I have been reminded about how textiles are often associated with births, marriage and death as I have discovered an illustrated article on Karelian embroidery which points out that this form of stitching dates back to 1200 AD. Often the patterns were said to have magical connotations. The pieces were …
I found this online facsimile of a book of lace designs by Federic Vinciolo who in 1606 was commissioned by the French court to produce lace. Many of these designs could be used as a design source – converted to cross stitch and used on samplers. Thinking about it, I …
Did you know that the word ‘green’ dates back to the root ‘gr’, meaning to grow. By medieval times it was the colour of love. This and all sorts of related trivia about colour and their pigments can be found on Pigments through the ages you can explore an over …
Working up designs in visual journals is something I do all the time. This was in part prompted by a conversation I had with a work colleague the other day. He was saying that he works on much on screen now that most of his drawing goes on in a …
The Quaker Tapestry is another huge community embroidery project which took 15 years to complete. Taking an average of two years to embroider a panel there are 77 panels each measuring 25″ (635mm) wide by 21″ (533mm) deep. The tapestry was instigated by Anne Wynn-Wilson and over 4,000 men, women …
I have been wandering about, down the paths of textile history, poking about in digital collections online and found a few snippits about the connections between mourning pictures and samplers. Around 1800 mourning samplers became not only popular but conventionalized. Mourning pictures heavily influenced mourning embroidery. So this is a …
Resolution: from Digital to Cloth is was opened yesterday. Often in casual conversation people are surprised to hear that a textile practioner also works with digital media or that someone interested in digital media also works in textiles. What people do not understand is that digital technology now permeates all …
