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Now the story unfolds
- Thirteen feltmakers teasing out layers of family history - imagine
the scene in each of their houses! Digging in button boxes, sifting
through letters and photos, ransacking rag and shopping bags, emptying
boxes and drawers until the very thing appeared.
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Then as a group
showing each other items of personal junk (with very little
meaning in themselves), which led each of us to unearth a
wealth of memories, tears and laughter.
What history unravels
– the exhibition brings together.
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Jeanette Sendler
‘Aprons’
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From 1929 Drummond Community High School was a school for trading
and commerce. Later it turned into a secondary school and the adult
education program was introduced. Jeanette’s work concentrates
on needle work which was one of the subjects taught alongside shorthand,
housewifery, metal work, woodwork and other technical subjects.
A series of hand felted aprons portray details of writing and stitch
work related to the former school called Bellevue - School of Trading
& Commerce. The aprons pockets are filled with the tools and
threads of the olden days. The aprons represent shells/skins of
past pupils. Monograms on faded cotton suggest former owners of
the garments.
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The
work has been inspired by a series of photographs reflecting pupils
that have gone through the system both previously and at present. |
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| Saskia Gavin |
| Saskia, a former student of Jeanette Sendler, now teaching at Drummond Community High School evening classes for adults in Millinery. Saskia runs her own textile studio Mixing Fibres at Out of the Blue studios Dalmeny Street Edinburgh |
‘When I wore a white coat…’ |
| The clink of glass, the sound-feeling
of ground glass stoppers in test tubes, or the glimpse of a Petri dish takes
me back to the days when I wore a white coat. I worked in a zoology laboratory
with parasites. I had first been attracted to them by the apparent impossibility
of some of the life cycles. Seeing them in the flesh, I was amazed by their
beautiful shapes and forms of the organisms. These contrasted so sharply
with the disgust and dislike that the unknowing feel for them. |
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I also nurse a lingering passion for the laboratory equipment of
the time:
such clean lines, such pure form, yet all with a purpose, a function.
So different form the hotch potch improvisation of my real life.
This is how I remember my days in the laboratory, this is some
of what inspired me to work there.
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Sally Cross
“T-shirt” |
| The inspiration
for my piece is this T-shirt that belonged to my father which encapsulates
for me his sense of fun and joie de vivre that I remember him for.
I intercepted it on its way out of the house destined for a jumble
sale sometime in the early 1980s. To me it was a jewel of a find –
just the thing for a gal to wear in the post-punk era. Some time later
I came across this photograph of my father wearing the very same T
shirt taken in (I would guess) the early 1950s. Location unknown –
though I know he went to Nice in the South of France in the summer
of 1952, I like to think it was then. Certainly somewhere on the Continent
a world away from drab, austere post-war London. But was Britain quite
as austere as dogma suggests? The T-shirt indicates otherwise by its
vibrant colours and vivid design. Did he wear the T-shirt at home
or just on jaunts abroad? I bet he was pleased with it though as he
kept it all those years for me to find and wonder about. |
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I decided to take an aspect of the T-shirt design and recreate
it in felt. Working slowly I made this simple net using both needle-felting
and wet-felting techniques. A net to catch dreams and memories.
I have been felt-making for about two years and I relish working
with wool and transforming it into felt. I find the colours, possibilities
and process entrancing. I usually make practical items but the Wiston
weekend gave me a rare opportunity to take time to develop an idea
for creative reasons alone and indulge in nostalgic speculation
about the mysteries of my parents’ lives before I was born.
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Charlotte Haines
“It's a Bucket Bag” |
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| Charlotte Haines, former student of Jeanette Sendler,
now teaching at Drummond Community High School evening classes for
adults in Fibre Art. Charlotte has years of experience and a lifelong
passion for textiles recently specialising in felt. Workshops held
on Egg, North Edinburgh Arts Centre and Traquair house. Member of
International Felt Makers Association. |
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Crafting, constructing and creating have been a passion since I
was old enough to play with knitting needles and wool. In my nostalgic
search I stumbled across a dull brown leather bag that hadn’t
been found or fed for years.
I am the caretaker of the bag.
In recreating the bag part of the process was to revive its memories.
