This was my second Summer School. I was lucky enough to get a bursary at my first one, at Askhan Bryan College in 2019, which opened my eyes to the fabulosity that is the AGWSD summer school.
This one was local, which meant that I could drive in every day from home, thus saving on accommodation. There was a fabulous symmetry to these events as, many years ago, I decided to study horticulture, and my two preferred choices were Askham Bryan and Writtle. I really liked Askam Bryan, but was only offered a place on the ND course, whereas Writtle offered me my preferred HND course, Thus, It was that I met Billy Turner at Writtle, and we married in our middle year (This year we celebrated our 30th Anniversary, a week after Summer School). With the Wednesday being a half day, (to allow for trips out etc) Billy joined me in the afternoon, cue happy reminiscing of our times there as we wandered through the Grounds. This was to be my first Guild event for many a year and I was both a little excited and nervous about meeting everyone again. I needn’t have worried!! Within a minute of our arriving at Sue and Robert’s farm, I felt like I had never been away, such was the warm welcome I received.
If ever there is a dyeing event, I am always eager to join in the fun. Michele had prepared some sock yarn for me and I couldn’t wait to get started. After a cup of coffee and a natter, the dyers gathered around the tables, where Sue had laid out cookers, pans, jam jars, pipettes and, most important of all, some wonderful dyes! On Saturday, 10 July 2021, I put my spinning wheel with Samoyed fur and carders into my car for the first time since 2019! Had I got everything? So long since I had spun anything I had to check everything twice. Where was I going? Ah!! Sue Prior’s farm in Perry Green. OK. Get satnav out and find the way. All new as I had moved to the wilds of Huntingdon. I had a very good, straight forward journey and arrived just before 10am. Sue had cookers and pans already set out on tables in the barn with plenty of jam jars for putting dye stuff in. There was a table with the various coloured dye stuff and pipettes etc At our March meeting, Michele Turner led a fascinating Shibori Resist Dyeing workshop. Shibori is the Japanese word for a variety of ways of embellishing textiles by shaping cloth and securing it before dyeing. The word comes from the verb root shiboru, "to wring, squeeze, press." The result is beautiful, unique fabrics that can be used for just about any purpose. Our workshop used stitches to create hidden areas of the fabric that dye cannot reach (people are generally familiar with Tie-Dyeing; tie-dyeing is a form of Shibori Resist Dyeing.) We started by transferring a sampler template to some cotton fabric using water- or air-soluble pens. This allowed us to see for ourselves how different stitch shapes and combinations produce different effects. The Association’s 2018 Conference, organised by the Guilds in Region G (London and Northern Home Counties), was on the theme of “Then and Now”. Its aim was to look at the origins of craft and artisan production in Britain, tracing forwards through revivals to the latest resurgence of interest, and how past practice affects the present. This was the 14th Biennial Conference organised by the National Association. On alternate years the AGM is held in London. I have enjoyed all the Conferences I have attended and, also, the AGMs (although I have not always gone to the actual AGM). This year I undertook to be our Guild’s official delegate so did, indeed, attend the Meeting. Kents Hill is a cut above some of the other venues I have visited, most of which have been at colleges with the usual student accommodation. This year the rooms had complimentary toiletries, tea/coffee making facilities and TV: such luxury. The food was also excellent and the whole complex linked by covered walkways. The first of the five lectures on the Friday evening was given by Dr Susanna Harris, Department of Archaeology, University of Glasgow and Dr Mark Knight, Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge on The Bronze Age Fabrics of Must Farm. The settlement of Must Farm provides a remarkable window into the fabrics people made in Bronze Age Britain, around 900 BC. The two speakers presented the site and ongoing research into the rich evidence for plant fibre fabrics made by weaving and twining. The talk was just fascinating! http://www.mustfarm.com/progress/site-diary-6-textiles/ I nearly missed this Exhibition. It was only when trawling through Mary’s messages before the last meeting that I spotted the invitation to the preview evening and here I was on the last day. I had no idea even of Parndon Mill itself so it was a double pleasure to visit such a lovely spot as well as see the exhibition. Ebb and Flow is a lovely theme to work on. It lends itself to so different interpretations and is a natural for textile artists. It was also very appropriate because of its location on the banks of the River Stort. The exhibition contained thirty-two pieces, which were well laid out. The mill owner felt there could have been many more on the grounds that visitors looked round very quickly. I think that while that was true, I I have been listening to a podcast on the history of the English language and one of the more recent episodes has been about clothing and the cloth industry. I have summarised below some of the main points from this episode. If you want to listen to more you can download the podcast from the usual places or you can visit the website www.HistoryofEnglishPodcast.com
Shirt, Shoe, Belt and Hat are the only 4 words used by the Anglo-Saxons that we still use today. The words ‘shirt’ and ‘skirt’ come from the same basic root. ‘Shirt’ is an old English word and ‘Skirt’ was the Norse word for ‘shirt’ used by Vikings and then over time they came to mean two different things and ‘skirt’ didn’t come to the English language until the early 1300s. The words ‘sock’ and ‘cap’ are found in old English documents but are loan words from Latin. The words ‘shorts’,’ sweater’, ‘slacks’ and ‘stockings’ are based on the old English root words ‘short’, ‘sweat’, ‘slack’ and ‘stock’ respectively, but ‘stockings’ itself didn’t appear until the late 1500s and the others did not appear until the 1800s. This is mainly because these items of clothing did not exist during the Anglo-Saxon period. Most of the clothing was draped over the body before medieval as there was no easy way to secure and there was relatively little difference between male and female clothing. Tunics, which were often worn, were a loose square of material with a hole for the head and a belt was used to fasten it to the body. Tunics were worn by both men and women with cloth tied round the legs as a form of stocking or leg wrap. Trousers as we know them today did not exist. If it was cold they would wear a cape sometimes secured with a brooch. |
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