I love traditional samplers and
enjoyed the ‘The eye of the needle’ exhibition at the Ashmolean earlier this
year (see blog in September). I like their regularity and neatness but they
always bring to mind the contrast between the constrained cross stitched messages
and the feelings of the embroiderer. I would love to meet Polly Cook whose
sampler is referred to in Rozsika Parker’s book ‘The subversive stitch’, unfortunately
there is no picture but the text reads ‘Polly Cook did it and she hated every
stitch she did in it’ (Parker 1984 p132). In the spirit of Polly Cook I
produced a virtual sampler using the Illustrator program. The complete text
reads: ‘I sew a long seam and my pins and needles help me for sometimes the
thread escapes me’ but the words fade in and out to reveal the phrases ‘help
me’ and ‘I long for escape’ hidden within the main text, reflecting the
concealed thoughts of the seamstress (see image above, taken at the Cloth and
Memory exhibition in 2012). I’ve also been sourcing samplers for a Pinterest
board on subversive stitching and have found some lovely examples, such as ‘Dull
women have immaculate houses’, ‘You’ve done this wrong’ on a sampler stitched
vertically instead of horizontally, and my favourite, which says simply ‘Don’t
f**k with me’.
Wednesday 17 December 2014
Thursday 11 December 2014
Marriage lines
‘Marriage lines’ is my response
to a group project at Jane Austen House Museum. The brief was to make a textile
response to link Jane Austen’s needlework and some pages from her unfinished
story ‘The Watsons’, which are currently on display in the house on loan from
the Bodleian Library. I was struck by Jane Austen’s use of pins to ‘cut and
paste’ paragraphs from her manuscript, in the same way she must have used pins
to hold her needlework together before sewing it. I therefore wanted to link the
ideas of pins, unfinished text and fabric, and I decided to make a wedding veil,
as Jane’s stories all link to marriage and courtship. The lace trim of the veil includes words from a
quote about marriage from ‘The Watsons’ spoken
by the heroine’s sister, Elizabeth: ‘I
think I could like any good humoured man with a comfortable income’. The
words are on separate pieces of lace and are pinned in place, in the same way
Jane pinned her needlework and her manuscripts, suggesting that she is just
about to sew them down but hasn’t quite decided on their final arrangement. The
veil therefore mirrors Jane Austen’s own practice in crafting textiles and text
and her equivocal views about
marriage - her own and those of her characters.
Tuesday 9 December 2014
Stitched together
This
exhibition at Jane Austen’s house, Chawton, includes the work of 11 artists - including
mine – the veil shown above. The brief was to make work inspired by Jane
Austen’s novels and her needlework to coincide with the loan of some pages of
her unfinished manuscript, The Watsons, from the Bodleian Library. Several of
the artists linked the idea of lace and text including Charis Bailey’s embroidered
text, Jo Lovelock’s dream catcher (see below), Poppy Szaybo’s printed lace
collars, and my veil – more of which in a future blog.
Others
focused on layers and fragments including Charlotte Small’s overlapping layers,
Laura Brainwood’s work inspired by layers of paper, Clare Rose’s fragment of
patchwork incorporating text and Beverly Ayling Smith’s fragments of patchwork
scraps hidden throughout the house (see below).
The remaining
artists concentrated on the idea of text, including Denise Jones who linked text
with music, Hannah White’s iPad case enclosing original correspondence, and
Charlotte Martin’s quotes from Austen’s novels woven into cloth. The artists
are all linked to either the University for the Creative Arts or the Royal
School of Needlework as staff or students. Caren Garfen mentored all the
artists during the project. The exhibition isn’t on for long, it closes on 16
December, so do go and see it before then.
Tuesday 2 December 2014
Sampling TB lace
I’ve made a
start on my TB lace using linen thread and crochet cotton as a gimp. The basic design
indicates the shapes of the bacteria by using gimps to outline open areas in a
half stitch ground. The idea was to have open lozenge shapes to represent the bacteria
and then add inclusions, again in rough lozenge shapes, to indicate other
bacteria in various stages of deterioration. Having made a start on working the
pattern, I’m happy with the lozenge shapes outlined in the gimp but not so sure
about the inclusions. I think the best plan will be to make the lace and then
add other threads to the lace by hooking or sewing them in later if I think I need
them. I’m pleased with the tally though and think I will use more, as it adds a
bit of interest and also maintains the open shape of the ‘bacteria’.
