Lace Language

My story begins a long way from bookmaking.  I was asked if I could help rescue a piece of bobbin lace. A local museum had been donated an 80-year-old bobbin lace pillow with lace and pattern attached.  Something had happened to it over recent years and the threads had become tangled. Bobbin lace is made by twisting threads around pins placed on a pattern on the pillow. Each thread is attached to a bobbin. Each area or type of lace has different bobbins. Some carved out of bone, some bone with beads called spangles attached to add a little weight and some as in this case smooth wooden bulbs. On inspection I found that I could work the pattern in reverse, untwisting the tangle as I went. I had not used this type of bobbin before and as I worked, the bobbins clack- clacked to an interesting rhythm and my mind wandered back to nineteenth century lacemakers using these bobbins all day and into the evening using a candle and a sphere of water to enhance the light. Many suffered from failing sight, even Rainer Maria Rilke wrote a poem about their plight.

…Is it inhuman that two eyes were honed

down to this lace, this small, tight bit of lace —

two eyes you might wish once more to possess?

Lacemaker long since gone (and finally blind):

did you infuse this thing with your devotion; …

Rilke, R., & Schoolfield, G. (2015). The Lace. In L. Krisak (Trans.), New Poems (pp. 79-80). Boydell & Brewer.

Is this what happened to the lacemaker of this piece? Was it lack of dexterity at the onset of old age or lack of sight through lacemaking that caused the tangles? We will never know but her work in all its glory can be seen in the local museum know.

I decided to write a prose poem about the lace language:

 “Lace language is alive when threads are woven by the strange power of the hands, dancing bobbins thrown out, the clack, clack of bobbins on the return, threads woven with ease, creating patterns, old and new. Through a continuous conversation a pattern is achieved, threads warping, twisting, crossing and finally pinned when pairs of threads agree. The lacemaker’s fingers work rapidly with the smooth warm wooden bulbs, spinning a yarn, the rhythm of her sentences repeating. Her eyes follow the conversation, and correct the language instantly where needed, until the dancing is finished, the eyes are tired from the strain of the candle lit globe and the pillow welcomes her head, only the interlaced threads show the passing of time so the delicate fine web, open to the air can be preserved for the next generation. The lace language’s beauty is wrapped in blue tissue to come alive when used repeatedly around the throats and hands of kings. Preserving the tradition and continuing the conversation.”

So began a series of books and prints about lace. All can be seen on my web site   https://www.hunterbooks.co.uk/lace-tells.htm  but the letterpress printed book you can see at the Buckinghamshire craft guild shop.

Seed Dispersal

When researching about seeds I was confused at first because writers talk about seeds when they mean the pods or seed containers with the seed inside. The pods are a structure that nature has designed for the only purpose of survival. http://theseedsite.co.uk/dispersal.html

They are for the dispersal of the seeds. The pods can be a beautiful shape. Nature is the true designer.

The following is a poem that I wrote in response.

Seed dispersal

 It gently dropped at my feet at the start of its journey.

The seed safe in hard casing rolled down the path with me and the breeze.

Gravity and wind making sure the seed travels far from parent.

Seed dispersal’s main aim to spread the new generation far.

Hundreds sent on their way, not all to arrive safely.

Trodden on or drowned can be their fate.

Walking through the long grasses some sticky weed balls attach.

Ready for me to take them far away. Hooks and spines a useful tool.

As I lay in the sun upon the heath popping sounds mix with bird song.

The seeds are on their way, catapulted from sun dried casings.

Some seeds when released in the sun, form a spiral drill,

Straighten in the rain and penetrate the soil ready for the new growth.

The birds are also carriers eating the fresh luscious seeds as they drop,

then flying on to their next meal; the seeds passing through later.

Drifting on the light breeze the thistledown and bulrush tufts pass,

across moor and motorway they travel to colonise new sites.

Walking home along the stream watching the sunlight through the trees

Falling on the mini casing boats navigating downstream to new homes.

The seeds are beautiful as well.

Seeds

I suppose I should have seen that it could be a natural progression to move on to seeds after working with flowers for so long.

But maybe it was because I have been following the artist Sophie Munns  http://sophiemunns.weebly.com/home.html and her ‘Homage to the Seed’. Her project aims to champion seeds at this time of significant species loss through a layered, and open-ended approach that seeks not to speak one story but discover many as they relate to seeds in the contemporary world. I joined her in an online course and began my own investigations locally. Photographing, Drawing, and researching endangered plants.

