Thoughts from the swimming pool.
I would like my samplers to be used after completion of studies in the East End Women's Museum, which is due to open in 2020 at Barking & Dagenham Council Offices.
I'd like them used as museum artefacts, specifically for inspiration for the Outreach and Education department. The Education department is likely to be working with schools and other organisations, and I think my stitched samplers could be useful as inspirational artworks for workshops encouraging people to identify and represent women known to them, who they value.
Tuesday 26 February 2019
Working class or middle class
I can see me having a debate in my essay about my class status as a maker.
Samplers are strongly associated with women and their education. They were an indicator of middle class status when worked in silk on linen, using complicated stitches (raised chain band, Montenegrin), by women who were kept by their father/husband. Evidence of occupying time by embroidery (idleness) was evidence of affluence. When worked on cheaper materials (wool on sackcloth), using simple stitches (cross, running), with alphabets and numbers, they indicated working class status, teaching stitch skills for the marking of employers expensive linens.
I strongly identify as working class, yet I have received feedback that I come across as middle class. My identity comes from a childhood supported by state benefit; having an East London accent, working in a large manual industry; always having worked to support myself (ie not funded by a male income); valuing manual workers. (Lack of affluence; accent; self supporting; manual work)
Onlookers identify me as middle class because I gained a professional qualification (IPD); worked in white collar managerial roles; wore female managerial clothing; was able to retire early with pension, then gained higher educational qualifications. Also in conversation with a homeless man, he told me I 'spoke posh'! (Education; job role; affluence)
This combination of identities is reflected in my samplers. My samplers are worked in silk on linen (luxury). I can use a variety of stitches, and adapt between techniques intuitively because of high skill and much practice (leisured skill). As an early retiree (lady of leisure!) I occupy myself with stitch (time). However my subject matter is insignificant, unknown women (working class); manual workers (working class); hobbies of sewing & gardening (working class).
So my analysis concludes that I am using middle class materials, techniques and time to represent people with whom I identify, and whom I respect. I'm not sure whether working people would appreciate this. They might appreciate being represented by high quality skills in high quality materials, but I'm not sure that anyone except stitch specialists would realise this. But for me, my work is about respect for unsung women.
Samplers are strongly associated with women and their education. They were an indicator of middle class status when worked in silk on linen, using complicated stitches (raised chain band, Montenegrin), by women who were kept by their father/husband. Evidence of occupying time by embroidery (idleness) was evidence of affluence. When worked on cheaper materials (wool on sackcloth), using simple stitches (cross, running), with alphabets and numbers, they indicated working class status, teaching stitch skills for the marking of employers expensive linens.
I strongly identify as working class, yet I have received feedback that I come across as middle class. My identity comes from a childhood supported by state benefit; having an East London accent, working in a large manual industry; always having worked to support myself (ie not funded by a male income); valuing manual workers. (Lack of affluence; accent; self supporting; manual work)
Onlookers identify me as middle class because I gained a professional qualification (IPD); worked in white collar managerial roles; wore female managerial clothing; was able to retire early with pension, then gained higher educational qualifications. Also in conversation with a homeless man, he told me I 'spoke posh'! (Education; job role; affluence)
This combination of identities is reflected in my samplers. My samplers are worked in silk on linen (luxury). I can use a variety of stitches, and adapt between techniques intuitively because of high skill and much practice (leisured skill). As an early retiree (lady of leisure!) I occupy myself with stitch (time). However my subject matter is insignificant, unknown women (working class); manual workers (working class); hobbies of sewing & gardening (working class).
So my analysis concludes that I am using middle class materials, techniques and time to represent people with whom I identify, and whom I respect. I'm not sure whether working people would appreciate this. They might appreciate being represented by high quality skills in high quality materials, but I'm not sure that anyone except stitch specialists would realise this. But for me, my work is about respect for unsung women.
This embroidery has been completed after a class at V&A with Lynn Hulse and Nicola Jarvis. I learned twisted chain stitch, sewn in the Elizabethan technique. It also uses Holbein stitch, seeding, couching and French knots. It takes more time, and thread and is worked the opposite way to usual with the open end of the chain furthest away from the stitcher. It is a skilled stitch, which gives better coverage than chain stitch worked via Mary Thomas Dictionary of Stitches technique. I want to use this stitch technique for the Ford piece.