I needed to locate the memories to put them in. Aunts, siblings and
cousins were asked for recollections of the bag, shopping trips and
the owner: Dor dor, my grandmother. |
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Leather, brown and cream bags containing ghosted memories. The
wool will keep them warm. It had to be Wensleydale wool. Dor dor
enjoyed the cheese with a crisp apple.
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Charlotte
Intihar
“Felt and Nostalgia”
Searching through the contents of my mother’s old sewing
box for something that would conjure a feeling of nostalgia, I came
across my Grandmother’s ancient, hand embroidered, silk bolero
jacket. It seemed a perfect cross between many of the memories I
have tied to my Grandmother and the huge part of her life from which
I had no experience of her. This was from a part of her life when
she would have been full of energy and ideas. I imagined her in
it, before the colours had faded. What had she been like? I wondered
about her levels of creativity, as indeed she had been a creative
woman; writing books, making clothes, taking a great interest in
modern art and poetry. She was however, technically, a house-wife.
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| So, where
did she put all that creativity for which she had such limited outlets?
It seemed that the next question must be her daughter, my mother.
A woman whose creativity burns so brightly, I am not sure she had
any choice as to answering its call. She embraced and channeled hers
into the theatre and acting/ writing. She freed herself of internalizing
creativity and it has served her well. Then there is me. And the corset.
I feel to be in the middle, between my mother and Grandmother, as
though we were not born in quite the right order. |
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| I find free
expression quite difficult and wonder if others do too. This is why
I began to explore the idea of creativity. How do we identify it,
as surely it will be different for everyone? Where does it come from?
And for women in particular, I wanted to look at how it has been stifled,
shoved, pushed, forced to remain inside, not to join the outside world
and breathe. |
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Philippa Johnston
“Trapped in Time” |
This isn’t
the story I expected to tell. |
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I started off with a collection of linen, cotton and wool threads
for ‘reinforcing and mending ‘ and for ‘darning
all kinds of hosiery’ in muted shades of browns and greys
that I’d discovered in the sewing box I’d inherited
from my grandmother.
It was going to be the story of a much-loved grandmother who had
taught me to knit and to sew, who had lived through two world wars
and the years of depression in between and who had, by necessity,
had to ‘make do and mend’, a practice so unfashionable
in today’s throwaway society. It would be the story of a grandmother
who mended people as well as things – patching up relationships,
bringing people together, providing comfort – and who put
the needs and wants of her family before herself.
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I started
off making samples exploring these qualities – the linking
threads, the mini ‘comfort’ blanket – but soon
realised that I wanted to tell another story – the story of
the woman who painted that wonderful oil painting of my younger
sister but who I never recall seeing paint, who adored her garden,
especially the delicate pink blossom of its cherry tree, who might
have lived a different kind of life in a different time.
My samples began to become
layered, trapping first tiny shiny beads and then pink petals, hinting
at what lies beneath the surface of those we love and think we know.
My final piece is an
outsize daisy chain, a long way from those eminently functional
objects that I began my story with – my celebration of Vera
Blackwood. |
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Jennie Loudon
“Scraps and Ancestors”
I was born in Inverness-shire in 1956 and am part of a large extended
family. I've always loved textiles, old and new, but particularly
enjoy working with old pieces, discarded bits, those saved by my
Granny and her kind as still having a potential. Granny's "duster
bag" was my starting point for the weekend at Wiston.
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I rescued
this some years ago amongst other "rags" that were being
thrown out, thinking to make a patchwork quilt with them one day
(though all I've used them for at this point is one doll).
I hadn't even looked
properly through the bag - it contained a fairly random assortment
of pieces and at the bottom, an old sampler. The maker of this was
unclear as it is fairly moth eaten - I could read my Great-grandmother's
family name - Guthrie. I don't know the origin of any of the other
fabric pieces, which made me think of the people who thread in and
out of our lives, touching them and moving on. |
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The little felt pieces
explore this using family photos and the "X" symbol
from the sampler to represent people across families and generations,
all linked in different ways. Some more solid bonds,
some tenuous links. Some memories and faces are clear, some less
so. The sampler seems to have been sewn by R.I. (Robert Irvine)
Guthrie -
my grandmother's grandfather.