Wednesday 26 November 2014
Gothic crochet
I was
delighted to come across this book of gothic crochet designs from 1964.
Unfortunately they are based on gothic architecture rather than the spooky kind
of gothic, which would have been really exciting, but they are interesting none
the less. They are all in the same style and seem to have been designed by the
same person but sadly his or her name is not given. They are all worked in
Coats Mercer-Crochet no 20 using a no 3 crochet hook. Most of the designs are
for round mats based on such exalted sites as the Rose window of Chartres
Cathedral and the fan vaulting of King’s College Chapel Cambridge. However
there are also some edgings based on the West Front of Lichfield Cathedral and
tracery at St Lorenz, Nuremburg. What impresses me is that the Coats Sewing
Group had the commitment to design, in the early 60s, to commission crochet
mats based on a theme like this.
Wednesday 19 November 2014
Lace doilies
I’ve been doing some research into
lace doilies and was delighted to find these at the Lace Guild. They cover a
variety of techniques including Bedfordshire bobbin lace, crochet, tatting, and
netting. It seems that doilies were
named after a draper with a shop in the Strand in London, in the early
nineteenth century. However, I’ve also discovered that it is quite difficult to
define a doily as there are many types of lace mat and combinations of lace
mats including luncheon sets, cheval sets, coasters and tray cloths. It’s a
case of ‘you know one when you see one’, but defining it is not so easy!
Monday 10 November 2014
Tuberculosis lace design
I’m designing
some lace as part of my research into domestic conditions in the nineteenth
century. It will be embedded in silk paper to represent the idea of the
curtains of the home and the lungs of the body being clogged up with germs and particles
from the air. I’ve decided to base it on the tuberculosis bacterium as TB is a
disease of overcrowded living conditions, which we associate with that period of
history. I’ve found some images of the bacteria and they seem to be long
lozenge shapes, so I’m using them as the central motif of the lace, embedded in
a fairly open half-stitch background. I also want to add some trapped particles
so I will intersperse the ground with cocoon-like shapes, probably in thicker
threads. Most of the lace will be covered in silk paper or have silk paper
overlaying it so making the lace too fine would be a waste of effort. I’m not
sure how to design the edges yet but will probably opt for some sort of
scalloped shape to make it easier to attach the silk paper when I come to make
that. I’ll keep you posted!
Wednesday 5 November 2014
Releve, pirouette, What now?
This is the title of an intriguing exhibition of work by Chien-Wei Chang at the Crafts Study Centre
at Farnham. He is a metalworker and often combines silver with found natural
materials. As a Taiwanese artist living in the UK he brings two different
aesthetics together in his work and much of it is physically composed of two
artefacts split and rejoined. I was very taken with his pieces made from small
containers and spoons (the works are not titled) – they appeared to me like
tiny reliquaries, just the right size to hold in the palm of the hand, and held
the promise of hidden meanings. Splitting of objects pervaded the entire
exhibition, with vessels and furniture cut and displayed in two parts, alluding
to the two aspects of Chang’s life coming together to produce this fascinating
work.
Saturday 1 November 2014
Lacemakers exhibition at Orleans House Gallery
This is a
mixed exhibition of lace and work inspired by lace, at the Stables gallery at
Orleans House, Twickenham. Although it includes a complete mixture of textiles,
drawings, prints, ceramics, and jewellery, they are all linked by the thread of
lace and come together to form a pleasing exhibition. I liked some of the
contrasts created, such as the texture of Gail Baxter’s felt and bobbin lace
‘Cover cloth’ compared with the pristine lines of Teresa Whitfield’s ‘Charlotte
Bronte’s shawl’ (both shown in the image above). It was interesting to see
Hannah White’s light reflective collar ‘Lace tracks’ and Gill Bird’s ‘Raised
and rolled’ black and white wired piece. Gill Smith’s cut paper giving the
illusion of an open door and its shadow was both beautiful and clever, as was
Dawn Cole’s printed collar incorporating text entitled ‘Men had eyes removed’.
Janice Webb’s
collaged pieces also contrasted with Lizzie Lee’s conical lampshades made of
recycled lace (pictured). I also liked Beth Walsh’s use of bobbin and needle
lace in her hanging ‘Porta della carta’ and the more formal lines of Clare
Sams’ filet lace ‘I loved you’ antimacassar. It was nice to see Tamara
Goulding’s three dimensional needlelace ‘Floating’ and contrast it with Maggie
Bonsey’s delicate, black, three dimensional geometric forms.
