Net curtain research

I’ve had a good few days this week getting on with my research into net curtains. I haven’t been anywhere exciting, just collating some of the information I’ve already gleaned and putting it all into some sort of order. Not as easy as it sounds! I started by dividing my research on different curtains styles into decades, but realised that fashions in interiors don’t necessarily conform to ten year cycles, so I’m now using early, mid and late parts of the different centuries. In her very useful book ‘Curtains and drapes’ Jenny Gibbs uses different style periods to differentiate fashions, such as Neoclassicism, but uses ‘Battle of the styles’ to describe the late 19 century, which appears to be an accurate description! I have lots of pictorial sources which I’m organising by date, but doing that has made me realise that perhaps I should be putting styles together instead, and then seeing when, swags, for example, were popular. It is only by actually sorting out the information that you hit upon the best way of doing it. At least describing the changes in machine lace production is proving easier!

Exhibition for the LQ&N Peterborough Fair

 

Although the Peterborough Fair doesn’t take place until May, the publicity material is being printed so I’ve had to decide what I’m going to display for my exhibition there and decide on a title. I’m calling the exhibition ‘lace works’ both to distinguish the work from the other exhibitions of embroidery and quilting, and to suggest the idea that lace ‘works’ as a valid textile art form. I’ll show a mixture of old and new work, so I’ve decided to use the broad theme of landscapes, both physical landscapes, such as maps, tracks and stones, as well as landscapes of the mind, memory and the imagination. There will be a variety of lace types and artefacts including curtains, panels, bags and hangings. Do come and have a look and say hello!

 

‘No No No’ pattern

 

I’ve been thinking about the bobbin lace trim for the first veil in my new series of practice and have decided to go with the wording ‘no no no’ within the lace. I think that is the most definite statement and easy for an international audience to understand. The idea is that the words are hidden within the lace and discovered by the audience, so something definite and easy to read seems a good idea. I’ve also reduced the width of the ninepin edge I’m using. It will take quite a lot of lace to trim a wedding veil and so the quicker the pattern is to work the better! For the same reason I’ve also decided to have the ninepin edge only on one side of the pattern and to have a footside on the other. I’ve started winding some bobbins and will do a trial piece to see what it looks like, with a view to continuing it if it looks alright.  

 

Lace design

 

I’ve started designing some lace for my veiling project based on fiction, starting with a reluctant bride. For my first veil I’ve decided to make a lace trim incorporating lettering within a Bedfordshire style design, much in the same way as I did for some of my net curtains. I need a short phrase that can be repeated within the length of the lace and have been considering ‘no, no, no’ or ‘I won’t, I won’t’ or in response to the part in the marriage service where the woman is asked ‘will you take this man’ etc. ‘No, no, no’ would be the easiest to incorporate in the lace and for the audience to read, although ‘I won’t’ seems more appropriate to the actual marriage service. ‘I won’t’ also seems a bit petulant while ‘No’ is more definite and easy for all nationalities to understand. Also I think the apostrophe might get a bit lost in a small lace design. I might therefore go with the ‘no, no, no’ idea. As you can see I’ve started designing the ninepin edging for the lace while I’m deciding which wording to incorporate. 

Veiling on hats

 

Although I’m concentrating on wedding style veiling for my next project I’m a great fan of veiling on hats. These drawings all come from an excellent book called ‘The mode in hats and headdresses’ by R Turner Wilcox and show a variety of different designs from the early twentieth century. I particularly like the use of patterned lace or spotted veiling covering the face as the contrast with the skin hidden beneath the fabric is so flattering. That of course is the role of veiling in these fashions – both to reveal and conceal at the same time thus adding a sense of mystery and allure to the wearer. Wearing a hat with a veil is also something of an art, as vision is impaired, even if only slightly, and eating or drinking almost impossible. However there is nothing more glamorous than a veiled hat.

 

Making veils

 

As part of my research into veiling I’ve bought myself a commercial pattern for a selection of veils ranging from a short circular veil to a long trailing version. It is interesting to see how they are constructed. Although some are made of one piece of fabric others are composed of a short ‘blusher’ veil that covers the face and a longer piece of netting that hangs down the back of the dress. I think I’ll be using the short circular veils to start with, as my aim is to show off the lace and embellishments I’ll be adding rather than having swathes of netting, which would probably look very attractive on a bride but will just fill up gallery space when I exhibit them. I now need to find some suitable netting to make them from – the pattern suggests tulle, netting, Illusion or Point d’Esprit. I have no idea what the last two look like so as bit of research in a fabric shop is obviously needed next!  

Veiling

 

I’m working on veiling for my next body of work. Having made a veil as a response to a call for work at Jane Austen House last year, I found representing her equivocal view of marriage in that way worked well. I’ve decided to start in that format by designing veils for fictional characters – Miss Havisham and the Woman in white are obvious candidates from my PhD research. However I may then go on to look at the writing and memoirs of real people. I recently attended the ‘Silence in the archive’ conference in Oxford, looking at how women’s voices have been silenced in the historical record, either voluntarily by themselves or by family, biographers and historians. It left me thinking there was a fund of information in women’s life writing that could be inspirational for practice. I think this could be a huge project!