Sampler reading
Stacey Dearing:
Material culture framework - to read the sampler as discursive text recording life and interests.
Interest is in the sewing, not just the circumstances. Encode potentially subversive messages, which indicate the female voice.
Meaning of symbols are slippery across time (this refers to the problem with semiotic theory), therefore difficult to establish definitive meaning.
The genre of samplers is formulaic suggesting sampler instructor/instructions knew the significance and passed on to students.
Samplers are a record of life. Women often worked and composed in a media that was functional rather than fancy. Therefore many artefacts of women do not survive because they wear out or are discarded after their purpose is fulfilled.
Needlework can reinscribe and resist cultural norms.
Sewing can be a significant culture practice of meaning-making - Maureen Daly Goggins.
Emma Shercliffe, Articulating Stitch, Dec 2014, RCA
Embodied practice. Feminist emphasis on raising consciousness.
Ria van der Merwe, Collections create connections: stitching lives of marginalised women on the national memory canvas. 3/7/15 Museum & Curatorship. South Africa
Museums can deliver positive outcomes such as enhanced self esteem; confidence & creativity; social regeneration; inclusive communities; promoting tolerance, inter community respect and challenging stereotypes.
Inclusion and exclusion - who is part of civil society - and not? Whose voice is heard? And not?
Embroidery taught as a 'useful' skill by missionaries
Embroidery projects used to preserve Venda (indigenous community) oral tradition
Andries Botha, 2007, ran Voices of Women project. Creative methodology as a means of women's memory to be recounted, and held in trust as part of the memory archive of South Africa for future posterity. 3000 cloths and Women's Museum in KwaZulu Natal.
Memory retrieval of women and is made tangible through the production of embroidered and appliqué works of art and personal narrative (Amazwi Abasifanzone)
Made by women and point of multiple intersections.
Exhibiting exposure important for: visitors - for the story of Africa; makers - for community reconstruction, and vernacular interpretation of community history; income for women.
Changing the inequalities not only needs economic empowerment via sales, but also political representation - visibility via community projects. Community/museum textile projects enable 'previously marginalised women to become part of the recorded narrative and historical process".
Embroideries provide a forum for (women) to articulate concerns they otherwise feel unable to express.
'Story cloths ... the means through which marginalised women can make sense of their lives.'
Irony of western embroidery as a tool of subjection, becoming a voice to speak out.
Leads to:
- Connection and co-operation
- therapy
- storytelling to change attitudes
- address poverty
- indigenous knowledge acknowledged
My samplers aim to tell stories to change attitudes; and aim to acknowledge women's skills, talents and knowledge.
Stalker 2003: 30. Women's fabric crafts offer an alternative to more confrontational approaches in 'subtle yet strong ways'.
Clover Stalker & McGauley, 2004. Public form for voices of the marginalised. Transformation from cultural consumer to cultural makers/creators.
Material culture framework - to read the sampler as discursive text recording life and interests.
Interest is in the sewing, not just the circumstances. Encode potentially subversive messages, which indicate the female voice.
Meaning of symbols are slippery across time (this refers to the problem with semiotic theory), therefore difficult to establish definitive meaning.
The genre of samplers is formulaic suggesting sampler instructor/instructions knew the significance and passed on to students.
Samplers are a record of life. Women often worked and composed in a media that was functional rather than fancy. Therefore many artefacts of women do not survive because they wear out or are discarded after their purpose is fulfilled.
Needlework can reinscribe and resist cultural norms.
Sewing can be a significant culture practice of meaning-making - Maureen Daly Goggins.
Emma Shercliffe, Articulating Stitch, Dec 2014, RCA
Embodied practice. Feminist emphasis on raising consciousness.
Ria van der Merwe, Collections create connections: stitching lives of marginalised women on the national memory canvas. 3/7/15 Museum & Curatorship. South Africa
Museums can deliver positive outcomes such as enhanced self esteem; confidence & creativity; social regeneration; inclusive communities; promoting tolerance, inter community respect and challenging stereotypes.
Inclusion and exclusion - who is part of civil society - and not? Whose voice is heard? And not?