I thought Gil
Dye’s tiny lace collars and Dorie Millerson’s small needle lace vehicles could
have been displayed to greater effect. Gil’s work would have benefited from
being seen from above and Dorie’s from better lighting and shadows. In
contrast, Emma Tann’s black crochet and embroidery installation was beautifully
and painstakingly displayed at one end of the gallery (image above). It is
always difficult to hang a mixed exhibition and, on the whole, I thought the curators
had done a great job and produced an interesting exhibition, expanding the
theme of lace beyond the textile.
Friday 24 October 2014
Textile research at the V&A
‘A year at
Clothworkers’ was a fascinating symposium about textile research at the
V&A. Staff and researchers from the newly opened Clothworkers Centre, based
at Blythe House, spoke about their work and their experiences over the past
year. All the speakers were enthusiastic about their particular textile
specialisms and we heard about radiographing seventeenth century clothing
(image above); the use of historical textiles in contemporary fashion; Chinese,
Indian, Moroccan and East Asian textiles; dragon robes; British Utility
clothing; Persian carpets; and biography through clothing. We heard about the
detective work required to link a lost portrait and a seventeenth century man’s
costume and the serendipitous discovery of Kenneth Tynan’s driving licence in
one of his jacket pockets. We were told how to access the collections and
reminded that the online catalogue is the place to find accession numbers when
requesting items for study. One of the advantages of the new facilities is that
it allows space for several items to be studied and compared at the same time –
not generally a problem with lace, but useful if you are researching carpets.
Friday 17 October 2014
Biology and lace
As part of my current research into the net curtain, I want to make some lace that conveys the idea of disease and the part germs played in the culture of cleanliness in nineteenth century women’s lives. I’ve decided to produce a strip of lace and incorporate it into a handmade curtain, the upper part of which will be made of silk fabric and the lower half of silk paper. The lace will lie on the boundary of the two materials to give the idea that the fluid silk material is gradually turning into a fragile, papery tissue, mirroring the idea of the disease taking hold but also the concept of the curtain clogging up as it traps the germs. As tuberculosis was so prevalent at that time I’ve decided to base my lace design on the bacterium responsible for the disease (Mycobacterium tuberculosis). The images I’ve collected so far show a series of capsule shapes. It’s nice to be incorporating biological ideas in my lace again, like the image above. My recent work has concentrated on social history so it’s interesting to combine the two themes.
Thursday 9 October 2014
Disobedient objects
This
exhibition at the V&A brings together a variety of artefacts designed or
appropriated for protest. As the introductory panel states ‘Many of the rights
and freedom we enjoy today were won by disobedience’. The textiles were what
interested me most and they included Chilean arpilleras, handkerchiefs, banners
and crochet, all made by women using traditional female skills. The arpilleras are
appliqued panels, originally made to protest against the Pinochet regime in
Chile. They were sold to provide funds for the protest and were initially dismissed
by the regime as unimportant women’s ‘folk art’.
Women have
since been inspired to use this technique as a medium for protest and the image
above shows Deborah Stockdale’s ‘Shannonwatch’ a panel celebrating the peace
activists who monitor the use of Shannon airport by the American military to
move prisoners. The figures wear burqas in solidarity with Afghani women caught
up in the fighting.
The ‘Handkerchief
for Roy’ was made by the collective Bordamos Por La Paz in Mexico, with the
mother of Roy Rivera, to commemorate his ‘disappearance’. He was kidnapped when
he was 18 and, despite paying a ransom, his mother never saw him again. The collective
make and display handkerchiefs to honour victims of violence and to shame the
government into protecting its citizens more effectively.
I thought these
two stitched pieces were moving examples of the way in which stitching can give
women a voice and that by using their traditional domestic skills women can
bring a particularly female perspective to 'disobedience'.
Monday 6 October 2014
The Big Stitch
I enjoyed
The Big Stitch day at the Ashmolean Museum on Saturday. There was plenty to do –
lectures, gallery tours, demonstrations and workshops. I was lucky enough to
book on Mary Brooks’ workshop on examining textile objects. This was linked to
the ‘Eye of the needle’ exhibition (see my blog of 9 September), which Mary had
curated, so was focused on seventeenth century embroidery. Mary gave us a
checklist of key things to look for when studying textiles and we worked in
small groups to analyse the artefacts – my group examined a woman’s bodice embroidered
in silk – but we also saw embroidered pictures and samplers from the Ashmolean
collection. The gallery tours in the afternoon were interesting as they
revealed the various textile gems dispersed in galleries throughout the Museum.
