Stitch Safari
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Book Review: A Single Thread
This gentle, yet powerful story is so easily relatable – who of us hasn’t felt gut-wrenching loss, and been nervous about making unprecedented life changes?
Beetle Elytra: Nature’s Ornament
So are the beetle wings ethically harvested? The beetles used for beetle wing embroidery have a very short lifespan of 3-4 weeks in their adult stage, so to avoid killing the beetles, only those that die naturally are collected.
Book Review: The Tenth Gift
Jane Johnson is a prolific writer of books for both adults and children as well as being a fiction book editor. A trip to North Africa in 2005 investigating a long-buried family legend about the abduction of a family from a Cornish church by Barbary pirates in 1625,...
Embroidered Dragon Robes
Close your eyes and imagine the sound a cascading silk garment makes in movement. Imagine the feel of exquisite embroidery - the silken smoothness of the long, colourful threads and the unmistakable texture of couched gold and silver, pearls, and other rich...
East Asian Silk Embroidery
East Asian Silk embroidery is a stunningly beautiful art form emerging from China - the ancient masters of sericulture - migrating to Korea, Vietnam, and Japan, with each adding their own cultural and stylistic design stamp to form this unmistakable aesthetic. Silk...
Book Review: The Gown
Cleverly entitled The Gown, this historical novel will almost certainly appeal to anyone interested in the making of one of the most famous wedding gowns of the 20th century – that of Queen Elizabeth II.
Medieval Craftsmen Embroiderers
Kay Staniland is an English author and embroiderer, with five other titles to her name. This small book, published by British Museum Press, London, in 1991 is a well-researched introduction into the somewhat hazy and indefinite world of medieval embroiderers - the...
Embroidery is the Art of the Needle
But embroidery needed the invention of some very basic tools before that first stitch could be taken and that began a long, long time ago. With Stitch Safari, I'm trying to chronicle embroidery's beginnings as well as its relationship with society and culture,...
Book Review: Threads of Life
Author Clare Hunter was a finalist for the Aesthetica Creative Writing Award, with a story published in its 2017 Annual, a recipient of a Creative Scotland Award in 2016 and winner of the Saltire First Book Award for Threads of Life. Clare is also a sewer, banner...
Book Review: English Medieval Embroidery Opus Anglicanum
English Medieval Embroidery, Opus Anglicanum was published in association with the Victoria and Albert Museum, to accompany a major exhibition held in 2017. Edited by Clare Browne, Curator of European Textiles, pre-1800, V&A London, Glynn Davies, Curator of...
Book Review: The Bayeux Tapestry – The Life Story of a Masterpiece
Thrilling and compelling, this book is romantically entertaining and readable. Each new chapter opens vignettes into one of the worlds greatest treasures and is a worthy tribute to its history.
Introducing Stitch Safari: The Rationale
I've now been recording Stitch Safari Podcasts since May of 2020 - and with the fullness of time, I believe I finally have my head around what I'm actually doing. Yes, it's taken me a while - I'm a slow learner, but it's proving popular with just over 3,500 downloads...
Writing a Podcast
What on earth drove me to create this podcast? Passion, pure and simple. I've always enjoyed stitching, and I find history utterly fascinating - I simply married the two together, so the entire ethos for the Stitch Safari podcasts will always revolve around history...
Book Review: A Needle in the Right Hand of God
The Bayeux Tapestry is a visual record of the Conquest of England, but more importantly, it’s a powerful visual representation of cultural memory from a time when literacy wasn’t markedly evident.
Book Review: The Subversive Stitch
Waxing lyrical about books is sort of my thing. I love books, so when a book actually takes me on a journey or makes me think - that's special. And that's what Subversive Stitch by Rozsika Parker did for me. To date, my interest in Feminism has been minimal. ...
Book Review: Women’s Work – The First 20,000 Years – Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times
This book provides a fascinating world-view glimpse into patterns, clothing, spinning, weaving, trade and even language through the ways cloth-making shaped the lives of women.
String & Cloth
Cloth - that much used and overlooked everyday item we wear, sit upon, walk on or sleep between. It's simply there in our ready-made shirts, dresses, bespoke suits and household textiles, but how did cloth-making, come about? It's a story spanning eons. And it all...
Book Review: Guo Pei – Couture Beyond
Guo Pei, the first Chinese designer invited to join the prestigious Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture combines tradition, history and mythology producing unconventional and otherworldly designs – a reflection of her oeuvre. With a reverence for China’s imperial past and beauty, her aspiration is to bring that heritage into a reflection of today’s modern fashion currency.
The Wearable Cloth
Cloth envelops us from morning to night; we slumber between it, we use it to make our homes more comfortable and appealing, and according to statistics, a large percentage of people worldwide, work with it in the textile industry.
Book Review: The Golden Thread
The Golden Thread, How Fabric Changed History, written by Kassia St Clair, Published by John Murray Publishers, 2018. This is the sort of book I would read again and again. It’s an easy read, and extremely informative. Filled with craftily woven stories that bring...
Through The Eye of The Needle
'Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try.' John F. Kennedy We know prehistoric man gave rise to the development of a simple implement that was truly life-changing and of world-wide significance. Something small, easily transportable, but a tool that...
One Stitch at a Time
Join me at The Stitch Safari, where I’ll plunder the past, then leap directly into the future. Innovation is happening, but in a world where the emphasis is on ‘fast’ – fast cars, fast food, fast fashion, even fast technology, sewing and embroidery is one area of endeavour where the complete opposite is its unique appeal.
New Beginnings
So, just what is the beginning exactly? Well, for me, it meant going back to when a needle and fibre were first used, and there’s no way to pinpoint exactly who, where or why – it’s all supposition really as nothing remains, but it all hinges on a need to survive.