Saturday, June 13, 2009

Hello!

It has been many moons since I last posted to this blog. To see what I have been working on recently, please visit my studio website by clicking here.



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Thursday, June 21, 2007

Ehren Tool


demo
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
One of the most inspiring projects I came across during my time in California was that of Berkeley-based artist and former U.S. Marine Ehren Tool, who has made thousands of ceramic cups depicting images and scenes of war. I've copied below a riveting article on Tool from UC Berkeley News.

"From jarhead to bowl maker: Grad student Ehren Tool's art of war"
By Bonnie Azab Powell, NewsCenter | 27 October 2004
BERKELEY – "Anyone who begins a life in the arts doesn't do it for the notion of money," says Michelle Lopez, UC Berkeley sculpture professor, when asked about her student Ehren Tool's future prospects. "They do it because they don't have a choice: they have something they need to say. Ehren is one of those people."

Tool, a Gulf War veteran, does indeed have something to say: Although the U.S. may wage its wars far away, each one of its citizens is still complicit in their horrors.

Now a UC Berkeley graduate student in art practice, Tool is a former U.S. Marine who served in Desert Shield and Desert Storm in 1991. He wears his gold Marine Corps pin on a desert camouflage apron, and his hair as short as in his jarhead days. At 6' 2" and 320 pounds, he looks like a saner version of the Vincent D'Onofrio character from "Full Metal Jacket" — like someone you would not want to mess with.

Which would be too bad, because then you'd miss out on getting one of the cups he makes. They are clay, usually dull black with a shinier black glaze, and decorated with press molds of military medals, bombs, or babies, their bottom edges scalloped into sandbags. Tool has given away more than 4,000 of them since he graduated from the University of Southern California in 2000. Homeless people have Tool's cups, as do workers at Café Strada, where he likes to mainline espresso. He mails them, free of charge, to Marines related to people he meets. More than 800 of his cups went home with people from the Burning Man festival in 2003.

As with Tool's other work, his purpose is to make people think about war.

More than a decade has passed since he served in Desert Storm — as a lance corporal with the Military Police Company Headquarters Battalion First Marine Division, in the sand near the Kuwaiti oil fires — yet he can think of nothing else.

Tool struggles to explain how his work is not antiwar — he sees that term as disrespecting the troops, his brothers — but about raising general awareness of war. "It's this freaky thing. To me, it's like there's a siren going off in the background all the time," he says. "There are so many veterans and refugees who've seen war firsthand, but then they don't talk about it when they get back to the States. So what regular people know about war tends to come from toys and pornography and video games. I give away the cups because, it's like, 'Drink out of the cup with skulls on it. Drink out of the cup with bombs on it.' We don't have money for schools, we don't have money to make the corrections system a corrections system instead of a penal system, for any of that. But we do have money for million-dollar Tomahawk missiles and $13,000 cluster bombs. And every single one of us is part of that system whether we act like we know it or not."

Third-generation soldier

W.A. Ehren Tool was born in Charleston, South Carolina, but grew up in Los Angeles. His father served in the U.S. Army and fought in Vietnam, while his maternal grandfather, a Marine, was in World War II. Despite his military lineage, Tool was planning to be a policeman when he graduated from high school, seeing that as a natural segue from volunteer work he'd done with homeless youth shelters. "But you had to be 21 to be a cop, so when a Marine Corps recruiter called me senior year of high school, I went into the Marines instead," he explains.

It was 1989, the year the Berlin Wall came down. Tool thought it was the dawn of a new era: "I totally bought it. I thought we had won the Cold War, and America was going to stop having all these shady relations with [messed]-up countries." (Tool cusses casually and often, like a soldier; his quotations have been sanitized.)

In August 1990, months after Tool enlisted, Saddam Hussein and more than a million Iraqi soldiers invaded Kuwait. Tool was one of the 500,000 troops that the United States sent in 1991 to force him back.

"When the first bombs started dropping on their side and not ours, a cheer went up. We were so anxious and stressed out, that when the war finally kicked off we sort of relaxed," Tool recalls. "But then a little bit later, you start thinking, 'OK, so we're just hitting military targets and all,' but then it's like — 'Ooh…I'm a military target. And someone would be sad if I died.' There comes a point when you have to think about the other side."

While Tool saw a lot of action in Kuwait, he was lucky enough to be able to avoid seeing much horror up close. His father wrote him letters in which he talked about his service in Vietnam for the first time. "He said if you can avoid looking at it, avoid looking at it. Because once you do, it's there in your head forever," Tool says. "So at some point there were these guys in trenches who had been blown apart, and everybody wanted to go look. And I was like, 'OK, I'll just hang out right here and watch your [stuff] for you. Go right ahead.' Everybody thought I was a sissy. But at least I don't have that memory, of the smell or whatever."

After his seven months in the Gulf were over, Tool applied for and was accepted for a special assignment as a U.S. Embassy Guard in Paris and Rome — "real hardship posts," he laughs. He explains he was choosing to defend the diplomatic side of U.S. foreign policy, rather than the military aspect. When he got out of the Corps in 1994, he enrolled at Pasadena City College on the G.I. Bill intending to become an emergency medical technician. Then he snapped his ankle, and the drawing and painting classes he was taking started looking more attractive. "The plan after the Marine Corps was to find something I like to do," Tool shrugs. "The theory was, because I like to do it, I'll do it well. Because I do it well, someone will pay me." He chuckles. "That 'pay me' thing has been tricky."

That could be because Tool is loathe to charge money for his art work. He says he can't put a price on things that to him, symbolize the preciousness — and expendability — of soldiers' lives. He had a show in Los Angeles in 2001 that happened to open the month after the September 11 attacks, when suddenly his work about the 1991 Gulf War seemed fresh and relevant. "I sold one of the seven things I had for sale, but I gave away 750 cups total for that show," he admits. At the opening, someone knocked over the object that had sold and the gallery had to give the buyer her money back.

"My business strategy may be a little off," says Tool, before resorting to his favorite all-purpose word. "Whatever."

'Bombs away! Recommended for ages 10 and up'

Although he has made more of them than anything else, Tool's work should not be judged solely by those rough mugs. He also makes more polished, beautiful bowls guarded by toylike soldiers; trophies with figures missing arms and/or legs; Tarot card parodies with illustrations scanned from Marine Corps manuals; massive installations, such as "Cluster Bombs on the Black Rock Desert" for Burning Man and this year's "393"; and conceptual pieces such as the "Letter" project.

With "Cluster Bombs," he (and Burning Man helpers) scattered 808 ceramic cups on a 200-by-1,600-meter area replicating the area covered by an F-16's typical payload of four cluster bombs. Each CBU-87 bomb disperse 202 bomblets, effective against armored vehicles and troops, which Tool invoked using cups placed roughly 20 meters apart on the desert floor, so far it was hard to see from one to the next. To get a sense of scale, the U.S. Air Force dropped 10,035 of the CBU-87s during Desert Storm.

And now, to Tool's amazement, the CBU-87 is also a toy, available for purchase over the Internet. The miniature CBU-87 does not explode, but to Tool it is every bit as dangerous. "It's surreal," he says, staring at the package. "See the Operation Enduring Freedom sticker? 'Bombs away! Recommended for ages 10 and up.' I probably don't need to buy it to remember it, but if I don't own it, I'll think I made it up in a couple of years."

For his piece "393," which commemorates the number of U.S. combat deaths the first year of the Iraq war, Tool made and decorated 393 ceramic cups by hand. "Each of the 393 U.S. dead were raised by someone. Someone whipped their ass and made sure they got to school," he explains. "Then they went to Iraq and were killed." After firing and glazing the cups, Tool shot each of them with a pellet gun and videotaped it shattering. Each set of fragments was displayed on an individual base in front of a screen playing the 50-minute video of their destruction. The work has been shown at UC Berkeley's Worth Ryder Gallery and at California State University, Long Beach.

Why did he shoot the cups? "Each of the 393 cups could have remained unbroken for thousands of years," he explains. "Each of the 393 dead could have gone on to affect changes that could have changed the world." He adds that if a similar video were made, with five seconds honoring each Vietnamese killed in what that country calls "the American War," it would take more than three months to watch.

For the "Letter" project, which he began in 1999, Tool has mailed letters and cups to more than 50 government officials and prominent private citizens around the world. For his shows, he'll display a letter or two, a photograph of the cup he sent, and the response (if any). In January 2001, before the Iraq war began, he wrote to each member of the United Nations Security Council plus the Iraqi ambassador to the U.N. He introduced himself as a former Marine and a vet, and wrote, "I would like you each to have a cup I made, and to thank you for your efforts to avoid another war in Iraq. I am not very optimistic that your efforts will avoid a war but I wanted to thank you for trying."

He concluded the letter with, "Once a person has witnessed a war, they are forever changed."

China refused his package, but the representatives from Chile, the United States, and the United Kingdom replied. The U.K. ambassador to the United Nations, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, wrote that Tool's cup would stay on his desk, and the Secretary of the Navy said that he would display the bowl in a prominent place next to his sign-in sheet at the Pentagon. This means a lot to Tool. "When I was in the Marines, you had to go through the chain of command to talk to people," he says. "Now I'm a civilian, so I can write to the president, to the secretary of defense if I want. They don't have to respond, but I can tell them how I feel."

"Tick-tock, tick-tock"

Tool will be graduating in May with his Master of Fine Arts. He isn't sure how he'll support his family — he and his wife just had their first child, a son, in October — since he finds the idea of profiting from his kind of work repugnant. He would like to teach ceramics, but doesn't have high hopes for getting such a position, given how poorly the Introduction to Visual Thinking class he's teaching this semester has gone. Ten out of the 26 students registered for the class dropped it in the first few weeks, he chuckles ruefully. That could have something to do with his existential drill-sergeant style. He says he told them, the only thing he'd guarantee is that at the end of each class, "You will be three hours closer to the moment you will die. It's like, tick-tock, tick-tock, [expletive]…If you come in here and you don't max out your time, I will punish you."

While Tool acknowledges that at some point, he will have to find a new artistic obsession — that "eventually people will ask me why the hell I'm doing this when I will have been out of the Marines for 20 years" — he doesn't see that day coming anytime soon. The Iraq war is simply a continuation of the Gulf War, he says, pointing out that the United States has been bombing the country continuously (in the no-fly zone) since 1991, and there will be more wars that could be avoided.

