It’s been nearly a year since I last connected with you and I apologise for that but I have to admit that I’ve become quite disillusioned with social media in general lately.
However this feels the perfect moment to update you on what I’ve been doing over the last year, my original intention was to develop my own personal narrative to my family textile treasures and ephemera, in an authentic way, both in terms of its emotional significance to me and the material connection to previous generations of my family.
I’ve been fascinated with these items over the years but this body of work will be a comprehensive culmination of years of studying and reflecting on my connection and love of my textile treasures.
After much deliberation I decided to focus on the connection between four generations of my family, my Granma, Mum, myself and my daughter, exploring the creativity which we all loved and pursued.
I’ve started on four scrolls, one for each of us, to be displayed in a 3D format, assigning a colour palette for each generation based on my memories of each of us.
Rashly I chose to make the entire piece by hand stitch to reflect my stitch ancestry, as I believe this adds a sense of both my family history of a love of stitch and a sensitivity in the links between us.
I started with my Granma who was born in 1896, some of my ephemra from her life are shown above, I also have her hand written emboidery note book, from Hyde Technical College dated 1916, which is one of my most prized possessions. She was orphaned at just eleven and went to live with her strict, school mistress aunt, which can’t have been easy at that age. She was also widowed at just fifty, she lived with us all my life, as she moved in to help my mum when I was born.
She loved so many crafts from leatherwork, basketry, crochet & knitting, tatting and of course embroidery, I learnt so much from her and have so many happy memories of time spent with her.
Annie Dawson Harrison (1896 to 1982)
Anne Armes Art 