My Neighbour's Family Treasures, Part 2.

 These embroidered cloths are from the home (pictured below) in Dunblane, Scotland that was a family holding of my neighbour Al McInnes. The same family responsible for the horse shoe jumper posted some time back (on Facebook, but also pictured below).

Young women of old were required to have a basic repertoire of needlework skills and to produce embellished tableware, bedding, undergarments and children’s wear for their families. Starting before marriage with their ‘hope’ chest and with school samplers, these amazing skills we now cherish and continue, though without the expectation. I'm sure the love was always there, in the making, but op shops are full of old doileys (for example) that nobody wants (except for all of us) and nobody uses (except us).

I’ve always been hugely inspired by what my foremothers considered the ordinary, basic skills of their domestic life. 

We watched our grandmothers and the old women knitting and ‘doing’ the whole time and thought nothing of it, not realizing the incredible structural engineering and intricacy of such ordinary crafts. Obviously we do understand it. Obviously we knew what we were looking at but I've had many a comment about my embroidering or knitting being a granny's thing to do. Not as cool as painting or printmaking (which I love). I've had plenty of eye-rolls when people ask what I've been up to. The whole craft world has gone (largely) under the radar of the art world and this might be the boon! The incredible disguised as the ordinary.

My ‘If I was stuck on an island and had to choose one book’ is the Encyclopedia of Needlework by Theresede Dillmont. In it are all the things you will need as a conscientious home-keeper. My copy is worn and earmarked and precious.

It's difficult to see with my rubbish Ipad camera (I have a whiz bang camera still in the box waiting for me to grow some whatsits and fire it up). This piece of Netting Work if the only I have ever seen where the net is hand knotted before being embroidered.

Even what may appear to be a simple dinner table or bread basket cloth has a lot of work involved. These edges were compulsory fare when I started High School. Sooo boring, I thought then. But underneath it I was interested and henceforth noticed the work in these everyday objects. Respect!! It takes forever.

The embroidered band here reminds me of a (much borrowed) book on Yugoslavian embroidery, which I used in my crazy quilt.

Another dinner cloth with hours and hours of edging work. Each leaf will be pad stitched underneath before the satin stitching on top.

Dunblane, Scotland. The Horse Shoe lace jumper below was made here too.

Thanks to Al McInnes for sharing these amazing pieces.

Berlin Wool Work Picture For The Shed Wall

 

I so love the Victorian Berlin wool work patterns. This picture was printed out (A3) then glued onto heavy cardboard, which is a bit of a pain to crochet but it’s also not a big job. I forgot to photograph the back but will after it’s stretched and the lace has dried.

My crochet is awfully ad hoc and obviously uneven, but I’m happy. I’m using up my perle and crochet thread stash. 

The picture is for the Bus Stop shed up in the garden. Or the kitchen, not sure.

What I want to do is paint a wash of dilute pva glue over the lace to completely stiffen it... but am not sure how to do it without glueing down the backing. Maybe cling wrap? Maybe that will pull off easily?

Or, I could lace it to four sticks, crossed at the corners. Hmmm... I could lace it to put the glue on... right...

Follow the labels below for tutorials, patterns and materials to make crocheted card (boxes) etc. if you want to. 

Off To The Melbourne Show (22nd & 23rd Sept)

Come and see me in the Arts & Crafts Pavilion. Gonna have a ridiculous amount of stuff there... I'll be sharing and I'm always caring so that's a given.

My friends Rhonda's coming to visit!!

Home

More of the One True's amazing rock work.

 Home

Hubby's painting and my lace. Peek of a gorgeous green vase my Grandma lay-byed in the 50's.

 A few of my favourite things: Damian Meehan Little Man in a Box, Mum's Weight Lifter doll, Boxes by Katherine Hepburn lookalike (sorry, I've forgotten your name), vintage millinary flowers from the family inheritance (i.e. from Mum via Grandma via her Mum Nanna), Op-Shop grave ornament ceramic flower, embossing stamps from Paris and old old doiley's from goodness knows where.

Deborah Klein Linocut Print. Bought with a gift from Jean Goldberg, given for that purpose.

Lace Death's Head Bunny With Cross Carrots

I've started dragging un-framed and unfinished things out of the cupboard. Kim from l'uccello's gave me this piece of silk ribbon (14 cm wide) and I bought the little vintage Mother of Pearl buttons and some others which didn't suit but will be a lovely addition to the button stash. They are mixed with Baroque Pearls.

If you go here and scroll down, you'll find the pattern I made and various progress shots and explanations.

Now I have to find a suitable frame, which, so far, is not an easy thing. It wants to be a bit rich and gold... or tarnished silver. Old would be good!

The Poncho

I've started at last! The wool is Jaggerspun's Heather (3/8 doubled to be about 10 ply), in Agate. It's such gorgeous wool. I've long loved this pattern, and Eunny's cable tutorial helped me understand how to write out the pattern. And how to understand cabling altogether. Great tute! Yay for Eunny!
I figure that a poncho is perfect for cold New York. Over a cardigan, over a shirt, over a jacket and under two big, warm wraps. I hope. I saw a brilliant recipe (pattern) for tights too, but there's not really enough time... I've done the wrist warmers though.