Cup by cup, letter by letter, Tool is trying to do his part to stop the carnage. He is not optimistic. Asked about a print of Picasso's "Guernica" (1937), the most famous antiwar artistic statement in history, hanging high on the wall of his studio, he says he put it there "to keep [stuff] in perspective. That's before Auschwitz, before Nagasaki, Guadalcanal and all these other horrible things. So if Picasso couldn't stop war with that brilliant piece of work, I don't have a chance."

See more images of Tool's work here: www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2004/10/27_tool.shtml.
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Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Adriane Bovone


demo
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
On the Day of Demonstrations, I had the pleasure of reconnecting with a dear old friend from art school Adriane Bovone, who brought some beautiful quilts she had made. One utilized fabric overages from a neighborhood upholsterer. The other was comprised of muslins used by her Western-clinical-herbalist partner to strain finished tincture out of infused medicinal plants. (200 different plants in his pharmacy = 200 different natural plant dyes!). I loved the idea of this medicinal healing quilt, which was made in the Log Cabin quilt pattern.
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Bridget Barnhart


demo
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
Bridget Barnhart (right) demonstrated how to make cheese. A recent graduate of California College of Art, her recent projects include working with home cheese makers and fancy chicken breeders. As stated on her website at www.bridgetbarnhart.com, "The project was a response to a current movement in slow food and localism in agriculture which many art groups have been working to promote."
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Paul Barron


demo
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
A frequent participant in international anarchist art fairs, Paul Barron brought a selection of prints and a large woodblock he is currently working on.

Find out more about Paul at www.paulbarron.org.


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Karie Reinertson


demo
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
Karie Reinertson demonstrated how to self-style clothing with personalized appliques and embroidery. Curator Liz Thomas got her jacket embellished with a forest of calico trees.
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Jeremy Thompson


demo
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
Jeremy Thompson brought a tabletop letterpress to demonstrate printing with a political message. Using antique type and red and blue ink, he made a series of prints and plackards with slogans about war and global warming.
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Travis Meinolf


demo
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
San Francisco-based artist Travis Meinolf brought his own floor loom all the way to Berkeley for the Day of Demonstrations in order to show us a selection of beautiful woven blankets and overshot woven textiles using early American patterns in unconventional colors.
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Rachel Beth Egenhoefer


demo
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
Rachel Beth Egenfoefer brought an array of projects considering the relationship between the body and technology, including a knitted laptop cozy with connected wrist mits.

In a 2005 artist statement, Rachel states:
"Textiles share obvious historical connections to technology, its object oriented process serving as the blueprint for the immaterial processing of computing. They also share a constructional make-up that interests me more. Knitting together codes of base-two patterns- knits and purls, zeros and ones. Cloth provides the comfort and security of an object. It is tangible code we can see and understand, while giving us the same comfort as our own clothing accessorizing out bodies.

Tying together the processes and objects of my work is the circular looped motion that constructs our actions, desires, and movements. The cycles of analog to digital information pulsating up and down a wave of electricity. The obvious cycles of the body’s hunger and fulfillment intertwined with cycles of digestion. The motion of two hands knitting a string of yarn into cloth. The motion of our bodies interacting with machines, tensing and relaxing as we negotiate in the space between. Digital information plots points for electricity to flow through. Textile patterns plot the construction of cloth. While plotting points, like the grid, order is pure relationship, a relationship of a spinning Ferris wheel."

Check out more of her work at www.rachelbeth.net.
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Diane Winters Demonstrates


demo
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
Diane Winters came to the Day of Demonstrations to show visitors how to make Arts and Crafts Movement-inspired ceramic tiles using her own custom-made press molds.
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Lacey Jane Roberts


demo
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
Lacey Jane Roberts recently graduated from California College of Art with an MFA in Textiles and an MA in Visual Criticism. On the heels of their decision to drop the "Craft" from their name, Lacey created a guerilla installation on the façade of the building replacing her own knitted version of the word. Her recent ambitious and strikingly beautiful piece "We couldn’t get in. We couldn’t get out." consisted of a huge hot pink, knitted barbed wire fence. At the Day of Demonstrations, Lacey brought her Cool Corder Knitting Crank & Barbie Knit Magic machines from the 1970's. Check out her website at www.laceyjaneroberts.com.
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Michele Pred


demo
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
Michele Pred participated in the Day of Demos by showing visitors how to knit discarded cell phone chargers into baskets. A Berkeley-based artist, Pred creates sculptures out objects that would otherwise end of in a landfill, as well as post-9/11 confiscated items from airport security checkpoints: scissors, pocketknives, and clippers, for example. Pred says of her raw materials, "the diverse array of assembled 'dangerous' items may be regarded as the cultural residue of a particular moment in history...each small tool, like each of us, bears some weight of a changed world." There is a wonderful webpage on her work at: www.nancyhoffmangallery.com/pred/2004.html.
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Tuesday, June 19, 2007

New Objects


New Objects
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
Here are some objects recently added to the Notion Nanny traveling exhibition: a letterpress tag featuring the Notion Nanny peddler's cry made with Macy Chadwick, a stained galss surrender flag made with Ted Ellison, a battleship ceramic tile made with Diane Winters, a global warming plackard made by Jeremy Thompson, and a ceramic mug with bullet wound by Ehren Tool. In the background are letterpress trade cards made by Amelia Grohman and a knitted linen doily made by Sue Batley.
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Demorama


Demorama
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
It was a beautiful sunny day on May 20th when we held the Notion Nanny Day of Demonstrations on the terrace of the Berkeley Art Museum. Some of the "traditional" crafts represented include knitting, quilting, overshot weaving and applique, ceramic tile making and wheel-thrown pottery, stained glass, woodcut relief printing, letterpress, cheese and marmalade making, and the Victorian art of skeleton leaves. I loved the spirit of this event. It was relaxed yet engaged, with lots of interesting dialogue.
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Demonstrate!


Day of Demonstrations
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
Notion Nanny Day of Demonstrations
May 20, 11 am to 3 pm

This open forum is related to Allison Smith's Notion Nanny exhibition, part of the Berkeley Art Museum's MATRIX series of exhibitions. Originally enacted in Britain, Notion Nanny is a collaborative social project in which Allison Smith takes on the role of an itinerant apprentice traveling through rural and urban areas in search of traditional skills and revolutionary dialogue. The genesis of the project came from Smith's research into the peddler dolls, or "notion nannies," popularly displayed in British and American households during the Victorian era. Traditionally dressed in a red cloak and holding a basket overflowing with miniature crafts, these notion nannies commemorated the disappearing custom of itinerant traders traveling the countryside, peddling their wares. The exhibition will include a re-creation of a life-size peddler doll in the artist's own image, whose basket serves as a repository for the wares made by Smith in her collaboration with local artisans and craftspeople during her travels, and offers up larger metaphors and questions assumed notions about art and craft in contemporary life.
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Monday, June 18, 2007

Theodore Ellison


Theodore Ellison
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
Ted Ellison handcrafts leaded glass into period-inspired architectural windows and lighting, influenced by the Arts & Crafts tradition. He works with homeowners, architects and designers to create one-of-a-kind original designs with great attention to detail. As stated on his website at www.theodoreellison.com, "Through good design and innovative fabrication, Theodore Ellison Designs proudly offers a refreshing approach to this 800 year old art." Ted is a member of Artistic License, a San Francisco guild of architects, designers and craftspeople dedicated to preserving the quality and integrity of traditional building crafts.

Interestingly, he is also a self-described "faux magician" named Stallion. You must check out his website, www.stallionmagic.com, which is completely over the top. Considering all of the theories and literary references I've run across characterizing peddler women as gypsy fortune tellers and potion-toting witches, I love the idea of this particular craftsman's alter-ego.
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Surrender Flag


Surrender Flag
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
The last step was to rub some acid into the metal, creating a patina that turned all of the leading to a warm dark black and unified the edges with the tassled rope.
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Finishing Touches


Ted Affixing the Rope
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
Ted and I decided the surrender flag needed some sort of flourish. Ted had a great idea for how to make a twisted copper rope using the chuck of a drill to hold three strands of wire, clamping them in a vice grip, and letting the drill go. After some troubleshooting, Ted machined a little cap for a tassel, and we soldered the rope to the flag from the back.
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Soldering Lessons


Soldered Together
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
Afterwards, I brushed the edges with flux and Ted taught me how to solder the pieces together. I remember watching my dad solder things in his workshop in the basement, and had always want to learn how to do it. It's really fun to watch the liquid metal cling and flow across the edges as it binds the glass together.
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Metal Outlines


Preparing the Edges
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
After cutting the pieces using a band saw rigged up with a diamond blade and flowing water, I covered and trimmed the edges with copper foil tape and leading.
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Ripple Effects


Rippled Glass
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
On the morning I was scheduled to go over to Ted's studio to make something, I woke up in a funk. I decided to make a stained glass flag signalling my desire to surrender. Ted had the perfect glass for the job: a rippled translucent white. I chose a faceted jewel-like element for the finial, which was salvaged from some antique glass windows he had stored in his studio.
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Glass Palette


Glass Palette
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
When brainstorming for ideas of what to make in stained glass, Ted let me look through lots of bins of odd bits and pieces of glass. I particularly liked some scraps of glass that he had etched with a Bauhaus design.

We looked through lots of books in Ted's library, including a rare set of German catalogs on the history of stained glass. Some of the memorable pieces included images of tradespeople, emblematic compositions of tools and still lifes, wreaths and garlands, odd landscapes, and some beautiful glass abstractions by Joseph Albers.
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Stained Glass


Stained Glass
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
Ted Ellison buys his glass directly from manufacturers and local distributors that import hundreds of varieties of glass from all over the country and Europe. He is constantly looking for unusual and unique glass to create his own original palette. In his studio there are literally thousands of piece of glass to choose from.

This is one of twenty-five individual window panes he is working on as part of a large commission.
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The Conversation


Conversations
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
Macy Chadwick's company is called In Cahoots Press, because she likes to collaborate. In her artist book entitled The Conversation, she "tackles the challenges of verbal communication through layers of colorful shapes that reach in from the edges of the pages like two people leaning towards each other in intimate dialogue. Lines of poetry describe a conversation as a facade of abstract forms and patterns where words can be looked at but are inevitably misunderstood."

