STOCKING SMOCKS........

New art by Howard Hodgkin, an artist admired and sponsored by Tricia Guild, is featured in an article by Ros Byam Shaw in WOI.   She recounts a tale of his childhood, evacuated to a well-to-do Long Island lady in wartime, he was asked, aged 8, to help her choose some material, went to the shop, saw bolts of printed linen,"that one" he said, just like that.  And she said 0.K., and ordered an incredible amount, $500 worth.  This artist reckons it was a very formative experience which inspired a love of textiles, and comes out in his pictures of rooms, some with bedclothes, and the heavy red curtains in his home.
    I can think of many pieces in my own home which I both hated and loved as a child and my great treat was to rummage through an old tin bath, with lid, in the attics, that held all the surplus bits from my grandmother's decorations.   I loved the Victorian chintzy borders used to dress the valances on big old Welsh beds but hated the dark brown velvets that were shabby and faded.. I found there two old linen smocks which my father had worn for a portrait study with some sheep,  painted by my rather gifted grandmother, and I thought that was very romantic and resolved to find more smocks, which I did not find until I came to live in Somerset 70 years later.
    I acquired several and though I found the prices very high, they seemed to sell on their first outing at fairs .
The agricultural and County Museums were keen to acquire them and all the other old farm equipment - and people took to wearing them at local farming events and celebrations of old machinery and re-enactment displays of rural life in the 19C and ever since they have been in very short supply!   I have the two patterns shown here, so if you would like to have copies, contact me at  dbaer@onetel.com and I will gladly send them.  Maybe, your winter fireside project????

                                                               

LOOKING FORWARD!

   Yes, everyone at Talent for Textiles is looking forward to meeting up with all friends and customers at the beginning of the autumn season.  Many of the dealers have been stocking up during the summer, either on their holidays (they never stop searching!) or making special trips overseas  to buy the best!   The exciting thing about textiles is that they are all different with different histories, different designs and workmanship so the variety is endless and even the most dedicated collectors are still finding new treasures.    There are no books big enough to cover all the various fields but we can all learn a lot by looking at the huge selection you will see at our fairs and the interchange of information is one of the things that draws visitors to our fairs, and we are always interested in hearing from people who wish to have a valuation or to sell something.
   So do come along to our next fair in the ancient Masonic Hall, Church Street, Bradford on Avon, BA15 1LN on Saturday, Sept 6th 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and if you need inspiration for an autumn/winter project you will find a very good choice of high quality goods displayed and dealers who know what they are selling!  Free entrance and light refreshments on a sunny terrace next door.more info. Email  at   talentfortextiles.com

THE NITTY GRITTY

  

  Life on the main routes in France is good, passing through beautiful countryside with no congestion and no troublesome little winding lanes through the villages, plenty of resting places with decent refreshments and good clear signs for turn-offs and nearby cities.     The sad part is that you miss the local architecture of rural villages,  the lovely churches and chateaux and the chance of stopping at an interesting cafe or Brocante!There are no longer any old chairs put out on the pavement, with an elderly gent sitting there with his pipe and cronies, ready to show his mixed collection in a shabby old shed;  he has gone, because there is no longer any passing trade and the next generation has set up their business in big old barns on secondary roads near the bigger towns with big signs and bigger prices!
    Staying on the journey in a hotel is simple if you are not expecting great luxury or gourmet meals.  The chain, Logis de France, is very reliable for clean rooms, good beds and a very reasonable home-cooked meal, and there is usually one in every proper town.  You can collect a very useful guide to all the Logis, free, with good pictures and descriptions. For a good menu, allow 28 Euros plus wine.
    Diesel, as always, is cheaper at the nearest super-marche, which can also offer a cheap snack meal, but at meal times can be noisy and full.  Most petrol stations accept master cards but if you are buying antiques or from small shops, 'liquide' (cash) is essential.  Hotels and restaurants seem quite ready to accept credit cards but sometimes they have trouble with their machines and it can take quite a time to sort things out!   There are plenty of AMTs around in the towns.  We have always used the above Rough Guide, and found it very reliable for all levels of accommodation and the descriptions are lively and pretty accurate.
     A stop for tea and coffee is quite expensive and the cups are often small- but we find the small betting shops with bars (the P.M.U.s)are the best and you do see a bit of local life as the regulars come in for a gossip and a bet.  Croissants are delicious and cheaper in the bakers shops and carried in to the bar.  Sandwiches are usually large, long baguettes with generous fillings and freshly made to order in any combination you like, quick and filling!  available in most bars and some bakeries.  Keep bottled water in your car, especially when the weather is hot - refreshing drinks in bars are quite expensive and stopping and parking can be boring!  On the other hand, some of the motorway cafes have pleasant patios for eating and drinking outside when you need a break and to rest your eyes;  and the shops also sell all basic stuff for a simple picnic.  