It was also interesting to see so many demonstrations of different types of
embroidery and lace (the latter by Gaby Lloyd and Gail Baxter) and the public
interest in them.
Monday 29 September 2014
‘Water fan’: silk paper and lace
I often combine lace and silk paper when I want to be able
to see through the lace but need a strong, translucent structure for holding it
in place; my ‘Water fan’ is a good example. I wanted to produce a fan that
would be practical but simple to make so I started with a piece of wire bent to
a fan shape and designed some lace to fit across the shape.
I then placed a layer of plastic over the pattern and laid down
the first layer of silk fibres roughly across the fan shape leaving a channel
for the lace.
I then put the wire in place making sure the edges were on
the silk fibres. Then I carefully placed the lace across the channel left
between the areas of silk paper and attached it to the wire frame. To attach the
lace to the silk paper I looped extra threads along the edges of the lace which
were then smoothed into the silk area. This is the fiddly part and you might
need to use tweezers or a cocktail stick to manoeuvre the threads.
Once the lace was in place I carefully placed another layer
of silk fibres over the first layer to trap the lace threads in a sandwich of
silk fibres. I also made sure the wire frame had a layer of silk above and
below it so the frame was secured.
Once everything was in place I placed a layer of net over
the whole thing, sprayed it gently with warm water and patted in down to make a
flat slightly damp layer. Then I sprayed it with diluted acrylic gloss medium,
and used a stencil brush to make sure the adhesive had penetrated all the
layers. I then left it all to dry. When it was dry I removed the net layer and gently
peeled the fan off the plastic. Although it looks delicate, it is quite robust
and can be used as a fan.
Thursday 25 September 2014
Wedding dresses at the V&A
This lovely
exhibition is displayed in much the same way as the previous V&A exhibition
of evening dresses with the historical clothes on the ground floor and the more
modern ones in the mezzanine gallery above. There is some lovely lace on
display including a 20 inch deep Honiton flounce on a dress worn by Eliza Clay
in 1864, as well as Honiton lace on her collar, cuffs and veil. Also a
beautiful Point de gaze veil worn by Roxanna Wentworth at her wedding in 1892
which was later exhibited at the Chicago World Fair of 1893. In contrast to such
extravagance, Elizabeth King made her dress out of upholstery fabric for her
wartime wedding in 1941 as it wasn’t rationed in the same way as dress fabric;
it was a beautiful embroidered fabric nonetheless. Anna Lin also had a lovely dress
for her 2004 wedding, which she designed herself, incorporating embroidered
phoenix feathers and seams delicately joined with seed pearls. Other favourites
of mine were Lady Sarah Armstrong Jones’ simple understated elegant dress by
Jasper Conran and ‘Flower bomb’ by Ian Stuart a dramatic extravaganza of net,
fabric and flowers. Unfortunately no photography was allowed so the image above,
of an 1850 wedding veil of Brussels needle and bobbin lace, is from the permanent
display in the V&A costume court.
Monday 22 September 2014
National Open Art Exhibition
I saw this mixed
exhibition of work by emerging and professional artists at Somerset House.
There is no theme and it includes a variety of media. My two favourite pieces
were Rogan Brown’s ‘Outbreak’ in fine cut paper and Chrys Allen’s ‘Walk in
progress: Bedrock’ which were hung together. Outbreak spoke of biological forms
and lace-like layers of tissue. It reminded me of the work of Piper Shepard, or
rather how her work would appear if it escaped from the gallery. The colours
and images in Chrys Allen’s painting seemed to include the materials of the
earth and it was displayed in a meandering fashion as if it were walking itself.
I think what I like about both pieces is that they not only represent but
actually embodied the subjects they covered.
Friday 19 September 2014
Darning the land: Sewn by Philippa Lawrence
Interesting
to hear Philippa Lawrence speaking at the Waddesdon ‘The art of lace’ symposium
last weekend and then to visit her installation in the grounds with her. ‘Sewn’
was inspired by darned textiles in the Waddesdon Manor collection and
represents a line of sewing in the landscape playing on the double meaning of
sewing with thread and sewing seeds. The flowers are a selection of wild
flowers put together for the Olympic celebrations and the ‘stitching’ reveals
different colours and flowers as the seasons progress. Lying on a slope the ‘sewing’
provides an attractive visual installation for visitors to the Manor and an
interactive meander through the grounds for those who follow its path.