This limited edition artist book is available at www.califiabooks.com.
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Macy Chadwick


Macy Chadwick
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
Macy Chadwick earned her MFA in Book Arts/Printmaking from University of the Arts in Philadelphia, and has taught at the Academy of Art University, Colorado College, Oregon College of Art and Craft, the New York Center for Book Arts, and in her own studio. She worked as studio assistant to Julie Chen at Flying Fish Press in Berkeley for three years. Publishing as In Cahoots Press, Macy produces limited edition books & prints, and explores mixed media sculptures involving text. Her artist's books have been displayed nationally and are in collections in the U.S. and abroad.
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Pulling a Proof


Pulling a Proof
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
This is me, excitedly pulling a proof. It took lots of tries to make the type land on the paper where we wanted it to.
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Typesetter at Work


Typesetter at Work
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
This is Macy, meticulously setting the type for the Notion Nanny peddler's cry.
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The Letterpress


The Letterpress
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
Letterpress publishing has recently undergone a revival in the USA, Canada and the UK, under the general banner of the 'Small Press Movement'. Discarded by commercial print shops, affordable letterpress printing presses (in particular, Vandercook cylinder proof presses and Chandler & Price platen presses) became available to artisans throughout the country. The movement has been helped by the emergence of a number of organizations that teach letterpress such as New York's Center for Book Arts and Studio on the Square, the San Francisco Center for the Book, Bookworks, Black Rock Press and the Minnesota Center for Book Arts.

This is Macy's Vandercook letterpress. Apparently they stopped making these in the 1950s.
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Mixing the Ink


Mixing the Ink
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
After the type was set, I mixed the rubber-based ink to create a dark red-orange.
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Type A


Type
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
Another maker I worked with in California was a wonderful letterpress printer named Macy Chadwick. She has been doing letterpress printing for over a decade and once inherited an enormous collection ot type from a retired collector named Mr. Livingstone. Upon his death, the type was nearly sold for eleven cents a pound as scrap metal. Thankfully, Macy got a call and rescued the historic collection.

We decided to reproduce the Notion Nanny peddler's cry as an oversize tag to hang on the basket. First we looked through thousands of tiny motifs to find this selection of tools and objects. Setting the type takes a lot of precision, as each piece of type must be fit, puzzle-like, into a block, filling in open space with tiny slivers of metal.
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Train Tracks


Train Tracks
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
This is a set of train tracks leading mysteriously to the door of Oakland letterpress printer Macy Chadwick's studio. Apparently the building was once a "rag factory" that collected and used rags in the making of bombs and ammunition.
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The Notions Bag


The Notions Bag
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
This is the notions bag I made for the Notion Nanny basket. The design is based on a "collar" bag in Dianne Ayres's collection of Arts and Crafts textiles, presumably meant to hold collars and cuffs in times when they were detachable. The embroidery is based on an original tea towel, perhaps symbolizing regeneration, according to Dianne. We chose the pattern because it was quintessentially Arts and Crafts, and at the same time it had a colonial feel. I also liked the use of primary colors. In order to find the little metal rings, I made a trip to the shop at Berkeley's Lacis Museum of Lace and Textiles, where I was blown away by the amazing selection of textile-related materials and tools. You can find out more at www.lacis.com and lacismuseum.org.
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Dianne's Project


Dianne's Quilt
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
One day at Dianne's studio I made the happy discovery of a linen scrap bin under one of the large work tables. In the true spirit of recycling and making-do that has characterized women's home industry for centuries, and recalling the cultural phenomenon of war-time scrap drives, Dianne collects these scraps and donates them to local organizations including charities and hand papermaking workshops.

This is an ongoing quilt she is making with some of the scraps leftover from other projects.
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Smile


Smile
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
Diane designed and made this ingenious scrolling calendar for her studio, which made me smile.
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Hmong Embroidery


Hmong Embroidery
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
An interesting side note is that many of Dianne Ayres's embroiderers are from Laos, and she originally found them through a local program that was set up to to serve Laotian refugees by fostering the use of traditional skills such as embroidery to tell their stories, build community, and earn some income.

There is a fascinating tradition of Hmong embroidery that depicts the perilous journey of Laotian refugees to America. This pictorial embroidery was made by Mee Van (age 79), who came from Laos to the U.S. in 1983. She made the embroidery in 1988 to tell the story of her family and friends' escape from their village of Nasou.

The story begins at the top, where at the left Communist government troops are fighting Vietnamese soldiers. At the upper and middle right of the piece is a fascinating range of village activities, both work and play. Then we see people starting their long trek south and westward, setting up temporary camps along the way. They finally reach the Mekong River; some float across on inner tubes. They are met by Thai Immigration officials, where they are interrogated and furnished with papers for their trip to the U.S. There's a refugee camp at the bottom, and finally, at the lower left, they head for buses and a plane that will take them overseas.

source: marlamallett.com
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Dianne Ayres


Dianne Ayres
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
This is Dianne Ayres in her workshop studio in Oakland, where she produces contemporary renditions of Arts & Crafts textiles such as pillows, bedspreads, and table runners. She works with collectors and enthusiasts wishing to decorate in the style as well as others who appreciate the designs and the art of handcrafts.

Dianne and her embroiders use the same techniques used at the turn-of-the-century: hand embroidery, applique, hand stencilling and printing. You can see more of her work at www.textilestudio.com. Her work is also featured at The Craftsmand Home in Berkeley, which sells "honest furniture for home and heart" and can be found at www.craftsmanhome.com.
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Color Choices


Color Choices
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
These are the colors we selected for the embroidered pattern on the notions bag. When I had gotten this far, Dianne decided she'd like to make a notions bag, too. So we repeated the whole process and she showed me how to do the satin and couching stitches.
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The Pattern


The Pattern
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
Next, the pattern was drawn with washable marker.
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Traces


Traces
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
The first step in transfering the design to the fabric was to trace the original tea towel and work out how the repeats would come together around the perimeter of the pouch.
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Hem Stitch


Hem Stitch
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
At her workshop, Dianne has an old Singer sewing machine that makes a very pretty hem stitch. It belonged to Dianne's great-grandmother, and has been passed down through generations of stitchers in her family. For every stitch, the machine makes three passes over the same hole. This is how we decided to finish the edges of the "notions" bag we were going to make.
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A Favorite Tea Towel


A Favorite Tea Towel
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
This embroidered tea towel is one of Dianne's favorite items in her collection of textiles. However, she has never used it as the inspiration for a contemporary piece in her line of reproduction textiles. After years of careful examination of the design motifs within Arts and Crafts period textiles, she and her husband Tim came up with an interesting interpretation for the embroidered pattern.

Reading it like a symbolic narrative, the pattern seems to begin with a small red diamond shape, situated like a seed within two swirling "brushstrokes" suggesting a circular movement like that of a recycling symbol, or a swastika. Small green and blue leaves sprout outward on either side. Three lines "rain" downward with more red seeds at their tips, suggesting the proliferation and sewing of new seeds into the earth below. Horizontal lines radiate outward on either side to taller vines adorned with multi-colored leaves that create a heart-shaped frame around another line moving upward with a seed, or bud, at its peak. The theme of regeneration seems to resonate with the notion of a contemporary re-visiting of the Arts and Crafts Movement's instrumentalizaton of the natural world, considering our frought relationship with nature and the earth's resources today. I also like the connection this makes to a recycling of ideas and histories.
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Swastika Pouch


Swastika Pouch
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
This unassuming pouch is one of many in Dianne Ayres's collection of Arts and Crafts Movement period textiles. Its startling swastika design was clearly embellished prior to WW2, when the symbol was commonly used to signify good luck. An ancient symbol dating back thousands of years to Zoroastrian Persia, the swastika represented the revolving sun, fire, infinity, and continuing recreation. The Western use of the swastika was subverted in the early 20th century after it was adopted as the emblem of the Nazi Party in their attempt to link the pre-history of European peoples to the ancient "Aryans," also called the Indo-Iranians.
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A Collection of Pouches


A Collection of Pouches
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
Among Dianne Ayres's extensive collection of Arts and Crafts period textiles is a wonderful group of linen pouches in a variety of shapes and sizes. Some have ribbon drawstrings, others are clasped at the top like change purses. All have the charismatic embroidery typical of the style, in bright colors that have kept their luster over the years.
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Birds of Paradise, or Peace


Arts & Crafts Embroidery
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
This form of embroidery is typical of American Arts and Crafts Movement period textiles, using pearlized cotton (or silk) thread in satin stitch or couching on linen. Although the socialist underpinnings of the English Arts and Crafts Movement seem to have faded in its transition to America, the utopian ideals of nature and handcrafts in harmony as an antidote to the industrial revolution remain. I'd like to think of these birds as doves, but they are probably meant to be swallows.
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Embroidery Palette


Embroidery Palette
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
Dianne decided to create her own thread keeper, with the palette of colors she developed for her textile line. A personalized organizational tool if ever there was one, it turned out to be a lot more work to make than she had thought, but seems well worth the effort.
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Thread Keeper


Thread Keeper
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
Dianne showed me this curious linen thread keeper she found, probably from the 19th or early 20th century. It had been meticulously stitched with narrow channels for holding different colors of thread while preventing tangles and providing easy access to the colors needed.
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Linen Samples


Linen Samples
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
Prior to meeting Dianne, I received a copy of her catalog in the mail. It included a beautiful selection of linen samples. Being a linen lover, it was then that I knew we were kindred spirits. The social history of linen is a fascinating tale. Over 5000 years ago the Egyptians named it "woven moonlight", due to its singular beauty. A little less poetic, but all the more apt, is the Latin appellation: "linum usitatissimum" meaning the extremely useful flax plant.
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Samples & Kits


Samples
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
These are some of the samples used by Dianne Ayres and her employees when making their textile works. Featuring stylized motifs such as dragonflies, ginkgo leaves, roses, tulips, and pinecones, each design is hand stenciled and hand embroidered on Belgian linen. In keeping with the Arts and Crafts Movement ideal that everyone should have access to beautiful things for the home, Dianne has created a series of kits so that anyone who has facility with a needle and thread can re-create her historical recreations.
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Read This Book!


Read This Book
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
This is Diane Ayres's seminal book on American Arts and Crafts textiles. Dianne and her husband Timothy Hansen began identifying and collecting these rare textiles in the early 1980s, before they were broadly appreciated. Now experts in the field, they now write and lecture widely on Arts and Crafts textiles and design, and have hundreds of examples in their archives which provide the inspiration for Dianne's designs.
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Waving the Banner for Arts & Crafts


Banner
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
While in Berkeley I was lucky to have been able to work with Arts and Crafts Movement period textile artist Dianne Ayres. This is a banner that graces the foyer of her workship studio, utilizing stenciling and emboidery on linen.