DOWN TO THE WIRE

   There is a lot of fine wirework in France, mostly produced in the early 20th century  for many different uses as well as decoration.  The fine wire could be shaped into all kinds of shapes, some very elaborate and purely for amusement and decoration,  but most were made as useful tools in the kitchen and home.    I often bought good examples as they made lovely decoration against simple whitewashed cottage and farm walls and many were  hung round old inglenooks and fireplaces and cast interesting shadows.  There were circular drainers for cheeses and for cooling pastries and cakes, all kinds of strainers and sieves and skimmers for sauces and soups, spatulas and slices for frying and grilling, hundreds of salad shakers, and egg baskets, hooks and racks for tools, carpet beaters, egg whisks, bird cages and so on, as well as the miniature coaches, furniture and other fanciful designs.  I bought several of the best from a dealer in Burgundy and I learnt a bit more about the craft and wished I could restore some of the many that had been neglected outside and had rusted away..

  This is a good reference book, (pub. Abbeville) I found that describes hundreds of fine wirework objects, all very decorative and delightful;   the variety is amazing and often quite exotic - bird cages, ornamental baskets and stands and a huge batterie of cooking tools and containers.   I was able to purchase several of the examples shown in these illustrations  (the owner  helped the authors of this book to find good examples).  There are plenty still in use and for sale, mostly on the tool and sundries stalls of market traders, but miniatures and really intricate examples are always difficult to find.

REPLIES TO READERS' COMMENTS

To Aina:  your query re different techniques for customizing curtains has me a little puzzled as I am not sure if you mean actual decorations or different ways of draping the curtains.   Anyway for the basic techniques, I can heartily recommend The Soft Furnishing Book by Dorothy Gates, pub. Forbes Publications ;  but for more advanced designs there are large numbers of manuals and reference books in most large libraries and of course, there are always courses going on in local colleges where you can learn and make - which is where I first did some work and advanced from there, as I re-made many of my second-hand buys from France.     Dorothy Gates taught one of my daughters quite a lot of soft furnishing and she said she was the best needlework tutor she had ever had.   There are a number of coffee table glossy books available in good bookshops which can give you ideas for different ways of treating windows and they should inspire you.  Amazon will have copies of most.
Lisa vanden Berghe  I have found the source of the picture of a garland of silk worked flowers (on paper)
which I showed on a Blog recently, The Ladies are Amused  It was in a little book called 'Regency and Victorian Crafts' by Jane Toller. Ward Lock Ltd.  It says in the text that paper was quite popular for craftwork and that during the 18thC.superfine needles were made and also very fine embroidery silks as fine as human hair - the example shown appears to have been worked on ordinary writing paper.     I knew Jane Toller briefly when she was very old.  She and her husband kept a little shop in Eton High Street and sold very early oak furniture.  She was quite an authority of 'Ladies Amusements' and also wrote ' Papier-mache in Great Britain and America ' pub. G.Bell & Co., both of which I have found very useful while making small collections.   I have a number of things which are mentioned in both books and if ever you would care to look at them you might like to visit me - contact email  dbaer@onetel.com

I will make further BLOGS on other Ladies Amusements - pin-prick work, hair embroideries and momentos,  tinsel pictures, theorem velvet pictures, scissor- or cut-work, felt-work fruits and animal portraits, feather pictures, dried flowers and ferns, sea-weed and shell pictures, of which I have a few examples in my 'pictures without paint' collection, now adorning the walls of my work-room and inspiring me to keep sewing and making!
   These scans  might interest some readers who have their own examples - some are very finely worked and others very much folk art and quite crude, but all now quite rare to find and so,  full of interest to those who admire them.
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TUTTI FRUTTI

   Can  you guess what these pretty , flimsy fruit decorated borders were used for?  When I first saw them in their hundreds on a French  brocante stall, I bought the lot, thinking I could use them as a

wallpaper border in a cottage kitchen I was doing up.  Half were in this lovely bluey/green shade and the rest, more formal, in a classic swagged design, were in a strong orangey- red colour.  So when I looked at them properly, I realised the paper was so delicate that it would not take paste and was rather useless for my project.  Oh dear! had I made a  another very silly purchase?   Anyway, I put them out at my next fair at a low price for a set of three and they disappeared within hours.  People bought them to decorate their kitchen dresser shelves and larders, to trim bathroom shelves, wardrobes and display units,for etsy style groups,  and reckoned they were so cheap that it did not matter if they were just ephemera, looking pretty for a period and then to throw away.   I discovered that these borders were used by fruit growers selling cherries, plums and currants in France to decorate their boxes going to the big food markets - hence the fruit motifs - and I rather wished that we could see something like them again in the fruit aisles of Tesco and Asda!   It would make me buy the box-full and then I would have to make lots of jam with the contents and there would be jam for every day!   The French really have a genius for display and packaging which continues to this day if you look at their confectionery boxes, their beauty products and  gift presentations. 