Monday 15 September 2014
The art of lace symposium
I spent a
very enjoyable day at Waddesdon Manor on Saturday taking part in ‘The art of
lace symposium’ organised to coincide with the ‘Imagine’ lace exhibition that
is taking place there until 26 October. There were five speakers in the symposium and plenty of catching up with new friends and old.
Rachel Boak, the curator of the Waddesdon exhibition began the day by speaking
about historical lace and its display in a museum and stately home setting. She
was followed by the landscape artist Philippa Lawrence who has an installation based
on lace in the Manor grounds (more of that in another blog). She spoke about considering
lace as a border and described how she developed the idea for her installation
of lace as planting in the grounds. Lauran Sundin, who makes precious jewellery
using bobbin lace techniques considered handmade lace as an art form. The
contemporary lacemaker Gail Baxter then discussed definitions of lace and what
constitutes lace, challenging traditional concepts of what lace can be. I then
spoke about conceptual lace and how lace is used by contemporary artists to
convey a message or tell a story. It was an interesting day and the themes and
artists we all used to illustrate our talks overlapped, and complemented each
other, linking the themes of the symposium together.
Tuesday 9 September 2014
The eye of the needle
This
exhibition of 17th century English embroideries (and some lace) at the Ashmolean Museum
in Oxford celebrates the skill of the needlewomen who made them. The exhibition
focuses on the social context in which they were stitched explaining technique
and construction as well as the themes and motifs that were popular with 17th
century women. The exhibition includes band samplers, pictorial scenes, bags, coifs,
caps, book covers and embroidery tools from the Museum and the Feller
collection. Three of the band samplers incorporated exquisite pulled work and
needlelace and I was impressed with the tiny eyelets making up the alphabet on
the 1671 sampler by Mary Lane. Biblical
and allegorical themes were popular for the panels and many were copied from
Gerard de Jode’s 1579 collection of biblical illustrations. ‘The judgement of
Solomon’ was a popular theme and my favourite panel was a three dimensional needlelace
rendering of that scene. It seemed full of life with applied leaves, curtains,
pearls and even a lifelike baby, all beautifully depicted in tiny stitches. The exhibition runs until 12 October.
Wednesday 3 September 2014
Painted lace
I saw this
self portrait of Rolinda Sharples with her mother at the Bristol Museum and Art
Gallery. I like the way she has painted the lace to emphasise its delicate
ethereal frothy quality, but it’s a shame we can’t see it in more detail. The
painting is dated 1818 and both women are wearing a good amount of lace.
Rolinda was an oil painter and also produced pastel portraits. Also on show was
a painting of ‘The cloakroom at the Clifton Assembly Rooms’ showing the well-to-do
about to leave at the end of their evening’s entertainment. Each face can be
clearly distinguished and the characters seem to come straight out of a Jane
Austen novel – there are soldiers, well dressed young men, flirtatious young
women and elderly chaperones. All are beautifully dressed in their evening
clothes, which seem suitable for the occasion, but I’m puzzled by Rolinda’s
choice of clothes for her self portrait which shows her painting at her easel
in what appears to be a fine lace-trimmed gown.
Thursday 28 August 2014
Lace designs at Calais Museum
I love
these design registers and it’s great to see some of them out on display in the
Calais Lace Museum. These pages of lace nets are interesting for the variety they
show. Some are regular and look like nets that would be used on hats (the two
on the second row) while the piece at the centre of the top row looks quite
irregular. The sample at the bottom left looks similar to the design used on
the ceiling in the restaurant (see my blog in July). The date given for these
pieces is 1908 but the designers are not specified.
Thursday 21 August 2014
Contemporary machine lace at Calais
One of the
highlights of my trip to Calais Lace Museum was seeing contemporary lace being
produced on a vast scale on the Leavers machine. The lace was designed by Gail
Baxter as part of the Crysalis project, in collaboration with the Calais
designer Frederic Rumigny and with the practical help of the tuillists and
machinists at Calais who interpreted the design into a pattern for the lace
machine. Gail based her design on the sound of the working lace machine as it
rumbles through the Calais Lace Museum, which she interpreted into a pattern of
sound waves. She linked this to more solid areas containing holes in the style
of jacquard cards, which are used to control the patterning of the machine, and
used two different types of filling stitches in the spaces between these design
areas. The lace is made from a combination of threads that take up dye in
different ways so the lace takes on different aspects when it is dyed - my
favourite is the black version with silver accents. It is an amazing experience
to see the Leavers machine, developed in the 19th century, still churning out
vast quantities of lace, but even more exciting to see it producing
contemporary lace
Thursday 14 August 2014
Sensations
Sensations is an exhibition of costumes from the fashion house ‘on
aura tout vu’ and I saw it on my recent trip to the Calais Museum of Lace and Fashion.