Dianne took me on an amazing tour of private homes decorated in the American Arts and Crafts style. She states on her website, "An Arts & Crafts style home is distinguished as much by its friendly comfortable atmosphere as it is by its architecture, furniture and other objects. Gustav Stickley likened the desired effect to the experience of nature: "...plan and arrange the room that the sense of space and freedom is always felt, and so to preserve the relation between the natural background of the walls and floor and the more prominent furnishings in the room that each part is given its own value and falls into its own place as naturally and inevitably as the trees, hills, valleys and brooks combine in the harmonious relationship that makes a beautiful landscape."
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Diane Winters


Diane Winters
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
Diane Winters of Winters Tileworks designs makes handcrafted, molded ceramic tiles. With special emphasis on inspiration from the Arts & Crafts Movement, Diane works in a variety of stylistic traditions, with a broad color palette of satin-matte glazes. These artisan-made tiles offer a richness and subtlety that cannot be matched by commercial tile. In addition to an existing range of designs, Diane can also work directly with clients to create a custom installation. Her commission work includes decorative accent and field tiles for use on fireplaces, doorway surrounds, stair risers, kitchens, baths, and as garden embellishments.

Examples of the creations of Winters Tileworks have been featured in publications including Old House Interiors, Style 1900, American Bungalow Style, and also in books about handmade tile. Other prominent examples include installations at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel in Anaheim. Diane is a member of Artistic License, a group of dedicated professional artisans, whose work continues time-honored traditions of crafts for the built environment. The work of Artistic License members promotes the highest standards for period architecture, interiors, and the decorative arts; encompassing restoration, renovation, and newly-interpreted period revival design.

The group acts as a forum for the exchange of information, experiences and skills among its members, as well as a public resource to educate and promote the highest standards for period architecture, interiors, and the decorative arts.
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Activism as a Trade

While working with Diane Winters one day, she made a comment that has stuck in my head. It was that during the 1960s, a lot of activists and political organizers decided to learn various trades, like tile setting, because it allowed them to be mobile.

Very in keeping with l'esprit de Notion Nanny, I must say.

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Second Firing


Second Firing
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
This is the curator Liz Thomas placing the glazed tile down into the kiln for its second firing. Depending on how Diane wants the glazes to react, tiles are stacked on shelves in various areas of the kiln that generate the appropriate levels of heat necessary.
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First Firing


First Firing
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
This is the tile after the first firing as it awaits glazing. The underside is painted with liquid wax to resist the glaze.
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Sunday, June 17, 2007

Casting the Tile


Casting the Tile
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
After making sure that the tile had no undercuts, we set it down into a plastic container, Diane's ingenious process for making smooth, uniform molds. Next we mixed the plaster and poured it in. The wetness of the clay created a natural release.
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What a Relief


Modeling the Clay
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
The next step was to model the tile in shallow relief using clay modeling tools, keeping in mind that the glaze would both fill and highlight the details later.
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War Ship


War Ship
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
Inspired by the idea of the Viking ship, I decided to create a tile with an image of a contemporary war ship. This is the drawing I made of a U.S. Navy ship encrusted with sattelite dishes and radio antennae, firing a missile out at sea. After I made the drawing, I transferred it onto a slab of wet clay.
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Viking Ship


Viking Ship
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
This is one of Diane Winters's tile designs. The theme of viking ships was prevalent among many of the original Arts and Crafts Movement tile makers. I find this idea intriguing, since most of the motifs from this era depict floral imagery and plantlife. Diane said that the viking ship was emblematic of makers' desires for escape, which manifested in exotic fantasies of the past and of far off places.
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Magnolia


Magnolia
Originally uploaded by notionnanny
During my time in Berkeley, I had the pleasure of working with Diane Winters, who makes ceramic tiles in the American Arts and Crafts Movement style.

I bought a few of these lovely magnolia tiles for some of the ladies in my Southern family.
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Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Pagan Goddess Wood Carvings


Pagan Goddess Wood Carvings
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
Plas Newydd is encrusted with exquisite black wood carvings, depicting an eclectic mix of what appear to be goddess figures, winged angels, and Celtic symbols.

The figure on the right appears possibly pregnant, while the one on the left presses her breasts into her chest.

I would like to find out more about the carvings. It seems like whole books could be written to decode them.
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New Place


Plas Newydd
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
During our first weekend in Oswestry, Sarah and I went to visit Plas Newydd ("New Place"), the home of the "ladies of Llangollen." I had always wanted to visit this cottage, where Lady Eleanor Butler and Miss Sarah Ponsonby had fallen in love and retired together in the late 1700s.

I had read a book on the ladies about ten years ago, and their story is like a fairy tale to me. Rather than being ostracized, they became the focus of curiosity and envy throughout the region.

The cottage is like a bejewelled black and white ginger bread house.
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Pink Room/Blue Room


Key to the Pink Room
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
Here are the keys to the pink room, where Sarah stayed at The Old Rectory, complete with some Welsh dragon pyrography.

I stayed in the blue room, but I lost my keys somewhere in the snow.
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The Tree


The Tree
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
These crooked black oak trees animate the landscape.

On a clear day, you can see for miles.
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The Lane


The Lane
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
I took this picture riding on the way to The Old Rectory with Sarah. It is so dark at night that the rear view mirror is completely black.

I thought I saw a fox run by, but it was just an orange cat with a particularly fluffy tail.
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Snowscape


Snowscape
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
On February 24th I arrived in Oswestry, a market town on the border of Wales. The landscape here is beautiful, blanketed in fog and slightly menacing.

This is the view from the place I was staying, called The Old Rectory in Sellatyn.
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Endangered Printing Process


Bavarian Stone in Kansas
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
Did you know that Bavarian litho stones are extinct? The quarries are depleted. That means that the ones that are out there in the world are the last ones left. Each time a print is made, the stone is sanded down for reuse, so even those won't be around forever. And what's worse is that as a lot of print shops around the world are closing down, the stones are being thrown away.
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Pulling the Last Proof


Last One
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
While at the University of Kansas, I worked with Michael Krueger and his students to make a lithograph print.
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Notion Nanny goes to Kansas!


Kansas Sidewalk
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
In December I traveled to Lawrence, Kansas to visit the printmaking department at the University of Kansas.
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William de Morgan Pot


William de Morgan Pot
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
What do you suppose William de Morgan meant by this question, emblazoned on a beautiful lustreware pot:

All this of pot and potter, tell me who is the potter, pray who the pot?
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Beer Can Oil Lamps


Beercan Oil Lamps
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
Here is a craft to revive in case of emergency.

These were on display at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford. The label reads: Sudan - oil lamp from a Heineken can, bought in YEI market, 1984.
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Black:White Magic


Black:White Magic
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
Pitt Rivers Museum is very dark, so dark that you must use a flashlight to see the displays.

Many of the labels are handwritten. This one says, "Magic Cord__ black and white tapes about 6 ft. long. Knotted together at intervals (23 knots in all). Each knot is stuck with a black and a white pin. This was found in a mattress at 43 Strada Meszool, Valetta, Malta. It was inserted through a hole at the foot and pushed through stuffing to the centre. Believed to be the work of a dismissed servant. 1907."

Below, "Cloth heart stuck with pins and hair and nail pairings found in Greybeard jug 10-11 ft. below street level in bed of old mill stream course, under corner of Tufton St. at Gt. College St., Westminster in damp soil. 1904"
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Handmade Nikes


Moose Hide Nikes
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
This was probably the best thing I saw at Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford. It is a museum of anthropology connected to a natural history museum, curiously organized into sections like string and rope, or objects incorporating body parts.

Someone stitched these out of hand-tanned moose hide. The swoosh is beaded.
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Spinning Straw into Gold


Spinning Straw into Gold
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
This is a straw craft dollar sign I made using techniques I learned from Dorothy Horsfall.
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Threadymade


Threadymade
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
Artist Sonja Todd visited me at Studio Voltaire and made this Sewlaroid kit, with all the threads I would need to stitch a tiny Notion Nanny.

Check out her wensite at www.threadymade.co.uk!
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Grocer's Shop


Grocer's Shop
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
I spotted this doll's grocery store at Pollack's Toy Musuem in London, an off-the-beaten track treasure trove.
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Suffragette Banners


Suffragette Banners
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
Suffragettes used their needle skills to create some of the first political protest placards.

This images depicts a National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies procession on 13 June, 1908. It is a gelatin silver chloride print by Mrs. Albert Broom.
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Dare to be Free


Dare to be Free
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
In London, I saw several elaborately hand embroidered Suffragette banners at the Woman's Library in London.

This one was designed in 1911 by "Miss Burton" for the Women's Freedom League.
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Wednesday, February 22, 2006

NOTION NANNY TRAVELS TO OSWESTRY!!





Location: Qube, Oswald Road, Oswestry, Shropshire SY11 1RB
Exhibition: 28th February – 24th March 2006
Workshop: Friday 17th March 2006, 12-4pm
Trade Fair: Friday 17th March 2006, 4–6pm

Following my residency in Cumbria with Grizedale Arts and the Wordsworth Trust and my exhibition at Studio Voltaire in London (selected as one of the best exhibitions of 2005 by Peter Eleey in the January-February issue 96 of Frieze) Notion Nanny continues in 2006 with a residency and exhibition at Qube in Oswestry (full details below).

I will be based in Oswestry, close to the border with Wales in Shropshire for a month. I will be investigating and learning traditional crafts in the area that will include weaving, clog making and leather-work.

Come along to visit!

WORKSHOP: Friday 17th March, 12–4pm

B+B are hosting a discussion on the revolutionary potential of traditional skills. The event will focus on issues such as:

- Peddling as an alternative economy
- The use of history and locality in contemporary art
- Making as story telling
- Itinerancy and translation
- Social change through traditional means

This event would appeal to arts professionals engaging in socially engaged practices, rural traditions, contemporary art and craft. It would also appeal to people interested in the role of art in reviving or reconsidering local history.

A light lunch and tea will be provided.
You will also have the opportunity to view the exhibition and attend the Notion Nanny Trade Fair that will follow the workshop.

Places are limited, to book a place on the workshop contact Craftspace Touring on 0121 608 6668

A FREE coach is available from Birmingham to Oswestry.

TRADE FAIR: Friday 17th March 2006, 4–6pm

An afternoon of conversation and exchange on the revolutionary potential of traditional skills.
Come along to trade stories and share ideas!

