A Textile Tour-de-Force

Of all the people I've met in the world of textiles and embroidery, I can honestly say that I've never met someone like Dr. Tricia Wilson Nguyen.

She's quite extraordinary.

Last April, our EGA chapter engaged Dr. Nguyen to both give the lecture of the making of the now-famous Plimoth Jacket and to teach this goldwork tudor rose...

Tudor Rose by Tricia Wilson Nguyen

While Tricia could not bring the actual Plimoth Jacket to our guild lecture, she was able to bring the coif and the forehead cloth that were also embroidered as part of the jacket ensemble.

And she graciously allowed me to photograph them and share the images on my blog.

Coif and Forehead Cloth: Part of the reproduction ensemble stitched along with the Plimoth Jacket

I thoroughly loved working on the goldwork project, but it was the lecture...the story of the Plimoth Jacket that completely moved me.

And funny, I had followed the Plimoth Jacket blog for some time so I was aware of some of the details by reading their regular blog posts.

But none of it compared to hearing the epic tale of the jacket...told by Tricia herself.

One side of Coif: Part of the reproduction ensemble stitched as part of the Plimoth Jacket project

From the birth of the idea...to the background stories of each major individual. From the blacksmith, the gold thread maker in London, the thread maker from France...to the hundreds of lacers, embroiderers, and supporters who made the idea a reality...

It truly is epic.

The tale spanned centuries, continents and generations...

And once Tricia unlocked the secrets of how the 17th century stitches were embroidered, she set out to identify sources for threads. She researched and hunted until she found someone who had any knowledge of what she was talking about; and she followed the trail which led to someone who might actually be able to make the threads she needed. And then she cajoled them into making threads for the jacket project. While doing so, she recognized that their knowledge of thread-making was in danger of extinction.

The other side of Coif: Part of the reproduction ensemble stitched as part of the Plimoth Jacket project

Well. She wasn't about to let that happen if she could help it, so she set about trying to revive their industry and to create a market for their threads that went beyond the immediate needs for the jacket. So now she offers online classes, available to anyone with a computer, where her designs honor the makers, materials and techniques of historical embroideries.

Detail of Coif: Part of the reproduction ensemble stitched as part of the Plimoth Jacket project

I enrolled in her 18-month Goldwork Master Class...It just finished but I have piles of studying and stitching still to do. The depth of her coursework is phenomenal. She combines volumes of historical research, animation videos and images of historical examples together into one gigantic course. When she's says "Master Class", she means it. And when she says "Online University", she means that too. If historical embroidery interests you in the least, you will find a home in one of her classes and it is well worth the price of admission.

Coif Image: Part of the reproduction ensemble stitched as part of the Plimoth Jacket project

A graduate of MIT, Tricia is an engineer by day and uses her technical background to uncover the secrets of embroidered histories. She is rich in knowledge, enthusiasm and energy...and she has completely converted me to the cause. I would follow her anywhere.

Detail of Forehead Cloth: Part of the reproduction ensemble stitched as part of the Plimoth Jacket project

That's why, when I heard about the With Cunning Needle Exhibit at Winterthur Museum (Sept 3, 2011-January 8, 2012), I knew I had to be there. Coinciding with the exhibition is the Winthertur's Needlework Conference (October 21-22, 2011) So this Friday, I'll be driving up to Delaware to attend two full days of lectures and classes...and to see the jacket in the exhibition.

Forehead Cloth: Part of the reproduction ensemble stitched as part of the Plimoth Jacket project

And I'll get to see and hear from Tricia again in two lectures: The Plimoth Jacket: Listening to the Makers and A Tisket, A Tasket: Who Made the Casket? I can't wait to hear what she's up to now. She's a gift to the textile and embroidery world; a tour-de-force; and I don't believe there's anything she can't do when she puts her mind to it. And her field is textiles! Which is great for all of us.

Should you be interested in exploring this topic further, here are some links to note:

With Cunning Needle: Winthertur Needlework Conference brochure (.pdf)

Winthertur Plimoth Jacket Exhibition

Thistle Threads -- Tricia Wilson Nguyen's website

Thistle Threads Blog -- Tricia's blog

With Cunning Needle Blog Post -- includes pics of exhibition (click to enlarge)

Tricia's Needlework Nibble -- All sales of these kits go to benefit the Winthertur exhibition

Tricia's Online University -- where she currently accepting enrollment for upcoming classes. I signed up for the Glittering Gentleman's Nightcap...

Plimoth Plantation Website

Plimoth Plantation Blog Archives chronicles of the jacket's creation

Happy Monday everyone. I'm still winging it!

Becoming a Queen -- Part II

There is no "Becoming a Queen" without a Coronation --

A crowning of the royal sovereign...

