Casket for Sale

There is an embroidered casket for sale this weekend on auction.   It has certainly seen much better days but it amazingly has its bottles, inkwells and even a good print in the inside.

It is lot 945 at Hutchion Scott Limited in Skipton, UK. The auction is on March 27th.  I can't quite tell which story is on this casket and the back is in somewhat better condition than the front.  There are more pictures of the casket online if you look.

Again - if you get it - you owe me some great pictures!!

Tricia

Sol 14 - Tricia - Needlework Pirate

This morning, my youngest son greeted me with:

"Sol 14"

I hope you understand that reference (MarkWatney from The Martian - a family favorite - watch it).

As a mother I had to laugh as well as totally appreciate the sentiment and humor he was finding in the situation.  We have been self isolating as a family now since March 12th.  We had foreseen that it was  coming and had been taking precautions and had a family plan that we pushed into action.  The trigger was when the public schools closed in our town. We had developed a 4-week food plan, shopped for the 'dry goods' and both my husband and I had the list and would rush out to fulfill the moment the trigger occurred.  I was taking a short break as I had just moved a UHaul of boxes to the house (casket boxes) and my son looked up and said - 'they closed our school'.  I jumped up and grabbed my purse and bee-lined it to the local store.

Several years ago, the FIRST robotics topic of the year was natural disasters and so the kids had studied all kinds of preparedness and worked for a year on innovative projects regarding getting populations to do the right types of things in the face of some sort of disaster.  In this one, I am glad the kids had advance mental preparation when younger.

We had spent a few weeks casually talking to our college son to get him mentally prepared to respond if we asked him to come home.  That helped, it was so hard for my 20-yr old son fresh off spring break to get a call from Mom and be asked to throw stuff in a bag and that I would be there in a few hours to pick him up.  His university had just announced online courses but that they would be residential during the rest of the term. Of course as soon as Harvard and MIT across the river closed that day - I knew it was days until his university would have to close.  So he was horribly embarrassed to leave, but it was Thursday night and if we could avoid a whole weekend of coronavirus parties - we wanted that buffer.  We allowed him the next day to pack up his room and say good bye to a handful of friends as they were coming to terms that their own parents were starting to call, expecting the university would close (they did it the worst way-announce on Sunday night and be out by Tuesday).  I was so relieved that he respected his father's and my request to come home in a way that limited our exposure.  Of course he has now been notified he can't come back for summer semester so he is stuck here with us until September.

My kids have been awesome.  We all talked for weeks about what we would do if we had to become shut-ins.  So we had identified skills we wanted to develop, tools, materials and fun stuff we would need and they were all ordered that night.  Loads of projects.  At Christmas we had given my husband a rain check on a lathe to be ordered for this summer after we could reconfigure the shop.  It arrived a week ago.  So at this point it has been non-stop project time and the family has been so busy.  My oldest has so many projects envisioned we will need to be in quarantine for months.  In fact - its been a bit like The Martian around here - complete with moving robots.  The boys want to know when we get to try growing potatoes in our own poop.  I said the garden room would be appropriate.  (ha ha).  There was a baking soda experiment on Sol 2.  Getting the 480 pound lathe into the basement by ourselves on Sol 7 was hilarious as delivery men wouldn't come in house.

They have kept the humor up - which honestly is pretty amazing.  The day we 'went inside' or "Sol 1" was particularly hard on my youngest.  We were in the UHaul and his worst fear came true - the World Championship for Robotics was canceled.  I haven't had the chance to tell the rest of the story from last year or this year's story.  Sometimes I do that as other teams scour the web for pictures of our robot.  Spoiler alert - they had just won the state championship four days before and were #2 in the world (OMG, he is just a freshman) - he was legitimately competing in late April for the World championship as captain of his own team.  He was upset that wouldn't happen now.  I feel so bad for the kids.

So his daily humor is good.  In fact, even though it is now likely his robot will never get fielded again, he has taken on not only rebuilding it to be the best ever but doing prework for next year.  He is taking advantage of his brother being around to tutor him in advanced CAD and other techniques.  His team has been keeping busy in their own homes building a new team website, learning more coding skills, etc.  It shows remarkable resiliency for these kids.   Every day there is another big thing the kids tackle.  They cleaned the whole robot room this morning just to play a rousing game of ping pong on the work table.  My husband and I took a walk on Sol 10 to talk serious stuff and the boys figured out how to hook their music to the home speakers and had the place rocking when we returned along with a huge dinner cooked.  The board games have lasted hours and we are only on movie #5 of watching the entire Marvel Universe in chronological order.  Actually, the TV has barely been on.