FURTHER INFORMATION:

Exhibition opening hours: 10am-4pm Monday to Friday, 10am-12noon Saturday
Allison Smith in gallery: 10am-4pm Fridays and 10am-12noon Saturday between the 3rd March and 24th March 2006
Qube contact details: 01691 656 882, www.qube-oca.co.uk
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Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Eat & Work Together


Eat & Work Together
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
Prue Cooper offered to let me make a charger in her studio. The process involved rolling out a slab of clay, pressing it into a mold, trimming the edge, extruding a strip of clay for the rim, pressing it with my pinky finger to make the "pie crust," then painting on several layers of black liquid slip.

We talked for awhile about what to write on the border, and finally decided on a phrase that originates from Gerard Wynstanley's quote "Eat together, work together, and make the earth a common treasury."

So Winstanley was an important figure in an early 1640s movement of landless peasants to squat on waste and common lands and cultivate them collectively. He established a colony on St. Georges Hill to take symbolic ownership of the unused lands there and came under a great deal of attack.
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Riches and Muck


Holding Hands
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
In her East Putney studio, Prue Cooper showed me lots of examples of her work and we discussed the use of slogans in the history of slipware. Sometimes these are meant to commemorate a special occasion, but most often the expressions you might find are about friendship and togetherness, ostensibly because the plate is used at gatherings to serve food. This idea, interpreted politically, has lead Prue to write statements with a social bent, as in the example described in the previous post. Another slogan she has used is "Riches and muck are best spread around."

Perhaps not surprisingly, the pieces she makes with this kind of message are not big sellers at the craft fairs. More popular are pieces with this signature motif of holding hands. And since she needs to make a living from her work, the more radical messages end up tucked away in cardboard boxes between sheets of newspaper.

"Get them out!" I said.
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Anarchist Poetry Charger


Anarchist Poetry
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
This slipware charger was made by Prue Cooper and has a great story attached.

Prue happens to be the sister of Heathcote Williams, the legendary anarchist poet and one-time organizer of the Ruff Tuff Creem Puff Estate Agency for squatters, founded in 1974 in the Notting Hill section of London.

Upon the happy occasion of selling one of his poems (for £100 which in those days was a lot of money), Heathcote had an idea for how his earnings could be shared with the other residents of his squat. He took the money to the bank and exchanged it for a sack of small change. When he got home that day, he poured the change into a large bowl on the kitchen table. And this is the sign he posted on it: Take what you need, the rest is greed.

(In case you are wondering, the money was gone by that evening.)
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Art Workers Guild

The following blurb from the AWG website is worth reading:

The Guild is a society of artists, craftsmen and designers drawn together by a common interest in the interaction, development and distribution of creative skills. Together they represent and uphold a variety of views on design and stand for authenticity in a world increasingly uncertain about what is real. Authenticity is expressed in many ways, irrespective of political and stylistic ideology.

Founded originally by the leading lights of the Arts and Crafts movement in the 1890's, many of its current members uphold long established traditions of workmanship and a desire to contribute to the community. The Guild believes that art, craft and design should be invigorating and positive in outlook, at a time when much art remains alienating and self-indulgent.
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Slipware


Prue Cooper
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
I spent a lovely day with Prue Cooper, a potter in East Putney specializing in slipware, the name given to ceramics decorated with trails of liquid clay, called slip. I found Prue by looking on the Art Worker's Guild website (see next post).

I visited Prue in her studio, and we had a great conversation about books and museums and things that make our hearts leap. For her, it is 19th century brass love tokens in the shape of a shoe, and for me, it is often, well, slipware ceramics. The dribbles, dots and delicious chocolately marblizing just kills me.

Prue brought in her beautiful vintage copy of Barbara Jones's The Unsophisticated Arts (1951), which like the other books I have mentioned from the same period, describes English popular and traditional arts and is filled with drawings by the author. A special characteristic of this book for its age is that includes examples of unexpected things like tattooing and candy sculptures.
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Sunday, October 16, 2005

Pilot Poster


Pilot Poster
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
Amy Plant and Ella Gibbs brought their Pilot Publishing project to the tea party, inviting visitors to help draw and color a poster advertising the project. As a fundraiser, they also offered a "lucky dip" in which winning visitors could walk away with a set of color pencils.
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Memory Plasters


Memory Plasters
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
Davina Drummond offered to stitch your memories onto bandages.
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Campaign Rations


Emergency Biscuits
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
Paula Roush distributed emergency biscuits, for use in crises real, reenacted, imagined, or invented.
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Mathematical Quilts


Louise Mabbs
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
Louise Mabbs demonstrated her quilting skills and showed her portfolio of amazing quilts based on mathematical formulas and numbering systems.

In the background you can see a pile of pom-poms for sale by Joe Scotland.
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What Are Sewing Notions


Debbie's Sewing Notions
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
In the U.S. we use the word "notions" when refering to sewing items like buttons, thread, needles, etc. Debbie Flatt brought some wonderful notions to the Notion Nanny tea party, including a set of red buttons presented as the contents of a Notion Nanny-esque lady's tray.
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Sock Darning


Debbie Flatt Darning
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
Sarah Carrington's mother Debbie Flatt demonstrated how to darn socks using yarn. Sarah wore a jacket Debbie made in the 1970s out of WIlliam Morris fabric.
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Jill Stitching Today


Jill Stitching Today
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
Jill Wignall also offered to stitch words or phrases onto cloth-covered notebooks. This is the one I requested for the Notion Nanny basket, with Ruskin's motto "TODAY".
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Old Clothes to Mend


Jill Wignall's Patches
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
Jill Wignall offered a patch sewing service to anyone needing to mend their clothing, which was quite popular, despite the lack of holes, rips, or tears. Liberty of London fans will understand why the patches were requested for primarily cosmetic reasons.
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Group Effort


Weaving with Anne
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
Weaver Anne Ogazi brought her loom and demonstrated how to weave. Throughout the day, over twenty different people participated in making a woolen scarf for the Notion Nanny project.
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Knitting is Rad


Knitting
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
Maureen Power demonstrated knitting and peddled her wares at the tea party.
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Trade & Barter


Bartering
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
Lots of bartering was going on at the tea party. I traded a horn spoon for a tiny painting on cigar box wood from Nicaragua. This visitor traded the belt and bracelet she was wearing for a knitted cushion cover and a decoratively carved wooden pipe.
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Stitched Cakes


Stitched Cakes
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
Lisa Finnegan Smith was making and peddling tea party-themed cupcakes, pin cushions, change purses, and light switches.
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Tea Party Treats


Tea Party Treats
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
Delicious cakes were served at the Tea Party, some of which were donated by Clapham Commons's Esca Café. Thanks Esca!
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Cozy Slogans


Cozy Slogans
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
Sophie Hope and Lucy Wilson stitched slogans onto scarves they found at charity shops.
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Flowers for a Cause


Flowers for a Cause
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
At the Notion Nanny Tea Party, Kelly Wright demonstrated the art of flower arranging. Each arrangement was for sale, the proceeds of which would benefit Studio Voltaire.
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Saturday, October 15, 2005

Tea Party


Tea Party
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
We had a fantastic turnout at the Notion Nanny Tea Party. Over thirty different makers showed up to demonstrate, barter, or peddle their wares to an audience of participating visitors. The next few posts will give you a sense of the day's activities.
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Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Notion Nanny Tea Party

If you are in or around London this Saturday 15 October, come to the Notion Nanny Tea Party from 2-9pm at Studio Voltaire. This event will launch the Notion Nanny exhibition with a day of activities and refreshments.

See the life-size peddler doll and her basket of wares made in collaboration with the makers I have met. Like 19th century porcelain dolls, it has ceramic limbs (made in a ceramics atelier in France), glass eyes, and a hand stitched wig. Her costume, made with historical costume designers, includes a woolen red cloak and a black bonnet made in London with Jane Smith.

I will be peddling the wares of several of the makers I have been working with, including Peter Hodgson's carved horn spoons, Dorothy Horsfall's straw love tokens and intricate straw work earrings, Elizabeth Prickett's books and postcards, Rebecca Purcell's "tokens of identity", and smocked dresses from the Etafani Day Care Center.

This gathering of makers will include skill demonstrations, performances and peddling, including Paula Roush's Emergency Biscuits, Davina Drummond's embroidered memory bandages, Nicola Chambers' knitted animals and Joe Scotland's pom-poms, plus darning and commemorative needlepoint with Debbie Flatt, quilting with Louise Mabbs, weaving with Anne Ogazi, Pilot Publishing with Amy Plant and Ella Gibbs, exploring Risk and climbing skyscrapers with Lottie Child and a fully costumed rendition of 'We Didn't Start the Fire' by Sean Parfitt and Barry Sykes, and much more.

Hope to see you there!
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Sunday, October 09, 2005

Traditional and Contemporary


Etafeni Dress
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
I recently made a friend in London who turned me on to the important work of Stephanie Kilroe, director of fundraising for the Etafeni Playgroup Project of the Nyanga township in Cape Town. It is a non-profit daycare center for children whose lives and families are affected by HIV/AIDS.

In order to empower the community economically, the Income Generation Project trains HIV-positive men and women in making beaded crafts, smocked dresses, and patchwork fabric. The makers are paid for the items they make, which are then sold internationally.

For more information, see Bee at Marcos and Trump, 146 Columbia Rd., London E2 7RG, where you can purchase one of these lovely smocked dresses for £45, £40 of which goes directly to Etafeni.
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Traditional and Revolutionary


No Stamp Act Teapot
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
In the permanent collection of a museum at Colonial Williamsburg, one of the largest open-air museums in the States, there is a tea pot made by an English ceramicist during the 1760s that bears the phrase "No Stamp Act." Its maker had apparently followed the developing political crisis in the American colonies regarding parliamentary taxation without representation.

Was this a clever entrepeneurial invention, capitalizing on current American desires and sentiments? Or was it the creation of someone expressing sympathy with the colonists by providing them with a vehicle for protesting the British government? Maybe this enterprising maker had their own axe to grind.

In a colonial marketplace in which dependency on Britian was an issue, familiar imported goods such as cloth and tea had the potential to become symbols of imperial oppression, and private acts of consumption could be seen as public declarations of resistance.

In "The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence" (2004), T. H. Breen puts forward a new interpetation of the American Revolution in which ordinary people of diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds overcame vast differences in order to form an imagined national community based on their shared experience as consumers. This provided them with the cultural resources needed to develop a bold new form of political protest, the consumer boycott.

Yes, it's true. The U.S. is a country founded on consumerism. But what about this tea pot? It provides an example of how an everyday object can express political ideas, communicating across cultures in times of crisis, giving us something to discuss, over a cup of tea perhaps, or a protest.