And so, when it came time to decide on a gown design for Your Majesty, I looked to the coronation gowns of queens in history. And it was the worldwide inclusiveness of the embroidery on the British gowns that struck me.

Historically, the robe played the primary role in the British Coronation ceremony. Typically, the dress was kept fairly simple since the robe had a tendency to obsure everything underneath.

But with the advent of Queen Alexandra, the dress rather than the robe began to take on increased significance.

Queen Alexandra paid close attention to her gown for the coronation of Edward VII (pictured left)...It was made from gold tissue and white net, embroidered with gold spangles and gold/silver floral sprays. At the time, Queen Alexandra chose to include Indian flora, the National emblems of rose and thistle, saxon crowns, fleur-de-lis, and the Royal crown as decorative, embroidered motifs.

Queen Mary's dress extended the trend started by Queen Alexandra for the coronation of George V (pictured middle). Her gown included elaborate embroidery of the National Emblems. And lastly, Queen Elizabeth (pictured right) in 1937 further expanded on this theme by including not only the National Emblems but the Imperial emblems of the British empire as well.

So when it was time for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, the historical precedent had been set. And, it was this dress, the Coronation gown of Queen Elizabeth II, designed by Royal couturier Norman Hartnell, that become the ultimate inspiration for my gown...

The embroidery was designed and carried out by the Royal School of Needlework, taking 3,500 hours between March and May of 1953 to complete. The Queen chose not to wear a surcoat which lent even further significance to the gown itself.

The design was executed in seed pearls, crystals, colored silks and gold and silver thread. The embroidery was laid out to take into careful account the changes in the composition of the Empire since 1937 and the evolution of the Commonwealth.

The National emblems of the Tudor rose (England), the leek (Wales), the shamrock (Ireland) and thistle (Scotland), as well as all the emblems of the Commonwealth...the maple leaf (Canada), wattle flower (Australia), fern (New Zealand), protea (South Africa), lotus (India), and wheat/cotton/jute (Pakistan)...were all included on Queen Elizabeth's gown.

Since Mr. Hartnell had also designed Queen Elizabeth's wedding gown, her mother requested that more color be added to the embroideries so the gown would not appear too bridal with its silver/gold embroideries on ivory satin.

In doing his research for the design, Mr. Hartnell ran into a bit of a struggle regarding the inclusion of the Leek for Wales, preferring to use the floral motif of a daffodil:

Hartnell checked them with the Garter King of Anno and was horrified to discover that the emblem for Wales was not a daffodil, but a dull vegetable, the leek. The Garter flatly refused to allow the use of the daffodil. Hartnell finally 'borrowed' the leek on the cap of the Welsh Guards and his embroideresses interpreted it into an attractive motif using fine silks and diamante. The leek became a source of inspiration and most of the other emblems were interpreted in the same way.

The leek appears at the very middle top of the skirt just below the bodice.

To get final approval for the embroidered emblem designs, Mr. Hartnell presented this sampler to the Queen and her Mom...

(I noticed that the leek and/or daffodil is left out of this piece which makes me suspect that the final decision regarding the humble vegetable had not yet been made at the time that the sampler was completed?)...The only change to the embroidery design was to deepen the green for the Irish shamrock....

After the embroidery of the gown was completed, Mr. Hartnell added an extra shamrock on the left hip for good luck so that Queen Elizabeth's hand might rest upon it all day long throughout the ceremonies...

And so my challenge was to interpret these items in miniature on my little 8" gown...

Here is the rose, the maple leaf, the lotus and the wattle flower (gold sequins)...

The shamrock, fern, thistle, and wheat...

The protea flower...

And the leek!! (down in the lower right corner)...

And last but not least, tucked just under the ribbon garland, on the left hip...an extra shamrock...for good luck...

Because my gown had taken on such a British character, I decided to marry the British Union Jack flag with the American flag for my background, printing the words of the Norwegian proverb on silk...

In every woman, there is a Queen. Speak to the Queen and the Queen will answer.

Reminding us all of the majesty that exists within each one of us.

Your Majesty.

THE END

Sources:

Ceremony & Celebration: Coronation Day 1953 by Christopher Lloyd

Be Dazzled! Norman Hartnell: Sixty Years of Glamour and Fashion by Michael Pick (amazing book!)

Fashion-Era website

'Twixt Art and Nature

Yesterday, I woke up at 5am to catch a bus to New York City for the day to see the exhibit English Embroidery from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1580-1700: 'Twixt Art and Nature at the Bard Graduate Center.