Sol 14.  I actually couldn't believe it - after shutting down the shop I was starting to think about what I would do now that I was shut in and I didn't really realize that we had been locked down already for  half a month as a family.

So they have been advising me on how to do modern informal videos or vlogs.  So expect some stuff in the future.  I promised them I would take a "Vacation" first.  It lasted 30 minutes last night.  But I will try again sometime today and make it longer.

Tricia - Needlework Pirate

Thistle Threads Shop Site Closing Temporarily - Sunday March 22nd

I will need to close down the Thistle Threads Shop site so that I can respect the needs in my community to shelter in place.  As much as us needleworkers feel that getting our threads is 'essential' - I need to place the health of my family and my community above our needs to stitch.  I must stop the constant trips to the post office. I anticipate this being about 3-4 weeks, I hope.   

Unfortunately production in France of silks and other threads as well as linens in Italy has been shut down.  We hope and pray for our friends that this is short but it will inevitably result in long delays of materials just when we have lots of time to stitch.  

Shop site will become inactive at midnight EST Sunday, March 22nd

I will not be going out of business but will need to remove products/inventory from the site to prevent ordering.  I have modified the inventory to reflect only things in stock today. When I am able to reopen and ship safely, I will put the site back up.  

I will be continuing to write my lessons, post to the blog, and maybe even will have time to do some development and uploading of videos/needlework nibbles that have been in the works but I just haven't had the time to finish.  

For those in new classes starting April 1st, you should have just gotten early access to the classes as I am sensitive to your interest in starting early with theme on your hands.  

Please everyone stay safe, respect the community rules on interactions with others and lets see each other happy and healthy later in 2020!!

Tricia

Five Senses Casket Gone

The spots I had reserved for the Five Senses Casket worked in counted work are now gone.  If you are wanting a casket and don't already own one, the opportunities are getting smaller.

I still have 127 spots in the Harmony with Nature casket course that just started and is still accepting reservations.  It started registering in the late fall and already is half filled.  

Harmony with Nature Casket

There is one more double casket class coming called the Four Seasons Double Casket.  People are very hungry for this style of cabinet with the little drawers and secret spots.  So much so that even though I haven't finished stitching it, the request was made to start it now or reserve a spot ahead.  So I opened registration for it a week ago to the list of people I had who had enquired and 20 of the 48 spots are now gone.

As I only have an estimated price, I am allowing people who want to wait until it is done to reserve a space now with a refundable reservation of $500.  If you are interested in learning more - email me at tricia@alum.mit.edu.

You can see the design here below and two of the panels that are complete.  They are the inside of the doors and are amazingly luscious!  If you love the doors but just can't bite off the double casket, the door designs will be released as a course by the summer (we are waiting for silk purl production to catch up).  If you want to be put on a list to get first notice of that course - email me at tricia@alum.mit.edu

Four Seasons Double Casket design showing Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall on the sides and front doors.  The back has Hope, Faith and Charity and the top includes a mermaid in her grotto

Right inner door of Four Seasons Casket

Left inner door of Four Seasons Casket

Five Senses Casket Open for Registration

I finally was able to allow registrations for the Five Senses Casket with the tent stitch embroidery on it because Access Commodities and I have found another old-world weaver who was willing to spend the time to reproduce the linen.

We originally used this amazing old looking linen called Montrose which had been made in one batch some 20 years ago.  In the intervening time no one seemed to want it until I came along and recognized that it was a good substitute for 17th century linen!  But by that time the original weaver was organizing his retirement and closing his looms down.  So Access Commodities bought everything that was on the shelf and we worked through it.

Just when I got the casket done and everyone said - HEY - I want to do that!!  We were out of linen.

This happened to several other good things and so another really deep search for those precious gems of old world makers was attempted.  You talk to everyone and try to find out sources on the ground.  Well one gentleman was willing to try - and it wasn't easy as the climate change has really affected how linen grows and what species can be grown where and that impacts the length of the fibers and thus the quality of linen.

We decided to commission a 10 yard sample and were thrilled with the results.  So the big boat of
linen is headed to the USA and I will have a supply of Montrose again!!  That means that a few lucky people can decide to do a double casket with a tent stitch design over 20 count.  And I know for a few people that is heaven!  Eyesight sometimes gets the best of us.

So if you are interested - come on to the shop and look at the parameters for the course!

