Aims
- identify an archive and select three textile pieces to observe and work from
- expand your experience of textile handling and close analysis
Brief
“Locate and archive to you that contains textiles. this could be local or national art or design archive, a university archive, a gallery or museum archive or an archive belonging to a company or manufacturer. Do some initial online research to find out what is accessible to you.
Choose three textiles that are linked in some way or analyse three quite different pieces.
I originally chose to go to our local museum “The Manor House Museum” in Kettering to see if they had anything that I could research. Northamptonshire is well known as a Boot and Shoe Industry, so I wasn’t expecting much in the way of textiles. They had a little display cabinet of a little lace, a dress and a lace umbrella, which I wasn’t allowed to take photo’s of. I then decided that I needed to look elsewhere for my project inspirations.
After my initial email to the curator at the Clothworkers’ Centre in London I was offered an appointment date for 23rd June for between 2pm and 4pm at The Clothworkers’ Centre, Blythe House (The Archive centre for the V&A museum).
I was able to pick 5 items and a further 2 as a reserve, (just in case I was unable to view the ones I had chosen). A couple of my selection came back unavailable which was a a shame as I would loved to have seen these, (maybe I could see if they are available in the near future). After re visiting the huge archive lists I managed to pick 4 dresses that I was able to see. I wasn’t however able to touch any of them, if I wanted to look at the back of the dress the curator would be able to turn it for me. I had planned to spend half an hour on each dress, sketching and taking photo.
FibresandYarn 