With every fibre of my being - there is no getting away from it!- Part 1
The idea of textiles as an art medium and art form didn’t take hold until recently because of its gendered assignment and for the fact that weaving, knitting, and sewing were largely dismissed as "women's work.” - Brenda Lin [textiles: The Art of Women’s Work]
Anni Albers, one of the most influential textile artists of the twentieth century, was the first weaver to have a solo show at the Museum of Modern Art in 1949.
Evidence suggests however that from as early as the Neolithic period (c. 4000 BCE) women spent time on cloth-making and added designs and embellishments to create items that were beyond the merely functional.
My earliest memories of female friends/family members sewing and knitting is my mother making rugs using the hooking technique. She would often travel with these when we were visiting family or friends. Both me and my sister made several and my children each have one made by Granny.
Consequently hook rugs are a prevailing memory for me growing up.
The hook rug my mother (Granny) made for Tom
I think I was taught to sew at my first boarding school, Knighton House. I do recall stitching dolls clothes at home and friends of my parents discussed my abilities with each other in front of me. In particular I was ‘told off’ by one of these for ‘hemming’ the wrong way; this lady was French so maybe sewing was taught differently in France?
As for knitting, I was taught this most likely by my mother who is a knitter rather than a sewer. I have a few very well used, probably now vintage, knitting patterns held together with ancient sellotape. In a letter I wrote home from boarding school I referred to completing one side of a cardigan front. When I re-read this letter recently it took me a while to realise I was writing about a piece of knitting. While de-cluttering last week I found a Kaffe Fasset knitting pattern and the beautiful cardigan I made from this 30 years ago, safely packaged in a moth free bag.
At Knighton House Mrs B read to us from Villette while we embroidered. Maybe she taught us the stitches. Every Halloween, or was it for Valentine’s Day, we constructed costumes from crepe paper using needle and thread - maybe under her guidance as well?
A home made crepe paper Halloween outfit I made for Sal
At my next school we had proper sewing lessons. Firstly we learnt hand stitching, making samplers, bags and a child’s outfit. Mine was a blue corduroy pinafore with a blue/white gingham blouse. I wonder if my granddaughter would wear this if I still had it?! After that we graduated to the sewing-machine and made clothes from paper patterns.
My godfather Sam gave me a beautiful wooden sewing box with ivory handled scissors and odd shaped barrels to hold cotton. To be honest, this was more of a display piece than a practical item. My actual sewing items were kept in various baskets and bags. Knitting needles were kept in a roll up fabric case. Now I have neatened up my sewing-kit, which includes a needle case I made on an Indigo dying course at the Sussex Prairie Gardens, taught by Amanda Duke.
Sadly, I don't still have any stitched pieces created when I was very young. I really wish I did...
I travelled in America in the mid 1970s and took some tapestry work with me - stitching this in public was not popular at that time or in the company I was with.
When I returned to the UK I worked as a photographers assistant. There was a lot of sitting around waiting for things to happen, so I started knitting in the spare time. My boss, David, was not happy with this, so I had to stop!
I also have a very clear memory of being pregnant with our first-born and taking my current stitching project with me when we went out to supper. I was reprimanded by our host’s father for ‘rudely’ doing this. Everyone else was busy boozing & smoking!!
While I was working as a photographic stylist, Sam Birrell, an American lady who ran an amazing props hire outfit trading from her flat in Notting Hill, persuaded me to buy her small collection of fabrics and this led to my setting up the Linen Hire business in 1980.
When we moved to Cooks Farm in September 1981 I was working on a tapestry project consisting of 20 squares printed with flowers and leaves plus 4 borders. My sister and I shared this project. It was a present, and/or a commission, for our Aunt Brid. The Royal School of Needlework had printed the designs on to the tapestry canvas and provided the wool. When it was completed they joined the separate pieces together to make a rug/wall hanging. Somewhere I have a photo of me stitching this at our kitchen table, maybe I’ve confused this with one taken when we were on holiday in Menorca in the late 1970s…
When our daughter was born in December 1985 I actually took a rug I was hand-stitching at the time into hospital; I cannot recall if I actually did any of it while I was there however!
I ran Linen Hire for 15 years, gradually adding to my collection, which included antique and modern fabrics, damask cloths, lacy curtains and ethnic pieces. These were hired for editorial and advertising still photography - mostly to illustrate cookery books.
Family shawl and cookery book
When I was travelling in Peru in 1979 I bought a poncho - this was frequently hired to illustrate Indian, Chinese and Middle Eastern dishes in cooking books and/or magazines. Once when I was searching in the frozen food cabinet at a supermarket I was amused to see this same poncho on a pack of ‘Mexican’ food!
Peruvian poncho and cookery book
A frustration with my lack of knowledge of how the textiles I collected while running Linen Hire were made, led me to join a distance learning course with the Open College of the Arts ‘A Creative Approach to Textile Design’. After a couple of years I joined my sister who was on a City & Guilds course at The London Institute. The course ran one day a week during term time. After 2 years our tutor helped me apply to a full-time degree course in Print & Weave at Farnham. I graduated in 1998 with a degree in Weave.
Projects I completed for the OCA and City & Guilds courses included collaging, stencilling, stitching, Lino and screen-printing, silk painting, machine embroidery, bleach drawing, free knitting and all types of weaving. Noticeable by its absence was quilting/appliqué.
In 2022 however I completed an appliqué wall hanging of Noah’s Ark for my grand-daughter. This was inspired by a Janet Bolton book I had bought in 1994. At the time I had no idea I would go on to use my own linen fabrics for this project.
I started the appliqué in 2016 and had considered giving it to my grandsons, by the time it was finished, Molly, the perfect recipient, was born.
Planning the Noah’s Ark appliqué wall hanging
I recently re discovered my study portfolio and this has triggered many happy memories of my time studying at OCA and City & Guilds.
While studying with both the OCA and the City & Guilds I meticulously kept records of the projects. This included natural dyeing with nettle, bracken etc. A friend, Andy, and I experimented together in our home kitchen and, luckily, never confused the pasta cooking with pots of onions skins being boiled to extract colour. I found the OCA course, studied through distance learning, inspirational and followed it to the letter, even when I read ‘now stop and have a cup of coffee’! The City & Guilds courses were more prescriptive although our marvellous tutor, Betty Myerscough, led us through everything with an open mind and encouraged each and everyone’s creativity.