In fitting irony, you can brew up your own Boston Tea Party using an authentic reproduction of this tea pot, available for purchase at williamsburgmarketplace.com, or in the U.K. from leedsware.com.
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Friday, October 07, 2005

The Unassuming Pedlar Doll


A Peddler Doll
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
In the introduction to Laurence Fontaine's "History of Pedlars in Europe" (1996), the ways in which pedlars have been defined is outlined as such:

"In France, the word was first used to mean one who traversed the town selling pictures and loose printed sheets. Secondly, by some linguistic twist, it was applied to the itinerant rural tradesman who had been known up until then as 'petit mercier' (petty trader), 'porte-balle' (packman), 'marcelot' or 'mercelot' (wandering trader). The first meaning refers to a recognized trade -- albeit an unimportant one -- whereas the second meaning of the word is nothing more than another way of saying 'tramp' or 'trickster.' [...] they were tricksters who wandered from town to town, buying and selling copper and pewter crockery and other similar merchandise which should normally only be sold in the open marketplace."

In France, "the pedlar remained a disturbing figure who was on the fringes of sociey and someone to be guarded against." [...] 'the guilds always viewed them suspiciously', worried that 'they sought, in this manner, to sell off defective merchandise of suspicious origin'.

"In England, the word developed in the opposite direction. 'Chapman' (cheapman) was originally a generic term for anyone who bought and sold merchandise (dealers). [...] In the seventeenth and the first half of the eighteenth century the 'petty chapmen' were described as those who 'buy up commodities of those that sell by wholesale and sell them off dearer by retail, and parcel them out.'"

But "as shops became established in the towns and villages, 'chapman' came to mean [...] a synonym for pedlar or hawker. This term had an equally perjorative connotation: 'Hawking...has its derivation from the spying, thievish habits of the bird and man. They also acquired the reputation for ruffianism and brigandage.

"Right up to the end of the nineteenth century the pedlar was depicted in literature as a rogue, or trickster, half merchant and half thief. He was someone who belonged to another world, who sold both the stuff of everyday life and the stuff of dreams. He came from far away, possessed some secret knowledge and his misdeeds were compensated for by his clever trickery.

"In the nineteenth century, when the profession was dying out, the literary representation of the pedlar underwent a radical transformation. In Britain, in the eyes of the educated Victorians, he ceased to play his traditionally ambiguous and disturbing role and became instead a national hero, embodying the morality of the conservative countryside as opposed to the corruption of the city. In France, religious literature used him in two diametrically opposed fashions; he was either a figure of Evil, an embodiment of temptations to be repudiated, or, because of his freedom, humility and wisdom, he represented the Christ figure."
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Bonnet in Progress


Bonnet in Progress
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
This is the bonnet-in-progress I am making with London-based milliner Jane Smith. It is comprised of sturdy wire-edged buckram, covered in stitched calico, and will be finished with a black glazed cotton.

I decided on a wide-brimmed style of bonnet from the 1840s, which, though appropriately in keeping with the peddler dolls I have seen, will be slightly anachronistic in terms of the more American Revolutionary War-era style of the rest of the Notion Nanny costume.

Jane and I talked about anachronism, and the difference between a historical reproduction and a prop. We shared our experiences of working with historical re-enactor clothiers, whose standards of authenticity require an attention to detail so exceedingly time-consuming and laborious as to render it stressful beyond its worth in pay per hour. Here again, these economies rear their heads. Whereas it wouldn't be financially feasible to make hats to re-enactor standards in the film world, it is however the norm to make multiple copies of any given actor's costume, the same couture garment made over in various states of wear: one new, one rumpled, and one worn completely to shreds. (And the job of distressing the costumes is a whole job that belongs to someone.) Then again, I should say that I have heard that re-enactors are increasingly called upon in the film industry, for both their clothing expertise and acting. The re-enactors have done their homework, often teaching filmmakers how to tell the story accurately.
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Jane Smith, Hat Maker


Jane Smith's Studio
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
I spent this afternoon making an 1840s black bonnet under the tutelage of milliner Jane Smith.

Upon entering her studio, I was struck by the sight of several hats-in-progress befitting of Nelson and Napoleon. But I guess with the anniversary of Trafalgar, that's all people are talking about in England these days. (Just kidding, ONE of the things.)

Jane started making hats when she asked her father, who was in film production, for a part-time job. He obliged, getting her a job "at the bottom" in the costume department. What started as a spontaneous request to whip up a hat in an on-set emergency eventually evolved into a full-on business.

For over a decade Jane worked with Laura Ashley, not just the company but the woman herself, designing and making hats for collections that traveled around the world. Sarah Ferguson was an early client. Jane later opened a shop called Jane Smith Straw Hats in Battersea, employing up to twenty assistants at a time. Jane has also worked as a teacher at several colleges in the region, and did a short stint at the BBC.

However, Jane has found her most comfortable niche in the theatre and film world, where her hats have graced the heads of celebrities in countless productions, including several of the Harry Potter films, and currently, "The Davinci Code."

This picture gives you a tiny taste of Jane's workshop, choc-a-hatter's-block with as many stories as hats, including one about the tiny hat she recently made for a monkey, and pictured at right, the red-feathered hat worn by a Playboy centerfold (yes, just the hat, nothing else.)

Fellow self-described workaholics, Jane and I talked about working hard, and how we love to stay up all night. Jane was planning to do an all-nighter in order to finish some fezzes, and it looks like I have just done the same. I think I heard a bird chirping outside the window just now...
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Wednesday, October 05, 2005

Phrygian Cap

Today I went to see the exhibition "Nelson and Napoleon" at the National Maritime Museum on Greenwich. There were several amazing things in the show, including N & N's bi-corn hats and the bloody uniform Nelson was killed in.

To see the most beautiful image of a real live Phrygian cap, copy and paste this link into your web browser. It really blew me away.

http://www.nmm.ac.uk/server/show/conMediaFile.7986

This wool, linen, and leather cap, whose maker is unknown, was made in the late eighteenth century and was either worn by an active supporter of the French Revolution, ceremonially used to parade on a pike, or as part of the costume of a statue representing "Liberty." Accordingly to a wall text, the rioters and demonstrators of the Revolution, the "sans culottes," so-called for wearing trousers rather than breeches, were from the "lower orders" of society but included shopkeepers, skilled workers, and craftsmen.
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Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Trench Art


Masonic P.O.W. Pendant
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
This is a pendant I saw at the Museum and Library of Freemasonry last week. These elaborately detailed jewels were made by French Prisoners of War during the Napoleonic wars from the early 1790s to 1815.

Although it appears to be made of much more elegant materials, it is actually comprised of found bits of metal, card, human hair, and bone.
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A Peddler Doll's Basket


A Peddler Doll's Basket
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
This picture of a miniature peddler doll's basket has made its way to me from cousin Jo of mother Debbie of B+B curator Sarah Carrington.

Either separated from its peddler owner somewhere along the way, or a sculpture in its own right, the basket holds over 50 objects and messages, including, at center, a book called "Devotion."
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Friday, September 30, 2005

A Word about the Word Nanny

Someone mentioned in passing conversation today that the anti-smoking laws in New York were a form of nannyism. Hmm. I can see why, though I had never heard the expression before.

According to web definitions, the word "nanny" refers to a custodian of children or a child's nurse. The traditional nanny is a servant in a large household who looks after a rich person's children full-time, and might be expected to do other domestic work as well.

I wonder why peddler dolls were given the name "notion nannies" when they first appeared in America. Was it a misinterpretation of the English peddler dolls? The appearance of Mary Poppins at the door with her bottomless carpetbag comes to mind.

I have discovered that the word "notion" also raises questions. People here tend to think of it in reference to vague impressions, general inclusive concepts, odd, fanciful, capricious ideas and whimsy. In the US it is also used when referring to personal articles or sewing items like buttons or needles, which at least explains the first half of "notion nanny" from an American historical perspective.

I like the notion of a custodian of ideas.
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Thursday, September 29, 2005

Craft and Conflict


Masonic P.O.W. Charms
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
At London's Library and Museum of Freemasonry, I saw these "jewels" made by Worshipful Brother J.R. Skipper, a WWII Prisoner of War at Changi Jail, Singapore from material salvaged from a bombed bus. They were used by the Royal Prince of Wales Lodge No. 1555, an impromptu lodge that met clandestinely in the prison camp and practiced Masonic rituals using books written from memory.

Such jewels are part of Masonic regalia indicating the rank and role of the wearer, and are worn for their symbolic significance during lodge ceremonies in which ritual morality plays are performed. Included in this collection is the badge of the almoner's purse, which is interesting considering the extreme conditions under which the lodge was operating. It is known that the lodge collected cigarettes and distributed them as a charity to less fortunate prisoners in the camp.

I was very happy to find a slim volume called “Craft and Conflict: Masonic Trench Art and Military Memorabilia” written by in-house curator Mark Dennis and Nicholas J. Saunders, whose book "Trench Art: Memories and Materialities of War" (2003) hugely inspired my practice as an artist.
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Sunday, September 25, 2005

Lost and Foundlings

In addition to the tokens left by mothers with their children at the Foundling Hospital, including engraved metal tags and coins, ribbons and beaded trinkets, rings, lockets, keys and even a hazel nut shell, there were also written notes and poems.

Hard is my Lot in deep Distress
To have no help where Most should find
Sure Nature meant her sacred Laws
Should men as strong as Women bind
Regardless he, Unable I,
To keep this Image of my Heart
'Tis vile to murder! hard to Starve
And Death almost to me to part
If Fortune should her favours give
That I in Better plight may Live
I'd try to have my boy again
And Train him up the best of Men.
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Mother of Pearl


Mother of Pearl
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
Something extraordinary happened today. I was out and about, having a lovely time. I had gone to the Columbia Road flower market, the weather was glorious, and I was in a wonderful mood. I called B+B curator Sarah Carrington, as she and I had intended to meet up at my place in the afternoon. She got sidetracked visiting with her mother, and asked if I could meet her instead at a museum that they had spontaneously gone to. Feeling up for anything, I headed over to the Foundling Museum, which Sarah said was something about the social history of children in London...

In the lobby I met Sarah, who, clearly moved by the museum, was busy becoming a member and buying a book. For some reason, really only connected to the idea of orphans, I asked her if she had read the blog entry on the NN web site about Rebecca Purcell's tokens of identity. She had not. So I began explaining them, and what they were inspired by, the man who had an orphanage and collected these tokens left pinned to children....and suddenly I realized maybe - could it be? that this was a museum about the same story, and just as I said it she said, "I just saw them."