Embroidery taught as a 'useful' skill by missionaries
Embroidery projects used to preserve Venda (indigenous community) oral tradition
Andries Botha, 2007, ran Voices of Women project. Creative methodology as a means of women's memory to be recounted, and held in trust as part of the memory archive of South Africa for future posterity. 3000 cloths and Women's Museum in KwaZulu Natal.
Memory retrieval of women and is made tangible through the production of embroidered and appliqué works of art and personal narrative (Amazwi Abasifanzone)
Made by women and point of multiple intersections.
Exhibiting exposure important for: visitors - for the story of Africa; makers - for community reconstruction, and vernacular interpretation of community history; income for women.
Changing the inequalities not only needs economic empowerment via sales, but also political representation - visibility via community projects. Community/museum textile projects enable 'previously marginalised women to become part of the recorded narrative and historical process".
Embroideries provide a forum for (women) to articulate concerns they otherwise feel unable to express.
'Story cloths ... the means through which marginalised women can make sense of their lives.'
Irony of western embroidery as a tool of subjection, becoming a voice to speak out.
Leads to:
- Connection and co-operation
- therapy
- storytelling to change attitudes
- address poverty
- indigenous knowledge acknowledged
My samplers aim to tell stories to change attitudes; and aim to acknowledge women's skills, talents and knowledge.
Stalker 2003: 30. Women's fabric crafts offer an alternative to more confrontational approaches in 'subtle yet strong ways'.
Clover Stalker & McGauley, 2004. Public form for voices of the marginalised. Transformation from cultural consumer to cultural makers/creators.
Thursday 21 February 2019
Art class - key fob
Everybody needs a Vanda!
Last Monday, was the day for art class. Oh my word, did I need it! I had my customary fit of the February blues - everything I touched fell apart, I felt sluggish and was dwelling on far too many negatives. My solution to these issues is: stay busy, stay active, stay socialised.
It was good to arrive at the Granary and meet up with all my mates – a diverse bunch of women, with all different artistic styles, motivated by different inspirations, and all enjoying getting their preferred art tools into their preferred art media. All of us get on better with the art tasks by starting with specific instructions to be followed. I definitely needed to be just told what to do! Which Vanda did!
Each of us was given a score of luggage labels, both white and brown paper. We lined up 3 luggage labels, looked at our inspirational object and overlaid three lines from our object, across the labels. We then picked 3 suitable marks from our object to infill areas of pattern on the labels. As a group, the exercises followed the same principles, with areas of colour, collage, and increasing complexity, until we had a handful of luggage labels. My inspiring object was a bunch of car keys, which fitted with my ongoing theme of Ford Machinists and their 1968 strike. My colour scheme was Ford blue, silver (chrome), black, white, and a tiny amount of red (from the inside of the leather key fob).
In the afternoon, some of the group continued working small, but I scaled up to A2, and of my 3 drawings, one was dreadful, but the other two, even if not successful in a refined way, had potential. And the one that just did not work, was duly cut up to make more luggage labels, which considerably improved it(!) – large scale marks on a small scale object.
Now I had about 20 labels, and I threaded them on the key ring that Vanda had provided, and fanned them out for display. Quite promising! Vanda sagely observed that as my subject matter was Ford, and I was looking at car keys, what my keyring needed was a Ford key fob.
The following day, after my swim, I trotted off to the local Ford dealer, and spoke to their used car salesperson to source a used Ford key fob. Oh my word! How successful was I! The perfect key fob – leather, softened from much use, with an embossed metal Ford logo (perfect for rubbings).
I was so inspired that once I got home, I worked into the labels further, with stitch, and stencil cutting, chopping up a Ford Cortina Haynes manual, and thoroughly enjoying the collage.
And what does my car key sketchbook look like now? Voila! I went home in high good humour. Nothing like an art class (especially one that involves cutting and sticking!) to beat the February blues! Thank you Vanda!
Saturday 9 February 2019
Hannah Hauxwell quilt auction, Tennants Auctioneers
What an interesting day! This was the first time I had been to an auction. It started with auctioning other lots, such as samplers. Much interest in them. Estimated prices in the catalogue were fairly accurate, between £100-£300. My favourite sampler was unusual, in that it included 2 menorahs on a very traditional sampler, dated 1808 by Mary Miller 1808, which went for £380 (est £250-350). Two 17th century stump work pictures went for £1100 and £1500 (est £500-800 and £600-800), from the estate of Professor Metcalf (reliable source apparently).