HINTS AND WRINKLES NO.3

Mixed Toile cushions, all sold.

Dainty linen tea napkins made these  £20 ea.

Normandy stools complete with Pyreneese oxen coat-covered cushions £55 ea.
Pr.Edwardian upright neat armchairs with casters and new covers £250 each.These are all reduced prices as I am retiring and clearing my showrooms.  Contact me by Email at   dbaer@onetel.com. 
 

Making cushions:  Use curled duck feathers - chicken feathers have an unpleasant smell and soon go flat if much used.  When you put them into the inner pad (it really is worth buying proper feather-proof cotton as feathers always work themselves through ordinary untreated cotton or linen) push a handful of feathers right into each corner, because they take a long time to find their way there.  I like to have my cushion 'plump' but not rigid with stuffing.  If you have family who are allergic to feathers, be sure to buy the best foam, otherwise it can look and feel quite lumpy with use.
     If the top material is rather old, flimsy, or worn, back it with plain white cotton (old sheet material is fine).   Tack the two materials together round the edges and use as one bit of cloth, when stitching and piping.  If you can manage to put matching zips neatly under the piping, this will make cleaning or washing much easier
    Remember that scatter cushions are not much use for supporting your back, and cushions in one suitable colour or pattern are far more effective than oddments, unless you are lucky to have good old tapestry or embroidered fronts which usually blend happily.  

Curtains   For most decorating experts, curtains must hang down to the carpet or floor, exactly!  For cottages and small windows , of course, there is not much point in having long trailing curtains.  But I would say there are exceptions, for instance, where you have a vinyl or lino floor in a kitchen or bathroom, that is mopped,  the hem will soon become stained with the dirty water and I would cut them off a bit higher.  The same could apply for flag-stoned rooms which are cleaned with water..  Some people like the effect of over-long curtains which 'puddle' in a train of extra material on the carpet, but I think this is mostly suitable for a rather grand room and can be a bit of a  'show off',  though sometimes necessary in a very cold, draughty room or to hide uneven skirting boards.
      There are plenty of books to tell you how to make curtains and they are really not very difficult as long as you have peace and quiet and double check all measurement before cutting.    Allow generous hems, they will hang much better!   Do not machine down the front and back hems,   hand stitching is essential for the right look.   You will need plenty of long sharp pins, a tape measure in inches and/or mm, sharp cutting out scissors,  and a good big surface to lay the different layers, using bulldog clips to hold the layers together.  A ping-pong table is perfect and some people use market stall tarpaulin clips which are very strong and heavy enough to keep the materials taut.   You can do it on the floor but that is tiring on the back and can get in the way of passing family traffic!  When you buy material for big curtains, make sure that you can join widths together, with pattern repeats exactly matching - this takes time and extra material, but 1/2 a bouquet of roses does not look very professional if the basket is  4 or 5 inches above or below!  Also remember that the pattern runs one way and I remember seeing one curtain maker weep because her sewing lady had reversed one panel so that all the little birds in the bamboos were upside down and all the bamboo leaves were drooping in the wrong direction, and there was no more material to put it right!  The client was not amused!

MOTHER OF PEARL

  Mother of Pearl is a very Victorian kind of decoration and I have to say I have loved it ever since my Welsh grandmother, who also loved and collected it, gave me a little black lacquered sewing box with lots of m.o.p. tools and cotton reels inside, for my tenth birthday, saying that it had been hers when she was little and she felt I was now old enough to care for it!  Inside were some little treasures, a tiny Regency reading book about a naughty little girl stolen by the gypsies - very moral - with cut out pictures where you had to insert the head of a child each time you turned the page, a valentine folded card with lots of proverbs, verses and little flower paintings, and a dance programme - no names - perhaps she was a wall-flower?  Nain (Welsh granny) later gave me a little blotter with more m.o.p. flowers inlaid and from then on I was a lacquer and m.o.p. collector, mostly made with papier mache where the shell layers could be applied, making a smooth finish.  There were stationery boxes, glove boxes, fan boxes  stamp boxes, waste p.b.s, scissor and crumb trays, spill vases, visiting card trays, wine coasters, big serving trays and a myriad more useful adjuncts to the complicated niceties of Victorian domestic life! and plenty of them and cheap enough!  Those  with the name Clay and  Jennens & Betteridge impressed  underneath were much sought after and those with good gilding were also prized.  In my enthusiasm, I bought an armchair where the shell-shaped back and sides were paper mache, mounted on wooden lacquered legs and with a romantic portrait painted on inner side and very heavy gilding on the other, a bit of a rarity and not to everyone's taste!
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