Can you believe it?! Four days ago I am sitting in Rebecca's studio looking at the magazine article and today I saw the tokens themselves. The red heart, the mother of pearl tag, the string of seeds, the paper tag edged in black ribbon...They are such powerful and haunting objects, made all the more magical to me considering this astounding serendipity.

The tokens were collected from "exposed and deserted young children" between 1741-1760 at the Foundling Hospital started by Captain Thomas Coram. They were recorded as identifying information in case a parent wanted to reclaim their child, which happened only on rare occasions. The tokens were also saved as a record in defense of mothers who were accused of having disposed of their babies by murdering them.
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Saturday, September 24, 2005

Red Ribbon Key


Red Ribbon Key
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
Today I arrived in London for the "second phase" of Notion Nanny. I am very lucky to be house sitting in a beautiful 19th century brick house, originally built for the workers at a local brewery.

I won't tell you whose house it is, but I will say that there is a beautiful garden and an amazing library here. Why would I ever want to go out into the rain to peddle my wares?
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Thursday, September 22, 2005

R.P.'s T.O.I.s


R.P.'s T.O.I.s
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
Yesterday I spent a lovely day working with Rebecca Purcell, an artist in New York.

Theorizing at the early age of three or four that objects have a soul, Rebecca has spent her life developing a complex numbering system based on aesthetic preference.

A number three, for example, represents the motto "Necessity is the Mother of Invention." Things that fall into the category of number three include sewing, ploughs and other old worn tools, linen, barley candy, homemade bread and baskets. According to Rebecca, Notion Nanny is a three.

She started making these "tokens of identity" after reading a fascinating article about a man in the early 1800s who collected the precious objects found pinned to orphaned children. When she showed these to me, I knew they would be perfect traveling charms for the Notion Nanny project.

A collection of "nines," they represent things associated with a brave new world, the idea of just starting out, and utopian ideals.
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Wednesday, September 14, 2005

God Speed the Plough


God Speed the Plough
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
This passage in Fletcher's book caught my eye:

"In England part of the price of progress has been the spoiling of the countryside and the almost total disappearance of rural life and traditional art. There is, you see, a point at which innovation is a distinct advantage: the trouble arises from the fact that men seem unable to see the point at which development must cease. The history of the motor-car is a characteristic example: originally an advantage, it has been allowed to make town life intolerable and the countryside in many cases into a mere seedy appendage to the nearest big town. Now that we have become a nation of stockbroker farmers, now that we buy our natty country clothes at expensive shops in Bond Street in order to play at living in the country at weekends, it is all but impossible to visualize what English rural life was up to fifty years or so ago, before so much of the old traditional art of country areas had been driven into museums -- a sure indication of its decline. Many of the kinds of popular art we shall be discussing in this chapter [Popular Art in the Country] will, therefore, be bygones."
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Farmers' Arms


Farmers' Arms
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
Last night in an insomnia-induced treasure hunt on eBay, I found this lovely mug depicting the implements of farming as a coat of arms. This morning when I awoke, I finished reading Geoffrey S. Fletcher's slim 1962 volume "Popular Art in England," in which he happens to mention such mugs, belonging to "the golden age of English farming -- a period that began with the introduction of the swede turnip and ended about 1850."

Fletcher meanders through his subject, organized as a journey: popular art in towns, popular art at home, popular art in the country, popular art at the seaside...covering everything from sailors' love tokens, tobacconists' jars, wool-work pictures, and cast-iron door-stops, to matchbox labels, gypsy caravans, tombstones, and tattooing. He is an opinionated chap, unafraid to say if he finds a thing dreadful or delightful, though most often he encourages the reader to collect it "before it is too late." (It's a good thing I bought the mug.)
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Wednesday, September 07, 2005

TODAY

Today received a kind letter from Acting Master J.S. Dearden, D.LITT. (HON.), the Director for Ruskin Affairs, inviting me to apply to be a Companion of the Guild of Saint George. In a brief description of the guild, an enclosed pamphlet states, "Details of plans for the Guild appeared from 1871 onwards in [John Ruskin's] "Fors Clavigera" [in which] there emerges a picture, sometimes fanciful, of a series of agriculturally-based communities in which social classes are integrated, where work is healthy and meaningful, machinery driven by natural forces, and sound craftsmanship encouraged. The surroundings, he insisted, should be beautiful, with wildlife protected, and all should have access to examples of great art, workmanship, and literature."

Initial funds donated by Ruskin led to the establishment of the guild in 1878, which continues today as a company limited by guarantee, and a registered charity. Despite the fact that the "picture" described above seems of another time and place, the pamphlet ends on this note: Companions, who come from all walks of life, are united in their conviction that the Guild of St. George is still relevant. "TODAY", in fact, was John Ruskin's motto.
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Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Ruskin Resuscitations

On the plane from New York to Manchester I read John Ruskin’s The Nature of Gothic, in which an interesting statement appears in the form of a footnote:

“The best art either represents the facts of its own day, or, if facts of the past, expresses them with accessories of the time in which the work was done. All good art, representing past events, is therefore full of the most frank anachronism, and always ought to be. No painter has any business to be an antiquarian. We do not want his impressions or suppositions respecting things that are past. We want his clear assertions respecting things present.”



Instantly the slang word farby comes to mind. It is a term (derived from the phrase “Far be it from me to criticize, but…”) used by American Civil War re-enactors to mean historically inaccurate, and therefore uncool. It is a derogatory term in the Living History world, where the idea is that through the impeccable aesthetic and formal historical accuracy of props, time travel is indeed possible. Re-enactors would more likely align themselves with Ruskin’s other statement, that “the painter should grind his own colours.”

I have often thought about the object makers of re-enactments, the people who sew the uniforms, make the flags, and reproduce the weapons. In a way it’s all about them, regardless of the fact that they stand on the sidelines at their market stalls on “sutler’s row,” rather than taking fake bullets on a crowded, smoky, sweaty battlefield. Look inside any hardcore re-enactor’s haversack, and you’re likely to find examples of historical making such as stitchery, tinwork, pewter casting, wood and horn carving, candle making, leather craft, printmaking, 19th century photography, and more. (If you happen to find a Coca Cola, you know you have a farb on your hands.)

I started collecting mail-order catalogs from cottage industries that cater to re-enactor consumers some years ago. My collection has grown to over one hundred and I find them a great source for ideas. But I have always wanted to meet these makers, and to learn what motivates them. Especially since re-enactment culture is so strongly focused on conflict, I am intrigued by the notion that an “authentic reproduction” could take you back to a more mundane, everyday sort of moment. Though their role in the events may seem peripheral, or even invisible, the makers of the material culture around re-enactments determine to a large extent the success or failure of this particular kind of “theatre of war.” Their re-enactment involves a performance that, through the activity of making, amounts to historical preservation in real time/studio time: repetitive thrusts of cardiac resuscitation upon dying craft traditions in order to keep them alive.

One often hears that the Lake District is a “constructed landscape,” despite a sort of “back to nature” idea that many people are performing when they come here in search of a culture-free zone, an antidote to urban living, or whatever promise of the landscape they have constructed for themselves. As for myself, I came to the Lake District wanting to experience it via local craft traditions, not because I thought I would find the “real” Cumbria, but because I wanted to witness that process of construction in a direct, hands-on way. Current exhibitions at the Museum of Lakeland Life, the Armitt Museum, and the Ruskin Museum confirm the use of craft traditions as a central signifier for this region. It can be seen almost everywhere, but especially in the National Trust gift shops, largely due to the mythology around Ruskin, who lived here and is more or less credited with inspiring all sorts of local arts industries making linen, spinning wool, doing metalwork, woodcarving, pottery, and the list goes on.

Primarily through word of mouth, I have met with about twenty makers during my time here. In some cases it has been a single brief meeting, in others a conversation over several days. I have found that I am most interested in the craftspeople who self-identify as “traditional,” who do not consider themselves artists, and whose practice is strikingly like that of the historical re-enactor. These are people who know every aspect of their craft and its history and engage in it at every level. Two people in particular that I would like to mention are Owen Jones and Elizabeth Prickett.

Owen Jones is known throughout the region as the “last” remaining maker of a particular type of traditional oak basket called a swill. He learned the technique from a man who was formerly the “last in the line,” and organically it became his livelihood. “I am a traditional maker,” he said, “and I feel quite comfortable in the safeness of that, as opposed to art, which is about opening doors and breaking with tradition.” Nevertheless, he was interested in my research as an artist, and we agreed that in exchange for helping him in the forest for a day, he would help me to make a basket. He took me to the part of Grizedale Forest he has been working in for the past eight years, a fenced-in area he has special permission to use. There are tracks that have been worn into the earth over centuries by people doing the same kind of work Owen does. “You can feel the sense of history in these woods,” he said, “and I quite like that.” He has made a sort of outdoor studio that instantly brought to mind memories of playing in the woods as a child, the way a fallen tree becomes a bridge or a big rock becomes a stage. All around us were various interpretations of a log: log as pedestal, log as pen post, log as tarp weight, log as table, log as chair. And in tidy piles that lined each work area where a tree had once come down, there were logs for firewood, for making charcoal, and for boiler fuel, bark for leather tanning, and branches for besom brooms, all stacked up and ready to be used. Even the leafy treetops, which were of no other use to Owen, were left in piles providing future architecture for the homes of woodland creatures. One could easily imagine the pleasures of working there, especially in the wintertime, next to a crackling fire, looking out over the silhouettes of trees into the distant mountains.

Owen’s other studio is a small stone structure with a large wooden door that moves with the breeze, filtering in the natural light onto stacks and bundles of wood at various states of transformation, and the comforting presence of two goats. I was fascinated by the various tools he used, like a sort of mallet made from a small log with a thick branch handle, or a measuring stick that was literally a stick with carved notches. The organic fluidity between raw material, process, and end product suggested a hall of mirrors. We talked about the performative aspects of his work, and about re-enactment. As a way to subsidize his income and to balance out the solitary times with some social interaction, he often teaches and goes to re-enactments to demonstrate his work. He says he would never sell his baskets in a store because that would make him like a “machine” and his workshop like a “factory.” Which brings us to Ruskin’s major argument in The Nature of Gothic, that regarding the manual labourer, “you must either make a tool of the creature or a man of him. You cannot make both.” Ruskin was against the industrial revolution’s treatment of people as tools or machines, arguing for an appreciation of the worker as a thinking man, which is also why he felt he should make his things all the way through, from inception to finish. More flaws and errors would come about that way, evidence of the human being behind the made thing and behind art. Owen said he enjoys being able to shake hands with the person who owns one of his baskets, and likes the idea that they too can know the maker of their possession. In another conversation he said that maybe he was a living continuation of the arts and crafts movement, or its ideals at least. It is worth noting that ultimately it was the discrepancy between maker and consumer that William Morris, a huge fan of Ruskin, would eventually blame for the demise of the Arts and Crafts movement. In a humble way, to me at least, Owen’s work prompts the notion of re-enactment as anti-capitalist gesture, or a form of lifestyle protest, regardless of how it might be used to represent the romanticism of Lakeland.