Death's Head Bunny With Cross Carrots

I bought beads instead of buttons for the corners, to attach it to the ground (before the pledge, although it fits into the clause for exemption). I want to frame it. Trouble is, I ignored my concerns regarding the limitation of background colours while I was making it. With ivory silk, charcoal grey/black and orange, it's difficult to find something to compliment them all.

It's not pressed here. Slack, I know.

Have a look at the Lace category to see the beginning to end photo's. Approx 4 inches square.

For Baby

It started out as plain, using the new Yak and Bamboo, and I chose earthy colours because that's what my boy likes... but then I consulted my stash and it is more fun this way. Restrained, but not boringly so. I'll post the pattern when I'm done. It's just cobbled together using the baby bib as a starting point.

Anotherie. One For My Son

The inside is a beautiful, soft, Chinese paper I bought in Chinatown. It's one of my favourite shops. It's an Art Supplies and Dry Cleaners somewhere near the top of Little Bourke Street in Melbourne. I've used the cover of the Yellow Pages in between, since the papers were so fine. Compliments of work (they don't know yet but won't care, if it helps my projects).

Fancy finding a comic with his name in it? Sort of his name-ish. Good enough.

I finished Ruby's as well, but didn't like the lid, so I'm doing another. This is the first one (previous post) with the button and fastener completed.

The only thing I bought for these was the pale blue cotton and the plastic. Not bad hey? At this rate the stash will be gone in no time.

Look What I Got From The Oppie

I have the worlds largest collection.

Just made a new group in Flickr. Couldn't believe it... there isn't one solitary group dedicated to this fine craft.

The Good Girls. Finished, But Not Mounted Etc.

I h a t e the part where you have to pick the couching thread out. (There's that word again, I might get in trouble), and they're not pressed or stretched or anything, but you get the idea. I have two more to do in this series.

Discovered A New Source!

Playing on Flickr, checking out who's commented on various people's pictures... you know how it is...

It's the Glasgow School of Art's Library Photostream. Check it out! Not a lot there, but quality.

It Looks Better With The Edging

I had a go at crochet, but couldn't get it right.... due to an extensive lack of knowledge and experience with the method. Detached Buttonhole is more up my alley. You can see that the design is intended to have such a framing. Much better!! I'm happy.
Broder had ceased as part of DMC's product range apparently. It's such a shame. It has a quality all its own and has been around for ever and ever. It's particularly good for Satin stitch type work.

Finished Not Washed Not Mounted

And I do have to keep some mystery, so this is all you will see before it's transformed into a member of the group.

To describe this next step, as seen, I have finished outlining in fine Buttonhole, finished adding curly Bullions to the bars and when it's taken off the paper all of the little yellow or red couching will vanish.

Little secret. Any wrong colour, like bits of white showing underneath the black for example, go away with a touch of texta. Indelible of course. Little trick a framer friend of mine told me.

Progress Report On Death's Head Bunny

You can see that I've finished the 'colouring in' and am on to the outlines and the structural grid. I'll outline the leafy carrot tops in a more 3D manner, to make them look foliage-ish.

For the 'bars' I am using some exquisite, old, old silk my Grandma gave me when I was around 21-21years old... which is a fair time ago now. It appears creamy white on the skein and would too if you did a satin stitch or similar, but with the shadows involved in tight Buttonhole stitching, the colour appears more 'taupe' or greyed. Perfect, I think, as the bars are to be support for the central motif, both physically and in a design sense and therefore should sink into the background somewhat.

I've only worked the bottom left-hand corner thus, so far. The mercenised silk Bullion's up beautifully and I bothered to go find a Straw needle to work the Bullions, which makes a lot of difference in how easy they are to do.

I thought I'd show you the back, which is doodled on and an entreaty to return if lost plasters it all over. I'll probably file the paper when it's finished for fun and memory's sake.

The 'Death's Head' will jump out and be more defined when it's finished.

I don't think I said so before but when you put the contact over the paper, it is a good idea to tack around the edge so it won't peel off. Then, crumple it up to make it malleable and easy to manipulate.

Here Is The Major Source Of My Inspiration: Design In Needle Lace

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This makes my little heart go pitter patter. I love it. You can see the idea of incorporating monsters and exotic creatures is perfectly traditional and my bunnies are only following, not leading in style. Just following happily with this amazing technique in the old tried and true tradition.

I love the chunkiness, the clunkiness of it all. It's coarse and thick, no matter that the thread is fine.

The excellence of the graphics here... birds and frogs and people and floral motif's intermingle with no regard to scale but terrific regard to the overall composition.

There is a clean symmetry which can be seen in the larger photo.

I have found, in my overall experience, that you need to be careful to retain some order when you're playing with higgeldy piggeldy forms like this or Crazy work, or you'll end up with an mass of confusion. For example, with the three bunnies I'm still working on, I had to change the pattern on the dress because it got utterly lost in the background. I'll show you when it's finished. Likewise on the crazy quilt, I had not intended to put a border between the Grandmother's Fans and the Crazy patches, but it looked like a dog's breakfast and needed some ease for your eye.

Will you all at least try some lace work please, so we can share?