Another module finished.

It has been a long time since I posted anything about my degree but that doesn't mean I haven't been working during all the Christmas prep, Young Embroiderers, exploding ovens etc etc. The last time I posted I was looking at materials and in particular the idea of protection. The idea of making a jacket with the "teeth" around the cuff has been put on hold (I took note of your comment Jodie!) but I'll come back to it I'm sure. Meanwhile I moved onto the next assignment which was about language. I looked at banners from the suffrage movement and from there went on to look at artists who use text in their work, in particular the work of Arthur Bispo do Rosario and Tilleke Schwarz. Before long I found myself back looking at the idea of protection and in particular how we protect our children. I involved the boys and we got to talking about all the things mothers say when children leave the protection of home to go out - things that in their eyes are seen as nagging but really are just hidden ways of saying "I care, I want you to be safe... I love you."

From this came the idea of a protective garment so I chose a school shirt - something they all might have worn to leave the house and I have embroidered messages all over the surface, much in the same way their friends scribble messages of friendship over their shirts in marker pen when they leave school. This isn't finished due to to me slicing the end of my thumb while chopping carrots which is making hand sewing a bit tricky, and I doubt it will be completely finished before assessment day.. on Saturday... but I'll show more at the end of the week.

The final assignment has been a personal project concerned with aspects of domesticity. Again I was drawn back to family life, my role within the family and once more the idea of protection. It was also apparent that text and lists were featuring heavily in all my work and so I decided to make an apron as a symbol of both domesticity and as a protective item covered with lists of words. This then evolved into three aprons to represent the multiplicity of my roles within the home - as a wife, a mother and a housekeeper.

This one was "Mother"

All three aprons are worked on a fine muslin with machined drawn fabric work edging and free machined lettering. Fun and games working on muslin let me tell you!


This one was "Housekeeper" - I didn't want to use the word "Housewife" and I don't like the American term "Homemaker" I wanted to incorporate a piece of traditional looking needlework on the housekeeper apron. Stewart objected to me putting ironing on the list as he does most of the ironing!

And the last apron was "Wife"

It's funny but Stewart didn't object to me writing "nag" on the list of words on the bottom of this apron!

The idea behind the three aprons and that they are made from muslin (apart from the fact muslin is often used as a cleaning cloth) is that they can be layered so that the different roles can be worn "on top" but without completely covering the other roles.

I quite like this as a concept but I'm not sure how well it works. I've called it "Who am I?"

It wasn't easy to photograph and looks better in "real life"

So now it all has to be packed up and taken to London for assessment on Saturday and we get a few weeks off before the next module starts!