Happy Holidays

New Year’s Eve, and the holidays are almost over. It really has been a lovely season. We began, earlier in December, taking family to a Christmas concert, full of laughter and sing-alongs. Then, the weekend before Christmas, we had our traditional visit to New York City, to be part of the hustle and bustle, lights and decorations. Not to mention good food, and of course the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

We spent the entire day at the Met, including the extended evening hours, which gave us plenty of time to explore at a leisurely pace. We visited our old favorites, and took in several special exhibits, including Gilded Age furniture, and an exhibit of house-shaped vessels from Central and South America. This was one of my favorites:

I love the little dog waiting at the door for scraps!

And then there was the exhibit of 16^th century textile pattern books.

book by Johann Schonsperger the Younger, Augsburg, 1529

The Met has an extraordinary collection of pattern books from the dawn of the print age, and many
samples of period textiles created from the patterns. Needless to say, I spent hours in the exhibit. It clearly showed how the rise of printing influenced textile fashion across Europe. Printers were freely gathering patterns for textile prints and embroidery from Italy, Germany, France, the Levant… and binding them together for the public’s consumption. While some people may be frustrated by how all this borrowing makes it difficult to know the origins of a particular pattern, I find it exciting to think about the “free” exchange of information across great distances, for people (especially women) who might otherwise not have the opportunity to travel so far. Today these books are particularly rare because pages were often removed in order to copy the patterns onto the material to be embroidered. The Libro de rechami (1532), by Alessandro Paganino even illustrates women using various methods to copy the patterns.

I think my favorite part of the exhibit related to a pattern of birds. This was clearly a popular pattern. Here is the pattern, and its interpretation in several different styles:

I was excited to see the lacis artifacts. Since this is a technique I have recently begun to learn, it was fun to see so many period examples all together. I think I will try my hand at one of these patterns.

And then there was the modern lacis. Perhaps I need to make myself a shirt.

 c. 1920 and 1910 respectively

Then, as a little extra treat, we found our way to a little-visited part of the museum, with an exhibit of 19^th century samplers. Here is my favorite, because it was such a surprise.

London, mid-19th century

This piece is only about 3.5 inches square, so you can get a sense of how tiny these stitches are. But, who was this girl who was stitching complex math problems instead of quotes from Scripture?

We ended our trip to New York with a visit to the Central Park Zoo. The weather was perfect, and the animals were particularly active. Here is just one photo for your enjoyment:

teaching an old dog new tricks

That would be me. October has flown by, but I spent it teaching, and learning new things. First, to my surprise, Marjorie asked to learn nalbinding, as did another friend. Of course I said I would teach them. I love teaching nalbinding. So we sat down to learn the Oslo stitch. That's when I found out they are both left handed. So, I very quickly had to learn how to teach left-handed nalbinding. By the end of the evening, we had arrived at terminology that makes sense no matter if you are left handed or right handed. (Thank you, Marjorie.) No matter which hand you are using, you are looking at the front of your thumb (the nail side), and you work the stitch off the back of your thumb (the pad side). The working thread lies on the inside (between thumb and index finger), and the needle approaches the stitch from the outside of the thumb.

By our second lesson both women were confident nalbinders. Marjorie had taught the stitch to another friend, and she was ready to learn something new. I will not take the credit. They were both very quick learners.

Later in the month I spent a day with my friend Vibeke, while she taught me to throw pottery on the wheel. I came home with quite a few little pieces, but just as many were disasters. Two things were difficult for me - centering the clay, and making straight sides (I never did accomplish that). Here is what I made:

The straight-sided piece in the back, and the inkwell in the center were made by my friend Heather. The other three pieces are mine.

The three rather small pieces in the foreground are mine. 

I also made a tiny bud vase, and a spindle whorl (I couldn't help myself).

It was fun playing with shapes. They rarely came out exactly as I had pictured them as I placed the clay on the wheel, but I am pleased with my results. Vibeke is a great teacher. It will take a long time for me to be able to really control the clay. I will need much practice to make a piece with reasonably thin walls. But I left at the end of the day feeling like a good beginner. Now let's hope I have good luck with the glazes. (Patience, grasshopper. The clay has to dry and be fired first.)

Lucky me!

I have the best family in the whole world! My mother and sister are potters. They find my love of the SCA puzzling, but when I mentioned that I had seen an article about Viking Age vessels, they set about to make me some. Here is the gift I received (for no occasion at all), based on the ceramic wine holders illustrated in the article:

I love that they are personalized, and I can't wait to use them. The one on the right is even shaped on the back to fit flat against my hip. Now where did I put my leather cords?