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Sara Macaulay
“Pink Pig Knitting” |
| Pinkie the
piglet is easy to knit: he’s a fat little fellow that everyone
loves with his little snub snout and black trotters. Note: Stuff toy
with anything light and soft you already possess, which is not useful
for salvage. |
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Pinkie
was knitted for me by my mum with love – not easily. She was
not a natural knitter. But I love knitting and everything to do
with wool – so here is my piece of felt work about knitting
and motherhood, wartime austerity, childhood playfulness and not
being able to remember being a baby, cosy piggy associations of
stories, toys and games as compared to the derogatory words used
to refer to real pigs and their qualities.
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Liz Patinson
“Woollen Cushion”
My cushion represents the Borders landscape with its many changing
shades. These are also represented in the tweeds and tartan cloth
traditionally produced in the area. The cushion was wet-felted using
merino wool, some details were added by needle- felting and the
backing used is locally produced tartan material.
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| I have been making felt objects
for about a year now since starting a recreational evening class at Drummond.
This has re-kindled my interest in traditional crafts and I like to combine
the felt with other textile media in the production of practical items. |
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Cathy Stobo
“A Stitch in Time” |
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These machine-stitched
vessels in felt and paper were inspired by the rediscovery of the
contents of a cardboard box stowed away in a cupboard for many years.
Nestled in the box was
my grandmother’s heavy, black, hand Singer sewing machine
cushioned by some old paper shopping bags and a yellowing copy of
the social pages from the Times from August 1962. Untouched
for years, the box had travelled the world, from Liverpool in the
1940s to Surrey in the 1960s, to Melbourne in the 1970s, and to
Edinburgh more recently. Battered and plastered with removalist’s
stickers, this box shows the signs of an interesting and varied
life. |
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| In uncovering all
this, many memories spilled out and some are still unfolding.
The newspaper stories
from 1962 heralded performances of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes in the
West End, Twiggy’s arrival on London’s catwalks and
tips on weekend breaks in Portpatrick. Today the social pages feature
Miss Saigon, Kate Moss and weekend breaks in Budapest. It is reassuring
that little has changed in this period which extends beyond my own
life. |
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| The shopping
bags were made of thick old-fashioned brown paper, with handles made of
blue and white coloured string. One was inscribed “Fruiterers and
Grocers Old Swan SC 432”, a reminder of days gone by, when shops
specialised in selling particular things, and phone numbers began with
letters. There was a feeling of durability and strength in the paper.
It was these simple materials
which inspired me to create a number of vessels to cushion, protect and
contain memories. Felt, like paper, cushions, protects and encloses. And
stitches hold together, reinforce and embellish. |
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These pieces were
stitched using my grandmother’s trusty and well-travelled
Singer, the machine which continues to provide a great source of
inspiration, as it did throughout my childhood.
In reopening this box,
and in uncovering these memories, I am reminded of the importance
of “making time”, and for me, playing with felt, paper
and stitch is one way to do this. |
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Mary Walters
“My Journey as a Bag!”
I remember the tortuous experience of making my first ‘textile
project’ at the age of about 10 in primary school –
having to get all the seams straight and all the stitches the same
length on my blue lap bag. Many years later, as a new teacher myself,
I was very upset when a 6th form pupil referred to me – as
I thought – as ‘the bag’. I felt reassured when
he told me later that he had been referring to the orange fringed
suede bag in which I used to rummage at the beginning of a lesson
for the odd piece of chalk.
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This incident
remained with me. I found myself reflecting on it, and the use of
the fairly emotive term ’bag’ as I approached the challenge
of the ‘felt and nostalgia’ project. Inspired by the rediscovery
of my blue lap – bag, I began to unpack my ‘bags’
– and to construct my journey so far in the form of a series
of magic bags, treasure bags. I became interested also in their possible
contents– what would be in them, what had I kept over the years
– what had I thrown away. What could I remember? |
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I
decided to create the bags inside out – to let their innards
be seen –to enable them to reveal their secrets. Each bag
has a particular feel, colour and resonance from a particular layer
of memory, and as such represents a thread of my journey so far
Through the processes
of creating this series since the initial inspiring experience with
Jeanette, |
I have discovered much about the creative potential of felt,
both in its own right, and when integrated with stitching,
painting and found objects in infinite combinations.
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