Hannah Hauxwell's quilts were typically estimated at between £200-300. But the auction smashed these prices. Her family bibles went for £250 (est £60-£100). Many quilts went for £300-500, and several went for between 650-800, and one reached £1500. These quilts were made/hoarded by Hannah, her mother and grandmother, and had never been used. Most went to known dealers, one to a collector in Australia (something called a knitting sheath - wooden carved handle for the end of a double ended needle). In conversation with the auctioneer afterwards, he was confident many would remain in the local area. Absolutely fascinating.
It was good to see the artefacts of a local heroine being appropriately valued by her community. But lets be realistic - all due to the power of television, to promote the wholesome values of a decent woman. And I found out that her farm is now a SSSI. Because she used traditional methods of farming, her land is rife with rare wildflowers (because of no pesticides and no fertilisers). It is now a nature reserve, with footpaths for walkers/botanists/birdwatchers. What a heritage she created.
Great day out. I also had a long conversation with a lady who bred Wensleydale sheep wool and ran the Wensleydale sheep wool shop, who admired my cardigan. So we had a long conversation about knitting, and then I went to her shop in the afternoon and bought some 4ply wool to make a cardigan. (Not that I need another, but it's always good to have a project lined up!).
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| Menorah sampler - by a Jewish girl? |
 |
| This one went for £1500 |
 |
| This was my favourite (I squint when I can't focus properly!) |
It was good to see the artefacts of a local heroine being appropriately valued by her community. But lets be realistic - all due to the power of television, to promote the wholesome values of a decent woman. And I found out that her farm is now a SSSI. Because she used traditional methods of farming, her land is rife with rare wildflowers (because of no pesticides and no fertilisers). It is now a nature reserve, with footpaths for walkers/botanists/birdwatchers. What a heritage she created.
Great day out. I also had a long conversation with a lady who bred Wensleydale sheep wool and ran the Wensleydale sheep wool shop, who admired my cardigan. So we had a long conversation about knitting, and then I went to her shop in the afternoon and bought some 4ply wool to make a cardigan. (Not that I need another, but it's always good to have a project lined up!).
The Beautiful Stitch, Embroiders' Guild, Ely
Enjoyable exhibition. 5 sections. Embroidery as Art; Embroidery in Education; Embroidery as Fashion; Embroidery as Industry; Embroidery as Status. Lots of embroidered examples. I would have liked more theory and writing to account for their categorisation.
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| Joy Clucas, machine embroidery c10" x 12" |
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| Elizabeth Catten, 1775, Quaker School, hand embroidery |
Interesting how the quotation is about restricting what you say. Implies it is directed at women, as it is stitched by a girl. Paternalistic faith? Do as the man of the household says?
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| English smocking. No maker. Lovely stitching. |
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| Mary Decima Rhodes, Three faces of Eve, felt inlay appliqué, 1956 |
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| Arts & Crafts smock. No maker. |
Royal School of Needlework was established 1872; Embroiders' Guild was started by a breakaway group from the RSN in 1906. Education Act 1902 made needlework and cookery compulsory for girls. (Have looked this up on line and cannot find reputable source that confirms this).
Needlework Development Scheme set up in 1934 in Scotland (during time of depression) to raise standard of embroidery and textile design, and provide employment for women. (Restricted thinking! Perhaps the powers-that-were believed women needed work to do at home).
Getting back on track.
My tutorial with Imogen went quite well. Detailed feedback on how to refine what I have written.
Notes of Tutorial – Imogen Racz, Cathy MacTaggart
Wednesday 6 February 2019
I saw Imogen on 6 February 2019 for feedback on my essay.
Generally speaking I need more discursive text. The first paragraph can be split into 3. Refer to Women, Art & Power by Linda Nochlin. First sentence expands into a paragraph that refers back to title. Second sentence becomes 2ndpara, explains the subject and outlines what the essay will do, and what it will not do. Third sentence becomes 3rdpara, identifies what, explain their importance for analysis and give examples.
Expand how women are sidelined, not by being not present, but under represented, and represented in a restricted range of ways. Women are sidelined – via women’s technology – demonstrate how I represent them, and their status in appropriate materials.
Move printmakers paragraph.
