Silk and rust

The rusting worked quite well, just with vinegar in a big plastic bag in the sun. The scarlet was particularly acceptable, the silk was gold coloured as in the streak, but for some reason the alchemy turned most of the fabric scarlet, very satisfactory.
I am thinking of stitching in black...........perhaps machining some figures. Always a period of puzzle when the fabrics reveal themselves. I rusted some cotton I had dyed previously and am thinking I might stamp it a bit, but dunno if I will ever work up the courage to then stitch it. Hard to cover up previous niceness.

reader

power

Finally got to see the wonderful "sampler" stitched from 1900 - 1917 by LB, Before that she had lived with her mum and they ran a boarding house together. When she was in her 50s her ma died and she was dumped in the workhouse presumably by her family, for some reason LB didn't inherit anything, instead she was put in the asylum wing and left to rot.
However she was a woman of some force and she started to stitch these long [this one is about 15'] diatribes of denunciation and fury. Presumably she scavenged scraps from the rag pickers in the main wings and was allowed to sit and sew if she caused no trouble.
She poured all her bile into these samplers, there is known to be another of about 12' and there are fragments of more, which have not been found.
The museum researchers have confirmed that the people and places existed but they cannot explain why she is so angry, and as time goes on she does get a bit bizarre, unsurprisingly.
I suspect she may have had aspergers or something along the autistic syndrome, a bit obsessive not socially skilled, which is perhaps why she stayed home with her mum.
She died in the workhouse but her energy certainly still reverberates.
I guess her situation and work express many of the interests I have, I hope I have some of her persistence.

audrey

Yesterday, in spite of the marauding postal strike, the DVD of one of my favourite stitchers was delivered. Altho she is in her 80s Audrey - fine old name, i know two and they are both redoubtable women- stitches ever onwards. She is solid in her self worth and skills, so very bracing to me who lacks both.

She is a figurative and flower fibre artist.......couldn't resist all those Fs. Fibre artist is perhaps preferable to textile artist as it sounds less like curtains, and covers a wider span of materials. Sometimes I say Mixed Media - obviously just "artist" would be preferable.........
Anyway the DVD is 50 glorious mins of her chuntering on about her work. Finding aspects in common with those one admires is always encouraging. The opposite skill of finding differences with those one does not like is not so positive.
She has/had a small house in Greece and is influenced by the Greek Heroes [gods/goddesses] so her figurative work is strong and monumental. She also explores the Greek myths, plus being very interested in the Adam and Eve story.
I see the latter story [it is all the woman and that serpents fault/the original sin] at the root of gender evils I am thrilled to see how she explores the theme in stitch.
She had some stitchings of her mother on the wall, done in the 1920s I guess. tall painted figures that mother stitched in markings of strong straight stitches, with phrases as part of the whole. Auders didn't seem to fully recognise the continuation between her work and her mother's, just saw the use of lettering.
To commemorate her legacy she often includes bits of lace table cloths her ma made in her work, which led AW into part curtains in her scenes etc.
It is all very fascinating.
I am hoping to use the DVD as a bolster to my focus. It showed her working on large pieces, often on a large frame as hand tapestry is done, so I will try taking the cheap and nasty canvas off the cheap frames i buy and cover them with a softish fabric so I can work straight on the piece, rather than faff about afterwards trying to make the finished piece fit a frame.
However she often machine stitches zigzags to make a base of colour before the hand stitching and that can't be done on a frame........well it can, if not too big. Alice K machines huge areas of felt, and just accepts the warping that it causes, but then she is AK. AW mostly hand stitches now, with organzas etc to provide the backing shade, but I find her straight stitch less integrated and the shaping direction of the stitches cruder..........

plans

I like very much Jenny Saville's work. She is a small little person but paints herself as woman mountain. One print I have in the summer house is called Plan. It shows a huge nude with contour lines. Like her I am fascinated by Francis Bacon, unlike her I don't think i can be brave enough.

A series?

This is an example of Lorina Bulwer's work. As the museum where it is kept in Norwich notes -
Lorina Bulwer made this sampler around 1900, whilst resident in the female lunatic ward of Great Yarmouth Workhouse. It measures 12ft by 1ft and takes the form of one long, often confusing, rant. With no punctuation, and entirely in upper case, each word has been carefully hand-stitched onto a patchwork of fabrics by the maker.

In the sampler, Lorina tells the reader stories about her life and her family, including how she feels about being in the workhouse. She is furious at finding herself in there, with few rights and labelled a lunatic.
Magazines, songs [Corinna Corinna ?]all carry the fantasy, the unattainable the dream.

Some suggest that the sampler is the product of an early form of art therapy, although this is unlikely. It is more probable that Lorina was permitted to continue her stitching to keep her occupied. Whilst the true extent of Lorina’s mental illness in unknown, the sampler does tell the reader something about living with the stigma of this disability. -
They have kindly sent me the transcript of this particular piece, it runs to 68 pages.
It seems Lorina and her mother ran a boarding house, but when her mother died Lorina did not for some reason inherit the house or monies but ended up consigned to the Workhouse, for the rest of her life and very angry. It may be that she was somewhat autistic, as the work is obsessive and increasingly incoherent, and it is suspected that many more stitched rants of hers exist, but have not been tracked down as yet.
I would like to do some work in the spirit of Lorina, I certainly have the temperament at times.
recently i sat opposite a large woman in a coffee bar, she was truly enormous and was reading a magazine that in it's turn ranted endlessly about the love lives of size 8 celebrities and wannabees.
It occured to me that the conflict of possibilities in this situation would suit my own obsessions with Big Women and stitching words, and exploring the Female place in the society.........so next Tuesday I am hopefully [train strikes allowing] going to see Lorina's work for myself.
I was talking with P today around the concept. I did make sketches of my large lady, but she offered to send me the top pic of one of her neices to add to the collection.
I mustn't forget that Big women also have fun!!