Are stitches as identifiable as handwriting?

According to the Embroiderer's Guild, 1st August this year is to be celebrated as National Day of Stitch.

Painters are often identified by their brushstrokes so can embroiderer's be identified by their stitches? If a group of individuals all worked the same design with the same stitches, how easy would it be to recognise who stitched what?

The humble cross stitch can be created in a number of ways, as I discovered when I was looking at marked fabrics dating back to the 18th century in the archives of the London Foundling Hospital. This tiny sample was an experiment to see how despite the stitching looking identical from the front, depending on the technique used, the stitch was very different on the back.  Stitched on ordinary linen and not the even weave used here, the size would be another identifier.

In 1784, a Boy (William Horton, aged 11) was tried at the Old Bailey for theft of tablecloths, shirts and other items.  There was a long discussion regarding marking and how fallible it might be as proof of ownership.

Mr Garrow (the Prisoner's Counsel), asked the victim of the theft (Mrs Ball) how she could prove that the shirts were hers.  She replied  "There is but one that is unmarked."  Mr Garrow then asks "Why is not the marking of every other girl that learns to mark at the same time alike?" to which Mrs Ball replies, "I lost my property that morning, I must judge."  Mrs Ball seems convinced she would recognise her own stitching when she saw it.  

In the end it was not the stitching that was disputed but whether William was actually one of the thieves. I am pleased to say that William was found not guilty.

What is not said is whether Mrs Ball ever got her property back.

Indigenous Australia: enduring civilisation

This exhibition does have not much in the way of textile work - not surprising as the culture of indigenous Australia has no tradition of cloth making.  From what I understand, clothing is either from animal skins or in the form of body adornments and decorations.  However this exhibition does include some weaving in the form of basketwork. It is an interesting exhibition, beautifully displayed and informative, but also controversial.

This exhibition is an opportunity to learn about cultures very different from Western society. The narrative itself appears fairly comprehensive, starting with information about the landscape and its importance to the indigenous people. Artefacts are used to explain traditions and ideas that are culturally important, and I was pleased to discover that an Indigenous Tasmanian was the curator. The exhibition also touched on controversial topics relating to colonialism and post-colonialism, although not in any depth.  The exhibition has sparked a debate on repatriation.

The very last item in the exhibition was a basket woven by Abe Muriata, an indigenous Australian who learnt from watching his grandmother weave as a child, but also by examining historic items in a museum to understand traditional techniques.  The question the visitor seemed to be left with was that without museums displaying such objects, would these techniques have been lost?  Without such displays would we have any understanding of other cultures?  

The exhibition continues until 2 August 2015 at the British Museum, London.

Shifting Patterns

If you search for "barkcloth" on the internet there are two types of fabric under this name - a textured fabric for soft furnishing, popular in the mid-twentieth century, and cloth made from bark.  I had never heard of the furnishing fabric, but now I have discovered what it is, I was quite pleased that it was the latter type that was on display at the British Museum.

Their exhibition looks at the use of this textile on the islands of the Pacific, using techniques that most likely date back 5,000 years (or more) up to the present day.  

The exhibition is small, and at the very back of the museum, but it is one of their free exhibitions. This also means it was perfectly okay to take photographs allowing me to record the variety of patterns and textures that were on display.  I was also pleased to see, at the very beginning of the exhibition, a small piece of barkcloth that could be touched - allowing visitors to experience the softness of what might be perceived as a rather hard textile.

This piece (above) was printed with leaves.

And there were other fabrics like these above, that were printed to look like woven textiles.

There was a great variety of patterns and designs - perfect for anyone looking for interesting sources for their own contemporary work.

Some of the pieces had additional embellishments with fringing and beading as seen in this sample.

As well as garments there were masks, headdresses (as illustrated, above) and body adornments.  One designer has even used the material for a very (non traditional) wedding dress.

This exhibition is worth a visit.  It is not very big so perhaps something to combine with other areas, or displays such as Indigenous Australia, which finishes on 2nd August, or the new Drawing in Silver and Gold, or the Celtic Art exhibition both opening in September.

The Shifting Patterns exhibition continues at the British Museum until 6 December - in room 91.

Why would anyone embroider a cup?

Renaissance art is very much about showing off - your power, your wealth, your position in society. It seems that anything that could be decorated was, and embroidery used to be one of the most highly prized of skills, much more expensive to commission than painting.  A new permanent gallery at the British Museum to house the Waddesdon Bequest is full of the sort of items that proved you had "arrived".

There are some absolutely exquisite items on display - carved wood and rock crystal, lacquarware, enamel, jewels and paintings, etc, etc, etc.  The miniature wood carvings are almost beyond belief.  I was however surprised to see that the collection also included some embroidery - it was not even obvious on first viewing. 

The most impressive of the embroidered items is a gold cup (Transylvanian Gold Cup, WB.66) - not something I would have thought of as an embroidered item.  In fact it is hard to believe that the sides and top section of the base is fabric, decorated with jewels and pearls.  There is no information as to how or when it was used, but it seems obvious that it was ceremonial rather than a functional drinking cup.

The other embroidered item was a knife sheaf (Wedding knife sheath, WB.202).  Unfortunately not easy to photograph but the British Museum website does offer a much better photo.

This gallery is a new permanent gallery - completely free to visit.  It really needs more than one visit to take in everything.

Fabric from fungus!

When I went to help out at a Wild Food and Chilli Fair last weekend, the last thing I expected to do was to discover a "fabric" I had never heard of before.  In particular I did not expect to find out about it on a stall dealing with food foraging and another on bushcraft.  But here I learnt about amadou.

Amadou is a soft spongy substance that is found in the bracket fungus (see above).  This piece was probably about a foot or more (30cm+) in diameter, and at the back you could see where it had once been attached to a tree.  The fungus is also known as horse's hoof fungus (which seems obvious when you see its shape), or tinder fungus (a name that references once of its many uses).

It is apparently used by fly fisherman to dry artificial flies.  It is also used for starting fires with flint and steel (of which I was treated to a demonstration) and why Otzi the iceman (who died 5,000 years ago and preserved in ice), had some about his person when he was discovered in the 20th century.

However it can also be used as a fabric.  A sample on the bushcraft stall had been made into a cap, and it felt like a piece of suede leather; but a vegetarian version.  Really soft and not at all like a fungus.

It made me wonder what other strange fabrics come from nature, not including the obvious (ie, cotton, flax, silk, wool etc).  Nettles of course make very good fibres (they were making fibres from it at the show, although I missed this demo), but I wonder if there are any other unusual sources?