Being homebound and putting all travel on hold has given me a little extra time to do some things I have had in my 'someday' bucket. One of those was recording a podcast with Gary Parr of Fiber Talk. I have promised Gary for over a year I would find some time and we finally did!
The podcast is being broadcast this week and we will be following up with a live YouTube session on Wednesday night.
See Fiber Talk's website for details of how to listen and log in for the live session!
If you like it - I might be able to come back on again as we didn't even come close to talking about all the subjects Gary told me he wanted to cover.
With the current situation, Winterthur made the decision to host the symposium as originally planned in an online format - but delaying the hands-on component to another year.
This should be seen as an opportunity for many far away to take advantage of the ability to sit in on the talks that they would normally never be able to see! The talks will be online and available to paid participants for one full month - so you can watch and rewatch and pause and savor!! So often I hear from participants that they wish they could rewind my presentation and this year you can!!!
On Oct 2-3, the original dates for the event, there will be several live events with Linda Eaton moderating small groups of the speakers talking about the subjects of their talks and taking questions from the viewers.
I highly recommend you taking advantage of this opportunity and registering for the event - perhaps in the future it will become something that more events do - a in-person and online component which will bring so many more into the knowledge presented.
I am giving a talk about whitework samplers of the 17th century and pattern books. I have to say that Linda always gives me wide-berth to take the time to present new knowledge and I love her for that. I always invest several weeks in putting together the presentations and material for this conference. I just sent off my presentation today to the organizers and I am quite happy with how it turned out - in this format I was able to add more multi-media content than ever before and I feel it made the presentation richer for it.
The cost of the event is $150 ($125 for members) and that is a fraction of what you spend to attend in person - so quite a deal.
As the Massachusetts Bay Colony was founded in 1620 there was rapid immigration to this region I live in during the 17th century and inevitably, there were pieces of embroidery brought over finished, unfinished and maybe imported to be worked here. We know of several samplers that were worked here (and some brought with immigrants). But there are few stumpwork or pictures that we can say - yes, that might have been made in colonial America.
One particular piece, a picture of the Story of Esther, has provenance that says that Rebeckah Wheeler (1645-1718) worked the piece in Concord, MA. It is long stitched in wool instead of silk but does have some metallic thread elements. It is possible that the drawn linen was brought from England in the 1650-1660s and she completed it here. The wool thread and long stitch choice are unusual for England but one could see it being a local choice.
There is more to the story about her and her family. Today a video by the Concord Museum curator (where the embroidery resides) dropped a YouTube video about the piece and a particular political issue in the Massachusetts Bay Colony at the time.
Usually I would write about ten blog posts for a huge story like this, but I decided to do a video that I would be able to post in a few places.
The bottles for embroidered caskets are ready and are now on sale for those who have been making an embroidered cabinet. It has been a very long process and I hope as interesting as the inkwells were too! There is history mixed in as well - especially for those of you who aren't as familiar with 17th century caskets.
If you are interested in making one (and getting a bottle or two in it), my two project courses are still registering right now with the last of the caskets. Each come with the bottle(s) it needs in the kit.
I put together a video showing close ups of several antique whitework samplers to discuss the current online university 17th century whitework sampler course.
I have currently 14 kits in hand for those who want to join the course - especially those who have run through a few of their older projects while in this period of social distancing. There will be 50 more spots later when supplies reach me again.
In general, supplies are seriously, seriously difficult to get at the moment. I think through the end of the year I will only be able to offer those projects where I already have the items today. Those include:
That is pretty small inventory and three of those courses will be the last of them! So if you are thinking about your Fall/Winter stitching, you might want to get what you are interested in.
I am working on getting some of my lectures ready to post as well, but that means I have to negotiate image rights with every museum represented and it is taking a few weeks for each because they aren't in the office, are usually the only person that was brought back in the department from furlow and I was told that their work load is up because all professors are writing papers during this period. :-) So it will take awhile.
There are many 'snips' of culture being put out right now to keep our cultural arts relevant for everyone when we can't visit our museums, etc. One that I got today was a short spot about an embroidered crazy quilt recently acquired and on display at the American Folk Art Museum. It is a nice little 'context' video about the object. I am going to post a few here and there
For some of you, you have gotten the new short run Frostings 5 box. For those who missed out on the opportunity, I may have some more during the next ordering period for the shop site - but it won't be the level I normally can do.
We are trying to see how much of the threads we can get. Honestly with the level of unemployment and stock market collapse, I didn't think I could sell 80 much less the 300 I usually try to make. I am glad many of you are not having a tough time during this pandemic - so many are having trouble as evidenced by the off-the-charts increase in food bank lines. (Bless you who are still whole and I hope you remember those who aren't with help)
But one of the threads in the box needs a bit of explanation on what other cool things you can do with it. I will be trying, as raw materials allow, to get more of this in the shop as well as the Frostings 5 bundles that I will make available for those who want as much of what was in the collection as possible.
So in the box was something called Small Silk Laid Down Trim. It was in five green colors and the 235/2916 pink color. It is fantastic as a little trim to couch down along things - but even better when you stretch it to make it into a Small Silk Scallop Trim! In that case, you can use it as the wire outline for needlelace shapes!! It then gives you this really amazing scallop edge to your pieces. This video that I made shows how to do it.
The video is also something I have been working towards as soon as the pandemic hit. I thought I would have all kinds of time to do great video snips to post to my different sites. Instead I have been in email hell/building out a new teaching site that was forced by internet protocol changes. I am hoping that some of the changes I have been making will free up some time for these cool things instead.
I bought a new iPad Pro that just came out. Shockingly its camera is as good as my special macro camera I use for needlework photographs. But the added bonus is I can draw on pictures and screen record at the same time. So it is like me standing in front of a big picture in a class room and using my finger to point to things and talking about what we are seeing. It has been killing me to have it sitting out on the table for weeks with my whitework samplers sitting next to it ready for 'Camera -Action!" and instead walking by it daily to answer emails. Fingers crossed I have more time for the fun stuff soon. This is my first video trial - it was all done on the iPad. Sorry for any choppy voice stuff, I was learning to edit on the iPad at the same time. But it was quick which was good.
I got an email from someone who took the lack of blog as maybe an indication that we had caught the virus and was very concerned. Thank you for the concern! But actually every business that serves a hobby that someone could pick up during this time or return to some really old (I mean really old - like my computers don't have the data on it anymore) have seen business and customer service requests go through the roof several hundred percent. I hear just puzzle sales are up 300%. :-) I have spoken to the distributors and heard from other store owners - no one is able to keep up at all. We are all drowning. And the labor I usually hire to help me out when I am crushed can't come into the home (they need some supervision. I can't give it to most as they have cats or dogs and can't risk the hard fought product to animal damage). So blog and cool plans for videos went to the back of the line.