Sampler definitions – include middle class/working class issues. Explain partiality of quotes – explain when they are inadequate and why. Look at Lucy Worsley/Jane Austen book. Meek, mild, obedient. How they received education – what subjects; use of stitch types to tell stories/narrative; embodied control. Learning and embodying the right things. Partial definition for working class. Visible and cultural. Describe what education was. Fit to the broader cultural situation.
Look at Leopold Egg. Define a woman in relation to a man. Man needed to validate a woman. Find evidence.
Marginalised history of women. Marginalised history practice of embroidery. Yet it comes with symbolism. Who is reading about embroidery. Who is making? Closed code – culturally significant to those who can read it.
Hal Foster The Creative Fallacy. Include Dormer (already written a bit about him – likely to fit in Making). Include migration – hopes of migrants – bell hooks. Jeffries Reinventing Textiles. Maharaj. Christine Checinska – Crafting Difference. Jean Fisher – Diaspora in Kobena Mercere. Establish how/why black cleaners are overlooked.
Actions:
CMT to rewrite intro – more discursive. Work into quotes in details. C1000 words
List educational issues. Pull out and discuss.
Also: I wrote to Dagenham Library about exhibition space and have had no response. So I went to William Morris Gallery to enquire personally about exhibiting there, as my work has a good political and arts & crafts fit with their purpose. The Customer Service Assistant was contemptuous and disdainful, although the volunteers gave me a name and email address to write to. The following day I wrote in, and have had no response.
I’ve seen an art competition with Coventry’s Peace and Reconciliation department, which offers a 4 week exhibition and residency mid summer for the winner. I’ll enter and see what happens, as this might be a good venue for exhibition.
Otherwise I don’t have any more ideas for an exhibition venue. I find the concept of a solo show to be energy sapping.
Sunday 3 February 2019
Feeling depressed - hit the buffers
Oh dear. The January blues have hit me. I've been fighting depression all month. I've tried to keep positive, and keep doing things but right now, I've had enough. I've had flu, my husband has had flu with a chest infection, art classes have been cancelled due to illness (possibly fortuitously, as I was too ill to attend), I keep being called to Coventry for short notice tutorials, thus I let down my cycling group as I am meant to be tail rider.
Then I was called back for a tutorial with Imogen, where she's made it clear my writing is not up to scratch, and neither is my reading. I have to read a chapter from The Subversive Stitch, for us to identify how I can read deeper into the text, to get more from my reading. I don't get it, when we have to read texts to come up with something new! I don't like texts that are so obscure that different people get different things from them - surely part of good writing is that the writer's points are clear!
Then I went to the William Morris Gallery to find out whether their upstairs landing gallery would be available for a Masters show, and met the most incredibly offhand, patronising member of staff. There were 3 volunteers who tried to be friendly and encouraging, and the woman working the till who contradicted every helpful thing the volunteers said - 'there is a 3 year waiting list for gallery space'; 'there is no-one available to speak to unless you have an appointment'; 'write in to the general enquiries email'; 'only the upstairs landing would be suitable', all said in a snotty, patronising and disdainful manner. I crept out feeling humiliated, and she didn't even notice me walk in front of her!
I forced myself to write to the email address for William Morris Gallery, about gallery space, but felt really inadequate. I try to be robust and resilient, but suspect I'm not even going to get a reply.
Yesterday I felt so despairing about my work that I decided to complete my MA and end my studies there. I just don't think I can take it onto PhD. It's just been going on too long. I walked out of London Met, but I'd nearly completed 2 years, and I've done another 2 years, and my reading and writing is still inadequate. I'm struggling with isolation because there is not really a strong peer group. I'm very uncomfortable arranging my solo show for my exhibition. This is a major stumbling block for me. I'm ok when my work is part of a group show, and it's been selected by a jury - that validates the quality of the work. But a solo show! Oh no! It feels egotistical. It makes me feel quite ill. And I'd tried so hard to be brave walking into William Morris Gallery, but tried the direct approach because when I wrote to Dagenham Library, I got no response at all.
I wonder why I bother. Yet I know that, particularly at this time of year, if I don't have a purpose and something to investigate, I'll end up depressed. As if I'm not this anyway.
