of beautiful texture and colour, and it is a stall well worth seeking out in the future. 

Krishna's cloth

Room 91 in the British Museum can be found at the back of the "Living and Dying", Wellcome Trust Gallery.  It houses temporary exhibitions, usually of an ethnographic nature and invariably including textiles.  The exhibitions there are free and there is usually a programme of associated talks and events.

At the moment the galleries is host to an exhibition relating to one particular piece of cloth.  Over 9 metres long it is a devotional textile known as the "Vrindavani Vastra". Woven into it are characters and scenes that tell the story of the Hindu god Krishna. The cloth is made up of 12 strips woven using a lampas weave technique, stitched together.  Why it has been stitched as it has and why it was found in Tibet when it originated from India is not known.

It is worth watching the film running at the beginning of the exhibition as here is explained some of the characters that feature in the narrative depicted on the cloth itself - easily spotted are the crane demon and the snake demon.  There are also dance masks and illustrated manuscripts that relate to the same legend on display.  

It was interesting to see how one textile could be enhanced with additional information and artefacts to tell a more complete story of the lives of the society it originated from. One textile but a multi-layered story.

My time at the exhibition was limited, but as Krishna in the Garden of Assam continues until the 15th August 2016, there is time to return.  

At home with Captain Harle

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Rainham Hall in Essex, UK is one of the latest National Trust properties to be opened to the public.  I made my first visit there last weekend, not only to visit the hall but to see the work of the 'Material Girls' textile group.  Their work was displayed in the hall itself last year, but some of the work has been developed since then and their open studio event not only could I see the work itself, but also see some of their ideas and development.  Each day one of the artists is on hand to tell you more about their work, so I was also lucky to catch up with my friend Helen.

The Hall itself was built in 1729 for a Captain John Harle, as a family home and although its contents were scattered many years ago, the exterior and interior have survived pretty well.  

At present the display in the hall tells the life and times of Captain Harle, although in different seasons the displays will change to tell the lives of other occupants.  At present there are displays on items not just related to Captain Harle's nautical life, but life in the eighteenth century in general, including a recreation of a coffee house in the kitchen area.  A particularly beautiful exhibit is a dress, recreated in a style perhaps not dissimilar to the sort of dress Captain Harle's bride might have worn on her wedding day.  

One display is not peculiar to the house's original origins but shows a range of objects found during the conservation process - objects lost and now found beneath the floorboards giving a glimpse into the lives of a whole host of inhabitants.  

The Material Girls will hold their open studio until the end of this week (finishes 28 February 2016) and is free to visit (there is a fee to visit the hall).  They are situated above the cafe, but unfortunately there is no disabled access.  In May they have a new exhibition Ingrebourne Valley Visitor Centre in Hornchurch, Essex.

Communicating in Fabric and Stitch

The East Anglian Stitch Textile (E.A.S.T) group to which I belong is currently preparing for the last display of our WWI themed exhibition  Between the Lines which travels to the Landmark Arts Gallery, Teddington, later in the summer.  As part of the exhibition there will be workshops on the themes of "identity" and "communication".  We wanted to explore something relevant to the exhibition without necessarily being war related.

Once you start to explore the theme of identity you realise what a huge topic it is - where to start? Perhaps start with name or initials?  Or geographical location - town, county, country or part of the wider world - a European or a citizen of Earth?  To begin with it I didn't know where to begin until I thought about a subject that has inspired me for the last decade - that of foundling tokens.  

One of the aspects I find particularly interesting about the tokens is the fact that they can communicate through time - a heart left in the 18th century by a mother giving up a child is still understood as a message of love and hope in the 21st century.  It is a simple symbol with a complex history and connects with themes of friendship and faith as well as romantic love.  

My sample of work, of which there are only details shown here, is a combination of hearts that not only relate to my years of research and the stories discovered but using fabrics which have their own memories they contain hidden aspects of my own identity.  The heart at the top of this page is from a piece of fabric copied from a scrap in the Foundling Hospital archives.  Originally it was used for the exhibition Threads of Feeling, - an exhibition about the foundling textile tokens that ran at the London Foundling Museum in 2010/11.  The second heart shown includes a piece of my wedding dress fabric - just a small scrap left over not a piece cut from the dress itself.  One heart includes fabric given to me by a friend Angela from the USA (see below) as a gift, a friend made through the token exhibition.  Another piece (not shown) is left over from a banner I helped make with the Billericay Branch of the Essex Handicrafts Association so a reminder of other friendships.  Another a piece of tea-towel bought from my local supermarket, but used in a piece of work that told the story of Margaret Larney - the tragic and true story of a women I have researched in depth.  Every fabric holds a memory, sometimes several, and thereby becomes part of the story of my identity.

Although the work was originally planned as a sample for the E.A.S.T workshop, I am hoping to put it into an exhibition of work for the Chelmsford branch of the Embroiderer's Guild, later this year. With each use the work will add another layer of memories.