The costumes were exhibited in groups according to the five senses (visual,
aural, touch, taste and smell) as well as two extra categories: the sublime and
the imaginary. They were made from an amazing variety of materials including glass,
mirrors, forks, wood, coathangers and fabrics in a myriad of colours. One of my
favourites was this ‘lace’ wedding dress fashioned from wood, incorporating
hearts and the words ‘I love you’. It was no surprise to discover that Livia
Stoianova and Yassen Samouilov, the founders of the group, use poetry as one of
their frames of reference and Oscar Wilde’s quote ‘One should either be a work
of art or wear a work of art’ seemed very apt. The exhibition continues until
31 December.
Monday 4 August 2014
Lace effects 2
Other techniques used were digital embroidery on net by
Tessa Acti in her beautiful ‘Lace bird’ bodices hanging delicately on a thread
to twist in the air, and hand embroidery on net by Gail Baxter in her series
‘Tracing the line’ to form rolls of fabric. Diana Harrison had distressed cloth
to form a woven lace-like material, while other artists had used back-lit
porcelain (Tina Roskruge) and incised silver (Sara Bran) to produce lace-like
effects. Fine drawing techniques had been used by Teresa Whitfield to produce
uncannily realistic images of Honiton lace, and by Dawn Cole to produce lace
pieces composed of tiny words taken from the diaries of a nurse in the World War
I. Several artists had used cut fabric to produce lace including Elsa Barbage who
had cleverly incised layers of X-ray film to produce a composite 3D image, Martha
Henton who had laser cut images of machine knitting to produce a backlit
translucent image and Emma Gribble whose laser cut lampshade produced lace
shadows on the adjacent wall.
Shadows were also used to great effect in displaying the
work of several artists including Lydie Chamaret’s lace cube, Nicole Kockaerts’
spiral forms, and Karine Sterckx’s subtly coloured circular lace and metal
construction (above). The exhibition includes a wide range of contemporary lace
and lace techniques and the pieces have been thoughtfully put together to form
an excellent and varied show, highlighting the work of contemporary European
artists working with lace. The exhibition is part of the Crysalis programme,
the aim of which is to bring together four European partners to promote
textiles in various ways, and it runs until December at the Calais Lace Museum.
Thursday 24 July 2014
Lace ceiling at Calais Lace Museum
I was intrigued to see this lace ‘ceiling’ in the restaurant of the Calais Museum of Lace and Fashion during a recent visit. The threads are illuminated and the central sequin-like circular shapes are the old bobbins round which the thread is wound for the lace machines.
Monday 21 July 2014
Ghost of a ghost
I saw this evocative steel metalwork by Lizzie Hughes at the William
Morris Gallery. The title ‘ghost of a ghost’ comes from an 1899 review of Morris’
work which references his response to an old door hinge at the gallery. It links
the idea of hinges and Rorschach blot tests, which according to the label were
devised ‘to exploit the human desire to find form in pattern and abstraction’.
I like the way the hinges have become quite eerie stylised bat-like creatures
while still retaining their function. Lizzie did this work during a period as
artist in residence at the Gallery in 2013 with the help of Design Blacksmith
from Stepney City Farm.
Tuesday 15 July 2014
The lace trail: Sophie Ploeg
I saw some of Sophie Ploeg’s lovely lace inspired portraits at the National Portrait Gallery last week. Sophie won the BP travel award in 2013, which she used to study 17th century lace and textiles in Dutch and English portraits, and the seven portraits I saw were the result of her year’s study. She has produced a series of four portraits depicting the four ages of woman each incorporating lace in a different way, cleverly referencing paintings by Johannes Verspronck, William Larkin and Marcus Gheerearts. Also in a reference to William Larkin she has painted ‘The handkerchief girl’ a young woman wearing a fine net and lace skirt and clutching a handkerchief edged with reticella lace; a common pose in the 17th century to show off one’s wealth. The lace is beautifully depicted and ranges from the crisp definition of Italian needlelace to the fine, subtly patterned scrolls of Flemish bobbin lace, while the characters of the sitters shine through. The image on the catalogue (above) is a self-portrait of Sophie in a ruff she made herself. The exhibition runs until 21 September and there is an accompanying catalogue which describes Sophie’s research in more detail.
