The Museum has some wonders from a 1970's Alexander Calder wall hanging to a 1625 Mortlake tapestry depicting a drawing room with an incredibly complex perspective. But I was drawn to the tapestries from the Tudor period with all those naive animals jostling about in foliage and ornate but primitive borders.
It was these tapestries that came to mind when we first found the work of Alena Hennessy. Based in the mountains of South Carolina, USA, Alena spent much of her early studies in Europe where she fell in love with early textiles. Back home she spotted the potential of the local cottage weaving industry and started her business from there - working with the weavers to make her drawings into objects such as the Horse and Bird bags.
I love the thought of a community of weavers still being specific to an area, like those earlier pioneers in the Southern Netherlands from where England imported most of its textiles from until the weavers set up looms in Warwickshire in the late 15th & 16th centuries. As many of our readers will know The Shop Floor Project aims to support as many small craft industries as possible and its wonderful when we find crafts like small scale weaving still thriving in rural communities around the world.
Alena’s collections can be found in the Scarf & Bag Departments in the Shop.
Along similar lines I recently had the opportunity to preview a new film/documentary, Living with the Tudors, by artists Karen Guthrie and Nina Pope (winner of the Northern Art Prize 2008). Amongst other issues the film explores various crafts that were central to Tudor society including ruff making and paint mixing within the context of a group of dedicated Tudor re-enactors at Kentwell Hall, Suffolk.
You can purchase a copy here.
No comments:
Post a Comment