The British Museum recently announced they have developed new techniques to discover how ancient Egyptians used dyes on a child's sock. Their non-invasive techniques have established which dyes were used: madder, woad and weld. Also how people of this period used double and sequential dyeing and weaving, and twisting fibres, to make a myriad of colours. Read more in The Guardian here: www.theguardian.com/culture/2018/oct/04/imaging-tool-unravels-secrets-of-childs-sock-from-ancient-egypt I always try to visit the Exhibitions at the Knitting and Stitching Show and usually find something, which draws my attention. This year it was a series of ‘drawings’ of old ladies. On closer examination, I realized that they were of one lady, the mother of the artist, Jenni Dutton, and that they were stitched not drawn at all. Each portrait in the series was a reproduction of a photo of her mother, starting when she was a girl. The earlier ones were in black and white but those of the older version were in colour. Each stitch was about one cm in length and looked like a fine pencil line. I took a close-up photo to show the quality of the technique. I can’t remember when I first heard about Shetland Wool Week but each year when I saw reports on various media, it became more and more enticing. It also seemed fraught with difficulties because you need to book your flights and accommodation months before the programme is made available, just before bookings open in May. What if none of the workshops, talks or tours appeal? As it happened, I was encouraged to go for it by Frankie, a friend from Cambridge guild who had worked out the logistics for me and her daughter, Katie. I spent hours researching the tutors, the venues and the bus/ferry services and then had a frantic time online trying to get my chosen workshops before they sold out. I was lucky and got into most of them which resulted in a wonderful 8 days, busy with workshops and talks. The weather was far better than I expected and, although it did rain, I missed most of the showers whilst in classes but enjoyed the magnificent rainbows when I stepped outside! For the weaving enthusiasts among us, there are some fascinating videos on Vimeo by Allan Brown showing how to extract fibres from nettles and then the results of weaving with them.
Thanks to Audrey for finding these. This is the story of the Spinner from Deba. I happened across this story at a viewpoint on the way to Deba in Northern Spain. It actually has very little to do with spinning, but does involve a spinner and shows some pictures of her spinning. The ancient Basque culture is rich in traditions, myths and legends. One of the most popular legends is that of ‘The Spinner’ a beautiful and dramatic story of love. Possibly somewhere between reality and fiction.
The story takes place in Deba around the year 1500, and gets its name from the excessive affection for the old craft of spinning of one of the lead characters, Andra Madalen, lady of the historic Zubelzu house. They say that the kind lady lived with her daughter Katalintxu. Her husband and the majority of the males of the house had died in the bloody and prolonged war that the sailors of the Basque ports waged against the French. The warm summer sunshine was already in evidence as we arrived at Bucklers Hall Farm for our eagerly awaited dye day. The chairs had already been arranged beneath the trees for protection. Michele, as ever so well organised, had prepared a wet area in the shade of a small barn. She had packaged up a range of silk and cotton samples plus some scarves for those brave souls, who were planning a project as well. For the first time, I encountered home-made mordants: Alum: aluminium foil immersed in a 50/50 mix of water and white vinegar for 3 weeks. Iron: rusty nails in the 50/50 mix of water and white vinegar for a year. Copper: a piece of copper pipe in the 50/50 mix of water and white vinegar for a year. The mordant was then diluted for use. We each had four samples of either silk or cotton or both. Patchwork weaving is a term used by the team at WeaveKnitIt.co.uk to describe their use of fabric made on pin looms: combining the units into larger pieces in a similar way to piecing together fabric in traditional patchwork. The results are stunning, often reminiscent of tweeds. We met the Weaveknitit team at the Waltham Abbey Wool Fair in January this year and I was so inspired by their results that I took the opportunity of a trip to Derbyshire to take a workshop with them in their lovely studio in Ambergate. Here I learned to use square and triangle looms and had a chance to see more of their work.
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 John introduced himself as the chairman of the Halstead Historical Society and a man with a long-term connection to Courtauld’s. As a child he moved out of London, when his father took a job at Courtauld’s. The family lived in one of the company’s houses opposite the factory and it was this proximity to work, which persuaded John to find work there rather than leave home and find employment further afield. As an apprentice, John worked in almost every section of the factory, which gave him a first hand understanding of the whole process of silk weaving. When the factory closed, he used that knowledge to set up his own business, which was to commission exclusive fabrics for organisations such as the Royal Palaces and the National Trust. These were such commissions as those with Richard Humphries at Braintree, where he was responsible for organisation the replacement of the textiles lost in the fires at Windsor and Hampton Court. John began his talk with the medieval wool trade, which was well established in East Anglia with strong links to the Low Countries. This accounts for an influx of Dutch weavers settling in the county in 1500. Chelmsford was the hub for London with many of the spinners working in the surrounding villages. Many family names in the region, such as Draper, Fuller, Burrell and Dyer, have their origin in the woollen trade. Woollens were produced in South Suffolk and Essex, and worsteds came from Norfolk and North Suffolk. In the Book of Trades of 1568, it mentions two different weaves, known as Bays (plain weave) and Says (twill weave), which were the speciality of the region. |
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