Wednesday 9 July 2014
English Magic Jeremy Deller
Having demonstrated at the William Morris Gallery last week it was
interesting to see William Morris starring in Jeremy Deller’s exhibition at
Bristol Museum. I had seen ‘English magic’ in Venice at the Biennale last year (post
on October 2013) where Jeremy Deller was representing the UK but it was
interesting to see some of the work again in a different setting. The main reference to Morris is in the large
painted mural ‘We sit starving amidst our gold’ in which he is hurling a yacht into
the Venice lagoon as a protest against their overbearing presence in Venice. However
there were also more domestic references such as a sample of the printed fabric
‘Evenlode’ (above) with some of the wood blocks used in its production and the tile
panel from Membland Hall. Both typical Morris designs with flowers, leaves and
pomegranates.
Friday 4 July 2014
Lace exhibition at William Morris Gallery
The William Morris Gallery was celebrating all things Belgian
yesterday evening and invited me to demonstrate lace making, show a small
exhibition of my contemporary lace and some images of traditional Belgian lace.
Belgian waffles and beer were also available in the café and the music of Jacques
Brel wafted around us. Many of the visitors were keen to try out lace making
for themselves on the three practice pillows I had and some had even come
specially for the lace taster. There was a steady stream of visitors all
evening and they were all very enthusiastic and interested to learn about lace
in general and Belgian lace in particular. The Belgian theme came about because
the gallery is hosting an exhibition of the paintings and drawings of Frank
Brangwyn who was a great supporter of the William Morris Gallery and also the
Brangwyn Museum in Bruges, the city where he was born.
Tuesday 1 July 2014
QR code curtains at Digital Encounters
The two
curtains I’m exhibiting in the Digital Encounters exhibition are titled ‘Insider
information’ and ‘Unheeded warning’. They both incorporate stitched QR codes
that can be read with smart phones to reveal warning messages. The QR code on Insider information says
‘Escape while you can’ and combined with the words ‘Help me’ stitched in human
hair suggests the homely is becoming unhomely. The QR code on Unheeded warning
says ‘I warned you’ and is combined with a tear in the curtain suggesting all
is not as it should be. I developed the idea of using QR codes when I was
looking for a way of coding information in a decorative way. The aim was to hide the information
in plain view so that it could easily be overlooked. Previously I had used lettering hidden within
lace patterns but I found that I could include more information within the QR
code. I tried making them with bobbin lace but found that cross stitch on even
weave canvas was more accurate and therefore easier for the smart phone to
detect. The two curtains form a domestic narrative and the viewer is left to
piece together the clues to discover the hidden story.
Tuesday 24 June 2014
Digital encounters exhibition
This
exhibition at the Herbert Read Gallery in Canterbury opened last week and my
previous post described the opening symposium. The exhibition celebrates
current practice using digital textile design in its many forms and links the
digital to four themes: material, personal, social and historical. Its aim is
to explore the role of digital technology in contemporary textile practice. As
the curator, Jenna Rossi-Camus, reminded us in the symposium, digital implies
modern technology but also has links to the handmade. The exhibits include smart
textiles, digital printing, interactive textiles, digitally produced textiles
and digitally reconstructed historical artefacts. There are over 40 pieces in
the exhibition so I will just give you a flavour of some of my favourites. Quite
a lot of the work involves digital textile printing which was beautiful in many
cases but inevitably I was drawn to the more quirky exhibits. I was fascinated
by the textiles of Nadia-Anne Ricketts, a former ballet dancer, who discovered a
mathematical connection between music and fabric construction and now weaves
music under the name Beatwoven.
I also
liked the subversive nature of ‘Disastrous dinner’ by Wendy van Wynsberghe and
Claire Williams (above) which uses Arduino technology to produce an interactive
dinner party table cover. Placing your hands in different combinations on the
tablecloth produced conversations, rude noises and the sound of breaking china.
My own net curtains ‘Insider information’ (image at the top of this post) and ‘Unheeded
warning’ are also interactive and I was pleased to see the QR codes working on
several phones during the evening of the private view.
I also
liked Hannah White’s laser cut lace (above) made from reflective materials that highlighted
the movement of models wearing the lace. Another interesting piece was Shelly
Goldsmith’s ‘Concealed’ an embroidered blouse hiding the image of a woman from
the Lodz ghetto within the embroidery. I also liked the elegant simplicity of
Jenny Shellard’s ‘Palindrome’ and the complexity of the figures drawn by Rosie James in ‘In the city’ using the sewing machine. All in all, there is plenty to
see in this exhibition and the catalogue is an interesting read so it’s worth a
visit.
