The lace I
have just finished is inspired by another nineteenth century gothic novel –
this time Bram Stoker’s Dracula. I designed the lace to incorporate ‘fangs’ and
the suggestion of insect mouth parts between them to emphasise the idea of
biting. The red glass beads hanging from the fangs represent drops of blood. It
was quite difficult to find the right shape and colour of bead but I think
these lovely ruby red Czech beads have the right mix of beauty and menace. I
decided to make the veil black to reference Victorian mourning veils and the
glass beads also suggest the Whitby jet beads that were often used in mourning
jewellery. Whitby is also the place where Dracula disembarks in England and is
the scene of some of the important episodes in the story so a reference to
Whitby seemed appropriate. This veil, with the others in the series, will be
exhibited at the gallery at the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace
that I’m sharing with Gail Baxter from 5 to 9 October.
No comments:
Post a Comment