by the generosity and kindness of my friends... blogging or otherwise. I have been given some amazing pieces of lace to use in my
project, from precious tiny scraps to a whole wedding dress. There has been hand made bobbin lace, crochet lace and tatting. Lace that was bought from a gypsy and pieces made by grandmothers and aunts...
"My aunt Gladys crocheted it for me when I was about seven years old..." "She bought it because she just wanted to get rid of the gypsy" "I’ve had a bit of a turn out and in the bottom of a basket found this lace."
Lace that has been passed down through generations...
"This piece of lace belonged to my grandmother..." "They are from my Step Mother..." . "Someone somewhere loved it enough to keep it for years and I felt a connection. ""...scraps of lace are from an underskirt belonging to late my mother in law..." "a piece of tatting made for a handkerchief probably by my paternal grandmother" "...from a box left to me by my Mum." 
and some that has travelled from far away places such as Latvia, St. Helena, Austria and Canada...
"...
hand made bobbin lace made by women from the island of St. Helena, where Napoleon was imprisoned and died"
Pieces of dresses, handkerchiefs, wedding bouquets and table linen...
"Please find snippets of lace that were in my bridal bouquet..." "... two small pieces from a large collection of linen, lace and embroideries cleared from my husband’s aunt’s house..."
"The dress lasted longer than the marriage!" "This is my mother’s wedding dress..."
And some that was made especially for me and this project...
"I have made you one tatted mini doily in ecru for your lace project..."
But it is the stories that are forming the backbone of my final project. You've told me stories that have made me smile and made me cry. Wonderful stories of generations of women, connected by fabrics, needle and thread. I don't have the words to thank you...
"...it is very precious. My mother died when I was a toddler so I never knew her..."
" She always wore lace in her neckline so that her cleavage was covered. "
I am now piecing together every single scrap, together with each story printed out in full. In my stitching I am also writing out each story so that it becomes embedded within my final textile.
These are then being distressed and dyed with tea to give an aged and uniform appearance to each piece. They are then going to be assembled to make a book. A book that will contain each story buried deep within it's pages.
Thank you everyone who has helped me with this. If you have sent lace but not heard back from me please do get in touch. And if you still have some you can send... I'm on a two week deadline! (So I may not be around much!)
After a quick lunch we then moved on to Carrow House Costume and Textile Study Centre. We were treated to a wonderful array of historical textiles from dresses to pin cushions and a huge range of samplers such as this school sampler dating back to 1832.
One of the most fascinating exhibits was this unusual sampler completed by Lorina Bulwer around 1900. It is a pieced work about 1 foot x 12 foot that contains a hand stitched letter worked while she was imprisoned in the workhouse at Great Yarmouth. I think this made an impression on all of us there and we were particularly struck by how contemporary it looked.
It reminded me of the work of Arthur Bispo do Rosario, who spent fifty years of his life in a Rio de Janeiro psychiatric hospital. He would use unravelled threads of his hospital uniform to embroider onto blankets and sheets, often including passages of text as in the piece below.
We were then shown some of the items from their handling section including a huge Norwich shawl. To demonstrate why the shawls were so big Ruth asked for a volunteer to don a crinoline skirt... well someone had to do it! (Thank you Miriam for the photo!)
We finished our day with a lovely meal and then on Saturday morning made our way to Dragon Hall for the conference. The subject was Concepts and Meanings and we were treated to a fabulous day of inspiring talks and lectures as well as some interesting exercises from Les Bicknell designed to unleash our creativity (my students be warned... I'm planning some of these for you and they involve a wire coat hanger!) We got to see some fabulous work including that of Debbie Lyddon who uses music to inspire her work.
Two days full of inspiration for the "Concepts and Meanings" exhibition next year. But for now its back to the next couple of weeks... and an hours more stitching before bedtime!