Then I was called back for a tutorial with Imogen, where she's made it clear my writing is not up to scratch, and neither is my reading. I have to read a chapter from The Subversive Stitch, for us to identify how I can read deeper into the text, to get more from my reading. I don't get it, when we have to read texts to come up with something new! I don't like texts that are so obscure that different people get different things from them - surely part of good writing is that the writer's points are clear!
Then I went to the William Morris Gallery to find out whether their upstairs landing gallery would be available for a Masters show, and met the most incredibly offhand, patronising member of staff. There were 3 volunteers who tried to be friendly and encouraging, and the woman working the till who contradicted every helpful thing the volunteers said - 'there is a 3 year waiting list for gallery space'; 'there is no-one available to speak to unless you have an appointment'; 'write in to the general enquiries email'; 'only the upstairs landing would be suitable', all said in a snotty, patronising and disdainful manner. I crept out feeling humiliated, and she didn't even notice me walk in front of her!
 |
| Various aspects of the upstairs landing at William Morris Gallery |
I forced myself to write to the email address for William Morris Gallery, about gallery space, but felt really inadequate. I try to be robust and resilient, but suspect I'm not even going to get a reply.
Yesterday I felt so despairing about my work that I decided to complete my MA and end my studies there. I just don't think I can take it onto PhD. It's just been going on too long. I walked out of London Met, but I'd nearly completed 2 years, and I've done another 2 years, and my reading and writing is still inadequate. I'm struggling with isolation because there is not really a strong peer group. I'm very uncomfortable arranging my solo show for my exhibition. This is a major stumbling block for me. I'm ok when my work is part of a group show, and it's been selected by a jury - that validates the quality of the work. But a solo show! Oh no! It feels egotistical. It makes me feel quite ill. And I'd tried so hard to be brave walking into William Morris Gallery, but tried the direct approach because when I wrote to Dagenham Library, I got no response at all.
I wonder why I bother. Yet I know that, particularly at this time of year, if I don't have a purpose and something to investigate, I'll end up depressed. As if I'm not this anyway.
Notes of Tutorial – Jill Journeaux, Cathy MacTaggart
Tuesday 29 January 2019
I saw Jill at Coventry on 29 January. We went through Imogen’s comments on my draft. We were not completely sure what Imogen’s comments indicated. I think in the first paragraph I need to clearly define my research question, and the second paragraph needs to lay out the aims and objectives – bullet points will be fine.
Imogen is not clear about the format of the Research chapter. I struggle with defining a structure and need to work within a defined order and method. What I’ve done, is to use the Research chapter to explain the different research methods I’ve used, and give an example of where each method has led me. Jill thought Imogen wanted this chapter divided into Literature Review and other methods – I need to check this with Imogen as she is leading on writing.
JJ suggested I used the last paragraph of history of samplers and first paragraph of Contemporary Makers to lay down the themes for my own work: women, home, repression.
JJ suggested I improve my signposting. Sometimes I do it, and sometimes I don’t. I’m not clear about how and when to do it. Some suggested forms of words would be useful.
Look at labour of art. Ruskin, Morris, Cziksentmihalyi. Value of, or not.
Send all mail to both JJs emails as she has no confidence that her IT access will remain consistent at change of contract. jilljourneaux@icloud.com
Continue making. Ford Machinist sampler has the border completed (production line of car seats) and Ford font alphabet started.
I’ve done a Jacobean Embroidery class at V&A with Dr Lynn Hulse and Nicola Jarvis. Great class, enjoyed the historical technique, blackwork. Enjoying the Royalist symbolism. Also booked on Metal Thread Embroidery with same team at School of Textiles in Coggeshall, with Mary Schoeser. On waiting list for Richard McVetis 18-24 Feb at West Dean.
We discussed venues for exhibition. I’ve had a great idea for a venue – William Morris Gallery, Walthamstow. They do take exhibitions, but are very selective – ‘inspired by nature’ is not enough. However because my artwork is handcraft based; has a left leaning political message, it could fit. I will go there on Thursday 31 Jan to speak to them and have a close look at the venue. Fingers crossed! Jill also said there was a delay with refurb at Coventry so there is a possibility of a venue there as well.
Actions:
CMT to continue making
CMT to speak to IR, before amending essay further.
CMT to attend reading group 6/2/19
CMT to speak to William Morris Gallery
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