I finally invested in lab coats for work. Some teachers wear lab coats at my school for multiple reasons: a place to keep your pens and such, a way to keep your outfit clean and also a way to hide your figure from the boys.
When I first started working there, one of my co-workers gave me her’s because she never wore it. It was so itchy and hot that I refused to wear it. Again, only a few teachers do.
At the end of the year, a female teacher told me my pants were too tight. Comments like these are given to the young teachers all the time. You never know if it is coming from a kind place or if they are just giving you trouble. It really hurt my feelings because at the time I had gained weight and if my pants were too tight, it was not on purpose. In the end, I think my pants were perfectly acceptable but I wore long skirts until the end of the year. One of my co-workers made fun of me saying “so, you gonna wear skirts forever?!?” and then I realized, no! I’ll just wear a lab coat.
The coat will completely de-sexualize me at work. Grant it, sometimes it helps to be something to look at but I would say that 80 percent of the time, it just undermines your authority and respect, at least I think so. Again, I work in jail with juvenile boys. (My co-workers and I tend to behave like kids too). I bought two, so I can wash one while I wear the other. I fully intend on making it look a little original, and thus we start talking about BLACKWORK EMBROIDERY…
“Blackwork Embroidery” by Elisabeth Geddes and Moyra McNeil (Dover)
Blackwork embroidery is black embroidery on white fabric, (back in the day it was linen, from thick to translucent)
This book is very inviting and very clear. It actually gives a historical survey as opposed to giving iron transfers that I am not one least interested in.
I was hooked when they claimed that most of the art and embroidery in the 16th and 17th century was created at home. “much was home-produced” (P.15) A light bulb lit up in my head: Of course, they had nothing better to do!
I know that embroidery has totally filled a huge void in my life. I hate waiting for friends and now I have something to keep me busy when they are late. I love television and talking to loved ones on the phone but my hands get bored easily and embroidery keeps me focused as I get entertained. On long summer days, during boring meetings, will my friends are on the phone forever, when my mom is frustrating me but is being super adorable at the same time, I have a purpose because I’m making something, something that does not require all of my concentration but something that requires free creative will.
Anyway, these women were even more bored than me, and maybe even as lost as I am. So obviously they filled their time decorating their houses and clothes. It just made sense. I am not alone.
I also loved this book right away because it describes the history of embroidery quite well. Nobody can claim the creation of embroidery or of a specific style or stitch because so many cultures had created it simultaneously.
“Embroidery has its roots in many countries and cultures, and it is often impossible to pinpoint the actual source of a particular technique, because research will reveal origins too ancient and diffuse to be confined within a definite place or period.” (P. 14)
Nobody stole embroidery from anyone else, one could only be inspired. And that totally kicks butt!
There is a lot of talk about the Renaissance and how it created communication and trends in Europe, blah blah blah, kind of like the internet and mass production today. We all wear the same HandM tshirt, back then, they all started embroidering in a similar style. I learned about the Renaissance in a fresh light after being bombarded with it year after year in school. (Now I teach my students about the Renaissance and it totally makes me feel old.)
The interesting thing for me was that it made me look at art history in a completely different light. The book has Renaissance portraits to illustrate the concept that blackwork was used on the shirts worn under the garments and later on actual dress. At first I looked at the portrait and I was like “where? I can’t see it” and then I looked at the sleeves. I had never looked at a Renaissance portrait to analyze the pattern on a woman’s sleeve before. It’s this tiny little detail I never spent ant time on, and all of a sudden, it is the only thing I care about. It was really cool because it deepened my understanding and image of Renaissance art (and totally proved I’m an art nerd).
Having been to Florence a few times, I have seen some stunning portraits up close and the details in the clothing are more than remarkable. I wish I had looked at the sleeves, such a small detail that now holds such importance. It is obvious how much I take for granted when I’m looking at art.
Another really cool Renaissance fact about this type of embroidery is the appearance of pattern books. Yep, that’s right, the birth of craft stores happened during the Renaissance where patterns were being shared, fabrics imported and interpretations growing all over Europe.
The illustrations went from wood cuts to prints out of soft metals. The embroidery would either strive to look like the print or to look like an embroidered style. Obviously, they couldn’t take a picture of it and share it on flickr, we are SO spoiled! “surviving books are very rare” (P. 29) Well duh! But where can you get your hands on one? There have got to be some in libraries somewhere. Argh, yet another thing on my to do list….
When it comes to the books, a lot of embroidery illustrations went hand in hand with books about botany, hunting, animals and mythical creatures.
“it expounds the curative propreties of plants, and other forms of wildlife, and the good or bad effects derived from eating various kinds of flesh.” (P. 28)
When they were exploring the ‘new world’, they would write descriptions of the animals and it would be translated into embroidery patterns. The various embroidery examples of unicorns, mermaids, phoenix, elephants, tigers, etc, make you want to escape into fairy tales. They make you forget all the awfulness of everyday life (poverty, illness, monarchy…) and want to escape in a castle far far away to play with the animals and frolic in the forest (with no bugs of course).
The description of translucent linen embroidery for nighties and exposed body parts totally made my castle fantasies go to an R rated place. hehehe….
Anyways, one thing that was so rude was that during the Tudor and Elizabethan period, they had laws to prevent certain people, mostly the lower classes, from wearing golden, silver or blackwork embroidery. How rude! I feel like, if you take the time and you have the materials, you can wear whatever you damn well please! What if you are one of those 5 people who is allowed to wear golden embroidery and it doesn’t suit your complexion? The Sumptuary Laws enacted in Henry VIII’s reign totally doesn’t make sense to me. (I mean, I get it, but you know?)
The authors give us multiple reasons for why Blackwork Embroidery ‘examples’ did not survive….
one, the standards of cleanliness
two, “unfavorable environment for perishable fabrics” (P. 25) which means people took very poor care of their cloths by just hanging them near smoke or fires.
three, laundry soap was really rough and could be quite gross (made from cow poop, why? my god! they were crazy back then)
So Blackwork Embroidery went from geometric and simple creature patterns on collars and sleeves to decadent, superficial and ornamental patterns that just grew with abundance on clothing and household items from the Tudors to the Elizabethan period.
The authors of the book finish the historical survey to talk about how thread was dyed. They incorporate a beautiful quote: “but to either dye a good understanding Artist is necessary”. (P. 46) I thought that quote was quite thought provoking.
The practical part of the book is not so interesting to me. They discuss design, the transfer of patterns…. I didn’t find it useful for my purposes. The drawings and illustrations are wonderful and inspiring though. I love this book. And it’s super cheap, $8.95
The next step is to come up with my own blackwork. The authors of the book divide historical Blackwork to our modern interpretations. I have started a white T-Shirt and I am starting to understand their point from an entirely new perspective.
My two Blackwork projects are a white t-shirt and my white lab coats, illustrations and explanations to come…