The seeds can be large and characterful, or they can be so small there is a need for a magnifying glass to see them.  It amazes me that there are so many ways that seeds can be dispersed with the pods having a major role.

I was still cutting stamps so decided to turn my sights to seeds and or pods as subjects. Drawing them to get the feel of the shapes and then carving them into rubber.  

Stamping in a small notebook they began to make patterns like those I designed with the flowers. See previous blog Patternmaking. Remembering my conclusion was that I preferred the flower stamps on a painted or printed surface I began experimenting with printing on a Gelli  Plate to get interesting backgrounds.

 What is a Gelli plate you ask? It is a flat block about 1.5cm thick made of silicone. Have a look at this blog to get the idea.  (http://gelliarts.blogspot.com/). Why not put the two together, backgrounds and carved stamps?

I have been lucky enough to work with a Dutch artist Brigit Koopsen https://birgitkoopsen.typepad.com/my_weblog/my-videos-for-gelli-arts.html she has been experimenting with a Gelli Plate printing for many years. She is always finding new ways to use different mediums on the plate. Very inspirational.

Other artists have shown interest in the seed world, one being Paul Klee. To him nature was an inexhaustible source of inspiration. He is rare amongst 20th century artists to have written and made so many paintings about seeds, the life of plants, gardens, and nature in a non -scientific way.

He wrote in 1923 in his notebook 2: The Nature or Nature.  ‘Despite its primitive smallness, a seed is an energy centre charged to the highest degree. A talisman for the regeneration of that species.’

Having investigated an Oxfordshire endangered species, the corncockle,  

corncockle seed pod and seed

corncockle

and found that its demise is due to farming practices it is good to read that the Crop Trust is doing a lot of research into wild relatives. Defined as wild and weedy cousins of our agricultural crops. https://www.croptrust.org/our-work/supporting-crop-conservation/crop-wild-relatives

There is need to help agriculture with traits to repel pests and disease, overcome extreme weather and endure poor soils. There is a Norwegian founded project centred around their seed bank at Svalbard which is a global seed vault especially for old crop seeds. Birmingham University is part of the project. They are keeping a data base of where wild relatives have been found. Search teams use indigenous tribes to help them find old varieties. Seeds are then sent to Svalbard.

Patternmaking

I enjoyed making the Turn End Herbarium but I feel that I haven’t exhausted the subject yet. On reviewing the above book https://www.hunterbooks.co.uk/turn-end-gardens.htm  (see projects completed) I realized that I had made some interesting patterns in the contemporary pages. Mainly by the leaf printing but why not with the flower heads?

What is pattern making? Does it matter? Early Greek philosophers studied pattern, with Plato and Pythagoras attempting to explain order in nature. It has been defined as the repeating of art motifs in regular or cyclical fashion to create interest, movement, and/or harmony and unity. Rhythms can be random, regular, alternating, flowing, and progressive.

Several contemporary artists I have studied have moved on to designing for textiles. Usually this means making repeat patterns from their art.

Elizabeth Blackadder, a Scottish artist born in 1931, painted flowers, amongst other things, that are not in vases or gardens they are more in lines as an herbarium would be laid out. Reading her biography, I understand that she collected wildflowers as a youngster and pressed them and then began to paint them. The repetition of the upright stance of each flower looks like an army on parade.  

Angie Lewin, born in 1963, is another artist inspired by all aspects of nature. Nature drawn with meticulous detail for use in lino or screen printing and then using those designs for dress fabrics. Her book shows a good selection of her prints https://www.angielewin.co.uk/pages/plants-places 

I decided to experiment with making some rubber stamps of my flower head drawings from Turn End Herbarium and explore pattern making with them. Making rubber stamps is a similar process to cutting lino for printing, I used the same tools but much softer surface, rubber.  The photos show some prints on white paper and one on a gelatin printed paper.

 I think that the stamped image on a painted background gives it depth and can tell two stories.

All this experimenting has started the creative juices running. Next some words to accompany these designs or maybe use words as a background. 

12 days of Christmas

During lockdown I have been enjoyed following several slow stitching internet sites. It is so relaxing and takes me back to my former textile love. When Sew4thesoul set a challenge for a textile book I was there. www.instagram.com/explore/tags/sew4thesoul12pagesofchristmas

I have also been collecting small vintage boxes to encase my books and by chance I had a deep glass box that was to be perfect for a textile book. A treasure in the making.