Tricia

Kimono Revolution

So I was a Japanese Embroidery student at 12, back in the early 1980s; so I care about the techniques, experts and history of Japanese textile culture.  You also know that endangered textile technologies and techniques are kinda 'my thing'.  So last night when I sat down to embroider and watch TV and was looking through the options - a program called "Kimono Revolution" coming on at 8pm really got me to stop and switch the channel to it.

It didn't take more than a few minutes for the program to get me crying and really want to recommend it to you all.  The program is right now making the rounds on PBS but it can also be watched on the internet.  It is in subtitles but soooo worth it.

Watch Kimono Revolution

It is a story of how the decline of the traditional kimono - which is the one product that keeps almost ALL textile artisans in Japan going - has reduced to less than 1/3 the market in just the last 10 years.  One major Kimono store owner is on a single minded mission to save the entirety of the textile artisan infrastructure.  Kinda sounds familiar, doesn't it.

So he conceived of an audacious project and hoped he could have it done in time for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic games.  (1) Raise about $40,000 per kimono (how much they cost) from donors, corporations and the government (2) recruit all the artisans to take their techniques and challenge themselves to modernize the look and (3) produce a work-of-art kimono for each of the 206 countries represented at the Olympics.

The money would keep the artisans going a few more years and the unique interpretations by these living treasures and new upcoming artisans would excite the market and drive interest in Kimono in the public.

Several of the kimono productions are gone through in detail and every time I cried.  The beauty, the expertise, the age of the artisans, the collaborations to make something new.  It was heartbreakingly beautiful.  The film really encapsulates what I have seen throughout my life of traveling around the world and being introduced to experts that we are loosing and often standing there knowing that the next time I try to come back - it will be gone.  I have so many pieces of something in my house that I pull out sometimes and "pet".  The 'last' of something and full of memories of some tremendous expertise that is gone and I got to see before it was gone.

So please put watching this on your to do list.  Pull out a cup of tea or glass of wine and afterwards you will decide to do something textile related.  Find your nice things and pet them, use them and honor the legions of elderly experts like those in the film.

And we NEED an exhibition of these kimono to come to America after the Olympics.  Who can we beg to do that???

The visionary's quote is: "My dream is to see the people leading the delegations wearing the kimonos at the opening ceremony of the Tokyo games".  Oh gosh I really hope so.  It is just an incredible feat and such an appropriate way to boost their long traditional culture.

Tricia

News Flash - Au Ver a Soie Theft

I don't like posting without complete information but the situation demands it.  There was a break in at the Au Ver a Soie factory between Christmas and today and a significant amount of silk thread was stolen - likely to be fenced on the internet.  I don't have any details beyond what they just posted on their facebook page an hour ago.  I will be getting details soon so we can know what to look for and will post as soon as I do.

I can't tell you the horror Access Commodities and myself are absorbing at the moment as we understand what it takes to remake schedule wise.  I also don't know yet what it means to current courses I am running.  But impacting future plans - yes.

Here is the post:

Dear customers, dear friends, dear partners,
The Life of a small business is not always quite as follow : our plant has been robbed between Xmas and New Year’s eve. The thieves have taken entire ranges of threads, orders ready to be shipped to French and abroad customers. Their aim was clearly to slow down our activity but we will not give up as we did after the fire in 2015. 
Thanks to warn us if you see suspect sales of our products on Internet. This concerns : flyfishing silklines, soie de Paris, sewing silk (soie 1003 and surfines), kits of Pascal Jaouen, special colours in soie perlée. 
We wish you a very happy new year 2020 which will be full of surprises for our 200th year anniversary.

Take special care when viewing offers of the silks - they likely stole spools as that would be easy to fence.  Au Ver a Soie spools several of these on wooden spools.  I think they are doing the white spools now as well.  The spools that Au Ver a Soie prints on have "Au Ver a Soie" on the top and then thread type on the bottom.  The ones that Access Commodities spools show the thread type on the top in writing and don't say Au Ver a Soie on them - to help you distinguish.   While I don't know this as a fact - it is a decent conjecture at this point.

If you see something that appears fraudulent (from eBay):

1. Get the item number and the seller's username.  Take a screen shot as well using your computer or phone
2. Inform your local police and ask them to get in touch with eBay. You can find local law enforcement officers on the USACops website.
3. Tell the officers to email us at stopfraud@ebay.com

Please note that we can only investigate such a serious allegation if it comes from the police.

4. email Au Ver a Soie immediately - info@auverasoie.com