To give you a sense of the importance of this exhibit to me, you must understand that the first thing I do when approaching any new museum for the first time is to check to see if they have any textiles on display. Due to the fragile nature of textiles, they are not usually permanently displayed and every now and then you get lucky and they will be showcasing a piece that's been briefly taken out of the tissue-lined, dark drawers in which they're kept. Usually, I'm lucky to see maybe two pieces or, during an exhibit, a few more. But most textile curators have a tough time competing for the limelight with painting and sculpture -- so you just don't get to see it very often. OK -- now imagine...


The Metropolitan Museum of Art owns about 200 examples of English embroidery from the late Tudor and Stuart era in it's collection; arguably a golden age for embroidery. Of these 200 examples, they exhibited 85 of their finest pieces -- including furnishings, fashion accessories, biblical narratives and pastoral imagery!!! For more information surrounding the exhibit, a must read is Roberta Smith's article in The New York Times titled Seeing History in the Eye of the Needle -- one of the most well-written essays not only on this exhibit but on the communion of history with the art of embroidery.


Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed so I have no close up images to show you. I took copious notes and drawings and am still digesting all that I saw. I could have spent an entire day with one piece let alone try to absorb 85 pieces over 4 hours. The book from the exhibit, is well worth every penny of the $50 purchase price but none of the pictures do justice to the beauty of the pieces you see in real life.


Overall, the exhibit is shown in extremely dim lighting in order to protect the embroideries and many of the embroideries used real silver thread which has tarnished over time and cannot be restored without damaging the pieces. That being said, the overall feeling you get at first glance is one of darkness, grays and browns --



until you get up close and begin to see the light play off the silk; the glitter of the gold thread -- the vibrancy of the colors of thread selected. It's still there -- it's just dimmer. In fact, the tour guide mentioned that the embroidery threads used had all the same vibrancy as our threads do today. So I could easily imagine how stunning they would have been with all the metal threads shining their brightest and none of the colors faded.


A reproduction of this jacket has been undertaken by Plimoth Plantation and continuing through Tricia Wilson/Thistle Threads. You can watch it's progress here. And you can here what the reproduction team felt about the 'Twixt Nature and the MET jacket here.


My overall take-away from the exhibit, after I ceased hyper-ventilating, is that the quality of the work is beyond anything I've ever seen or ever attempted. I was struck by how minute the stitches were...how thin the threads were and how small the needles must have been...where would I find the materials to even begin this level of complexity of work? Even our finest stumpwork, goldwork and blackwork artists are working on a much larger scale than these masterpieces.


Exquisite is all I can say. If you can make it to New York before April 12 to see the exhibit before it closes, you should. You may not get another opportunity like this for a very long time.

Having said all of that, I walked out of the dimly lit gallery after four hours of awe and wonder; inspired to do a bit more research to try and figure this out. The sun was shining, it was a beautifully warm Spring day in New York's Central Park and I was struck by what I saw there...


To be continued tomorrow...

Note: All pictures of embroideries contained within this post are copyright of the Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design, and Culture and are taken from their publication English Embroidery from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1580-1700: 'Twixt Art and Nature

Serendipity and English Embroidery...

Sometimes we're going about our daily life, and a theme emerges that smacks you in the face, and you know that you have to pursue a path -- why else would all events conspire to bring you to that one point?

To ignore the serendipity is to throw away the value and the opportunity that the energy of the universe has conspired to place in your path.

Allow me to explain...

This past Saturday, my good friend Carolyn came over to stitch and was all a-flutter about an embroidery exhibit she had gone to see in New York: Carolyn is an accomplished embroideress and her opinion is important to me so when she said it was absolutely THE BEST needlework exhibit she had ever seen, well...

Luckily, I had asked her to buy me a book from the show, expecting a small leaflet or something.

Well, what came was a BEAUTIFUL 300-page illustrated book of English Embroidery from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1580-1700: 'Twixt Art and Nature. And every piece included in the book is in the show!!! Not only that, when possible, the paintings of the pieces that appeared in portraits are being displayed along with the actual pieces. I love it when art, embroidery, books and nature all come together -- and POW!


Isn't it interesting that my friend Meghan aka Elmsley Rose, who is stitching and documenting her own Elizabethan Embroidery sampler, happened to review this book this week on her blog?

And then, OK, still my beating heart,Carolyn said that this piece is, by far, the most exquisite combination of stumpwork, beading and embroidery in the whole show.


And, the strange this is, Ullabenulla just posted about this piece here on Sunday (her blog is a "must read"!) which lead me to these captivating textile posts by Each Little World (another wonderful blog that combines, needlework, reading and gardening).

In a nutshell, I have no choice but to pursue this opportunity. I've got to run, not walk, to the Bard Graduate Center in New York before the show ends on April 12.

Luckily for me, I can find tickets as cheap as $8 roundtrip on the Megabus -- and Jim and Jack said they would go! And, I think we just HAVE to go to this restaurant to eat while we're there...don't you think?

Off to run and work on finishing my February BJP----