Saturday 21 June 2014
Digital Encounters symposium
The Digital Encounters exhibition opened yesterday at the Herbert Read
Gallery in Canterbury and two of my curtains with QR codes are in the
exhibition. The event opened yesterday with a symposium before the evening
private view. Both the exhibition and symposium were divided into four areas
concerned with different aspects of digital textiles; my work was shown in the
digital x social section and I took part in the panel discussion linked to that
theme. My fellow panelists were Rosie James (who uses the sewing machine as a drawing tool), Louize Harries (whose work considered the possibility of robots creating craft) and Nicola Flower (who talked about her embroidery project with the visually impaired)
as well as the curator of the exhibition, Jenna Rossi-Camus, who facilitated the
discussion. We talked about our processes, the themes engaged in our work and
the time-consuming nature and value of hand work. The other panels linking the
digital to material, personal and historical were also interesting particularly
the insights they gave into the work in the exhibition. I’ll blog about the
exhibition in another post.
Thursday 12 June 2014
Whisperings at Waddesdon
My curtain entitled Whisperings is currently being exhibited at
Waddesdon Manor as part of the ‘Imagine … lace at Waddesdon Manor’ exhibition.
The theme of the exhibition is ‘house party’ and the lace design had to be
based on an artefact in the Manor. I chose to design a piece of Bedfordshire
style lace based on a bundle of lace trimmings in the Waddesdon lace
collection. The idea is that the lace pattern is quite formal and represents a very
polite and conventional house party which might begin with formal introductions
and polite conversation but then degenerates into a babble of voices,
confidences and gossip. The formal lace pattern is then subverted to become a
tangle of whispers, innuendo and hidden conversations. There are nine ‘whispers’
altogether including ‘Have you heard what she did?’, ‘Keep out it’s not your
business’, ‘He says she’s not herself today’, and ‘He frightens the life out of
me’. So all is not the comfortable veneer we assumed to start with; there are
some hidden whispers and cries for help under that formal pattern.
Sunday 8 June 2014
Lace in Selvedge magazine
The current issue of Selvedge magazine (May/June) is a bit of a lace
themed issue. I have a piece in there on the cut works of Piper Shepard, which
is mainly a review of the recent exhibition but also describes her working
technique and is illustrated by an image of her Granulated diamond hanging.
There is also an article by Annabel Talbot of the Bowes Museum about the
development of lace for fashion in the 17th century, which is beautifully
illustrated with some Flemish lace. Finally, there is also an article about the
work of Iris van Herpen, which although it is not traditional lace is very
lace-like in its effect. Worth having a look at if you can find a copy.
Monday 2 June 2014
Piper Shepard’s cut work
Even though Piper’s exhibition at
the Crafts Study Centre in Farnham is finished I thought you’d like to see a
close up of her work to see how it is made. This is a close up of ‘Lace like’
and you can see where she has cut with a knife in some places and a round punch
in others. The fabric she uses is ‘muslin’ painted with gesso – I discovered during
her visit though that what Americans call muslin we would call calico, which
seems to correspond to the more solid nature of the fabric. During her
presentation at the conference she told us that her interest in lace began when
she was using devoré techniques and was further inspired by a visit to India looking
at filigree screens, windows and walls. She is also interested in the shadows her work creates which are shown quite well in this image.
Saturday 24 May 2014
Piper Shepard’s lace at the Crafts Study Centre
Today is the last day to see Piper Shepard’s cut works at
the Crafts Study Centre in Farnham. As
well as the ‘pillar’ in the atrium, shown here, which was originally made for Lost
in Lace exhibition at Birmingham in 2011, you can see more of Piper’s cutworks
in the upper gallery. In that space she is exhibiting two pieces entitled ‘Lace
like’ that showcase her beautiful, black, filigree cut work as well as ‘Granulated
diamond’ a large, black, square (96 x 96 inches) cut with a lace like border
and a diamond ground centre. She is also showing three new pieces. These are
entitled ‘Radial 1, 2 and 3’ and are based on prints with some hand cutting but
not as much as in the ‘Lace like’ pieces. An extra dimension to the exhibition
is brought about by the shadows the pieces cast on to the wall behind them
accentuating their lace like quality and adding layers of hidden lace behind
them.
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