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Monday, September 03, 2007

History and Tudor Textiles

I have a deep interest in the history of textiles. Not a lot of knowledge though, so am always willing to learn something new.

Today I had that opportunity at the Marlborough branch of the Embroiderers Guild. Really fascinating illustrated talk by Tanya Elliot - The recreating of Mary Tudors wedding dress. Her research and attention to detail are incredible. If you have the opportunity to hear her talk.... you will not be disappointed. Talk link here

Tanya is a historian and has completed City and Guilds Part 1 and 2 in Fashion. Here is a link to Mary Tudor for information.. here

She has been retained by a number of National trust houses to oversee their original collections. As she pointed out there are very few surviving Tudor costumes to help her, and she has to rely on piecing together snippets of knowledge gleened from Portraits, household inventories and surviving clothing. Tanya has re-created the Wedding dress of Mary Tudor ..... it is beautiful. The silk was specially woven in England, just as the original had been ..... and cost £100 per metre. Really expensive. Have a look at this link to see the dress- Here. You have to agree it is amazing.
Tanya completed the embroidery on the white under skirt as well..
Not in the same league I know, but I went in search of my limited research into Tudor embroidery and some of my samples. I have enjoyed this sort of work. think I am inspired after the Tanya's talk today to do some more.


Here are some of my pencil sketches from the Victoria and Albert Museum. They were completed at the museum, and I have not been able to find many examples on their website.



This is my modern interpretation of needle lace. The tudors specialised in raised work and creating slips. I think we can learn a lot from our medieval ancestors.


Here is a final hanging I created inspired by tudor work. It is quite 3D.
An interesting book had been published in 1998, but I notice it is out of print again - The schole House for the needle. If you can get a library loan... it has some brilliant designs.

2 comments:

Susan Lenz said...

Hi!
I very much enjoyed reading your post, seeing your sketches, but especially finding the resulting work to be so very, very interesting. I, too, love historical textiles....but I don't possess much real knowledge. I seem afraid to change my sketches...to interpret...to allow the designs to "influence" a resulting work instead of just copying the pattern...stitch for stitch. You are so bold in color choices and so free in interpretative skills. I really admire this.
Susan

Deb Hardman said...

The dress link is spectacular!

I do like your dimentional piece. I particularly like the little inner edge that looks like a strip of some metal or plastic that might have been left from making sequins? I like how you incorporated it into your embroidery.