A bit of reading is good for the soul.

My dear husband bought this book the other day as he thought it would be of interest. Factual books I normally read during the day, but I was intrigued and excited to start it as soon as he gave it to me , it has become my night reading ..only because I have more time. The book written by dress historian Kate Strasdin, after she was given the diary , the story behind that in itself is something I dream would happen to me in my lifetime. The book is beautifully written, it has such a gentle tone to it, packed full of social history it follows Anne Sykes journey. It is so clever as nothing is really known about Anne and certainly the diary gives away no clues, but Anne in a sense is invisible but you read on feeling completely drawn in to the story. The photo's of the swatches are lovely and there is a QR code in the back to enable you to see more, these are stunning and is the icing on the cake.

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Mapping the forgotten

Mapping the Forgotten I wanted to look at my practice further, I was feeling as bit lost on where to go and what to do , I felt that by just using stitch I was hemming myself in , expression and development was hard. I came across www.fibreartstaketwo.com a course by www.sallytyrie.com seemed to fit the brief in my mind so I joined and what a great decision that was. It was the most amazing experience, I have met so many like minded artists and was blown away with the amount of talented people on the course. I wanted to continue with my passion of social history. Please have a look at the amazing work exhibition.fibreartstaketwo.com/books/lcvj

Worked in Flowers

Worked in Flowers. All types of flowers were used as an interest for Eighteenth century young ladies, obviously for those of wealth and privilege. Embroidery gave them the opportunity to express an interest in botany working the flowers in silks in running stitch, in The Subversive Stitch by Rozsika Parker , Parker talks about the attitudes that shaped eighteenth century embroidery by looking at Mary Delany's work , Mary's sister described a piece of embroidery in a letter stating "the bottom of the petticoat was worked with twined nasturtiums,ivy,honey suckles,periwinkles,convolvuluses and all sorts of twining flowers". Above I have used my print image of a sleeve and started to embroider using very contemporary flower shapes, I shall continue inter-twining and working into the fabric to see what happens to the humble concept of the sleeve.

Looking Back

MA Work Journal This week has been pretty slow in my studio, life gets in the way and important things need to be addressed. I try not to get frustrated and look at it as a time for reflection. I often take my old work out and see if it could fit or possibly elements of it could fit into me current work. Cyanotype is something I want to develop as I really liked the process during my BA and MA courses. Stitch investigation is something I touched upon when doing my MA, it was important for me to look at stitch as a narrative, expression and feeling. I feel much more investigating and work could be done on this as I only toughed on the usual type of stitch, so many more to investigate and develop. I would like to do this but need to have a different approach and methodology .

Bridget Harris

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