Treasures from the Embroiderers' Guild, Part 2

The Guild also buys representative modern embroidery. Going clockwise from top left : a piece from the 1990s by Pat Langford, Waving Grass at Jabaroo. You can't see it in the photo (BIG problems getting decent photos of textiles behind glass or in plastic sleeves!) by the tree trunks each have a line of tiny beads to make them look like bark. It is hand stitched in the main photo but there is a little ghost of machine embroidery around the edges and going into the mount (which is also fabric) of tree0like shapes; a pieve of beaded Berlin woolwork from the Victorian era, done with the most exquisite Czech glass seed beads of a type and qyality that you just can't get these days; a piece of cutwork table linen in beige done by Thelma Crawford, who was well known for using Australian designs in her embroideries (she sold kits as well, from a shop in the BLock Arcade) in the 1950s; a detail from a Victorian tea apron done with the new aniline dyed threads that were much brighter than older, natural dyed threads had been, done on fine black silk, and edged with machine made black lace.

Treasures from the Embroiderers' Guild, Part 1

Our class went on a 'field trip' (as Wombat always calls them - too much American TV!) to the Embroiderers' Guild (Vic) last week to view some of their 2,000 pieces of embroidery, lace, etc. These are pictures of an Ayrshire christening robe which was the first ever acquisition for the collection. It was exquisite. The pointed insertion on the bodice was recycled from an earlier garment, as it is a totally different style from the rest of the whiteework. It is early nineteenth century, from Ayrshire in Scotland, where unemployed hand weavers who had been superceded by machines taught themselves these new skills to earn an income. Sadly this only lasted for about fifty years until someone invented a machine that could do whitework! The gown was a pristine white - the first photo looks yellow because it is hard photographing textiles without a flash and for some reason my software fiddling either didn't work on that one, or I plain forgot.

Saturday Sky

I've manipulated this picture a little bit - I thought it looked so much like cotton wool balls that I made it look more so. We are having a heat wave (with the occasional thunder storm - I got soaked on Friday afternoon but that's the only rain we've had for ages) and I am SO SICK of being hot. 

My Marvellous Melbourne 5

 

My Marvellous Melbourne 4

 

My Marvellous Melbourne 3

 

My Marvellous Melbourne 2

 

My Marvellous Melbourne 1

 

Saturday Sky with Wisteria tendrils