I first met Elizabeth Prickett and her husband at their home in Torver. “Have you lived here long?” I asked. “Well I was born right there,” Mr. Prickett said, pointing through the picture window to a cottage framed by rolling green hills. We had a pleasant conversation over tea and biscuits while Elizabeth explained that she is only the fourth in a matriarchal lineage of women who have been teaching a type of lace worked into linen known as Ruskin lace. She was an important figure in making sure the technique was officially recognized as independent from all other similar lace forms, though in my opinion it should in fact be called Twelves Lace, because its real inventor was Marian Twelves, who was Ruskin’s friend Albert Fleming’s housekeeper. Anyway Elizabeth has been teaching Ruskin lace for over thirty years, and has written an informative book on the subject. Her work is on display at several local museums and she and some forty other women once created a Ruskin lace sampler for the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Elizabeth approaches her work in an orthodox way. “I don’t like colour,” she said. “The people who are attracted to this type of work are people who like discipline and monotones.” Once when there was a “hiccup” in the production of the appropriate linen, she grew her own flax and spun and wove it into the fabric she needed. Elizabeth decided long ago never to sell her work, since she figured that even at one pound per hour, people would never pay what it took her to complete a piece. But she, like Owen, enjoys the interactivity of teaching, and relies on it to make a living in addition to sales of her book and a series of postcards. I attended a two-day course she gave in an agricultural hall in Kendal, along with a group of women called the Lakeland Lacemakers. Elizabeth laid out examples of her work on a small stage, and then came around giving individual instruction to each person throughout the day. Over tea and biscuits, I worked quietly, trying to make my fingers do the intricate needlework while listening to the local gossip, including news of various deaths and terminal illnesses as well as childhood stories of life during World War II.

The following week I met Elizabeth at the Ruskin Museum, where she showed me cases of vintage Ruskin lace while a video of her working played behind us. Then we sat on a bench and she took me through the next steps of the process. We spoke about what it feels like to be “holding the torch” of a tradition, and if she was ready to pass it on. She does have someone in mind, as Owen does, a sort of apprentice she trusts will continue it without changing anything. I asked her if she felt like she was a living memorial, if that held some power for her. In response she told me a story, the details of which I promised not to retell, of a near death experience to which she attributes her decision to devote herself to this tradition. She told me about her original training as a nurse, and also of the many widows who have made their way to her course, and I thought again of life support, of suturing a wound, of wounded cultures, and trauma. I think Ruskin would be pleased that you can find Elizabeth or her students demonstrating, or re-enacting, or resuscitating Ruskin lace every Thursday in his home at Brantwood.

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Sunday, August 28, 2005

Basket of Supplies


Basket of Supplies
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
This cornucopia of supplies represents lots of new projects to do over the next few months.

Some of the items you see in there are the wood handles for two walking sticks, some hand dyed Herdwick wool for knitting, several pieces of flat horn to make into hornbooks, multi-colored straw for doing straw marquetry, my Ruskin linen work supplies, a Quaker Tapestry sampler kit...
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I Should do a Shire Book


Notion Nanny Binder
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
My collection of peddler doll images continues to grow.

Do a web search and you will find A LOT, especially newer ones. I tend to like the expressions on the older ones, which are less cartoony to my eye. You may also notice that they tend to have the maker's name attached nowadays.
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Notion Nanny Library


Notion Nanny Library
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
Here are some of the books I have been reading.

Lots of second-hand books on English popular art, how-to books on Ruskin lace, corn dollies, and walking stick making, a lineage of texts that moves from Wordsworth to Ruskin to Morris, several texts on the social histories around craft traditions, and a good book on the economic aspects of the American Revolution.
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Souvenirs


Peddler Doll Postcard
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
On the left is a "7 Years of Plenty" braid incorporating seven straws that I made with Dorothy Horsfall. The name comes from a Biblical passage about Joseph interpeting Pharoah's dream in which seven lean cows devour seven fat cows, foreshadowing seven years of abundant corn harvest. The number seven is a powerful number in many religious mythologies, as well as in group dynamics, according to Grizedale Arts number one man Adam Sutherland. I gave one of these tokens to each of the members of the We are Seven commune.

On the right is a postcard of the peddler doll I saw at Abbott Hall in the Museum of Lakeland Life that Elizabeth Prickett had told me about. These two items were included amongst my wares at the Grasmere Sports Day.
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Not For Sale


Souvenirs
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
These are some of the objects I displayed at Grasmere Sports Day:

A turned wood goblet with a ring around its stem, by Michael Booth.

A mysterious papier maché box with straw marquetry compass rose and hammer-and-sickle insignia, with hidden pictures and a handwritten message inside. (Found at a car boot sale.)

An anonymously hand made carved wooden hobby horse with glass eyes and real hair, which I bought for the meager sum of £2.75 at the Hawkshead Show.

Two carved horn ale mugs and a lantern made by Peter Hodgson.

Some beautiful knitted socks and mittens made by Rachel Erwig.

Two embroidered postcards apparently made by convalescent soldiers or the groups of women looking after them during WWI. The flowers are embroidered in the colors of the flags of warring nations.

A wooden collection box I found for £2 at a car boot sale. It has mother of pearl inlay on the top and a message inside that reads, "M. SWIFT, Crossroad, Ipswich, 1851."

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Red Rain Cloak


Sports Day
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
This is me at my stall at the Grasmere Sports Day.

It was raining cats and dogs out. Quite literally in the case of dogs, since there were hound races in which herds of dogs ran straight down the sides of the steep fells, so enthusiastically in fact that it almost brought tears to my eyes.

I was sitting in the tent organized by the Wordsworth Trust. In front of me, there was a panel discussion going on. Behind me, on the other side of a canvas divider, was a broad sword battle.
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Pay and Display


Display
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
Well, you didn't have to pay actually. This is the bulletin board I showed in my display at the Grasmere Sports Day, where I was an exhibitor at the fair.
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Friday, August 26, 2005

Horn and Hide


Peter Hodgson
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
This morning I went to Ambleside to meet with horn and hide craftsman Peter Hodgson, who helped me make the strap on the Notion Nanny basket. We cut and stitched the leather while his dog Bob slept silently at our feet. The BBC Cumbria radio station played in the background as we chatted and got the job done. Peter told me some stories about his pet ferrets, "two shes and a he," who get up to mischief knocking books off of shelves and occasionally stealing his glasses. You might wonder about a man who makes his living carving animal horns and working with hides and leather, but Peter is a big animal lover. Amongst the carved horn combs, spoons, powder horns, lanterns, and walking sticks, there are bird houses, horse whips, collars, leashes, and squeeky toys for dogs and cats, and bins of animal feed in bulk. Peter also makes very beautiful and idiosyncratic carved animal jewelry and is a prolific watercolor painter of animals on postcards.
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Pin Cushion


Pin Cushion
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.

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Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Spinning

Today I went to Ambleside to pick up the basket I made in collaboration with Owen Jones. He was at the Armitt Trust museum demonstrating how to make a besom, a type of traditional broom made from a bundle of birch branches. I once carried one of these brooms home from England with me on an airplane, and was laughed at on the way not so much because it is a large and unwieldy thing but because most people think besoms look like witches' brooms.

The museum had organized a day of craft demonstrations, so while I was there I also met Heather Parker, who showed me how to spin wool. It was not as difficult as I had thought it would be, though it is a bit like patting your head and rubbing your stomach at the same time.

I visited the Ambleside Library and found an interesting little book called The Kendal Weaver by John Satchell, which contained an interesting blurb on the history of the red cloak:

"The red cloak was the most widespread and longest surviving traditional garment of the English countrywoman, continuing in use in Wales into the present century...The cloak was the general outdoor garment for all women, an 18th century hooded form is still familiar from the folk tale of Little Red Riding Hood."
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Tuesday, August 23, 2005

The Hawkshead Show

I spent a rainy but enjoyable morning at the Hawkshead Agricultural Show this morning. I saw straw craftswoman Mary Stribley again, wearing her straw hat with multiple straw charms around the rim. Sitting behind her red market display, she "platted" her straw as we chatted. I was happy I had found her again, and I purchased some items I had been thinking about – a large straw folded up parasol, a candlestick with a wheat flame, and a long shepherd’s crook.

I also met Mary Bell, whom I had heard about from several people. She raises her own sheep to produce woolen blankets, sweaters, socks and rugs from several breeds including the locally famous Herdwick sheep. She invited me to visit her farm in Patterdale.

Knitter Rachel Erwig was also there. Her home-based business specializes in the design and production of children’s hand-knitted garments featuring themes such as animals and the environment.

I went to Beatrix Potter’s home called Hill Top. She had amazing ceramics on her shelves, including lots of old Staffordshire, pink lustre, and several wonderful examples of “God Speed the Plough” ceramic vessels.
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Hobby Horse


Hobby Horse
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
At a stall that sold only horse-themed items, I found a beautiful hand-carved rocking horse toy with articulated teeth and lips, glass eyes, brass fittings and what looks to be a real horsehair tail, for sale at the shockingly low price of £2.75. "Do you know who made it?" I asked the two women working there. "No idea," they replied.
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Sunday, August 21, 2005

Car Boot Nanny


Car Boot Nanny
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
If you asked me today what my favorite thing about England is I would say the car boot sales, which are basically a kind of flea market in which people drive their cars out into a field and simply open up the trunk and sell the contents. I found this knitted peddler doll at one of two car boot sales I visited today in Beetham and Silverdale. Entirely hand-made, it cost 50p, which is the equivalent of less than $1.

I also found a tool for making hook rugs like ones I had seen at the Armitt museum. It was labeled “oak fid” and has the initial “A”carved out of it.

After the car boot sales, I went to the Torver Garden Center Show, arriving just in time to see the awards being given for the most perfect vegetables, flower arrangements, and baked goods.
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Friday, August 19, 2005

Swill Basket


Owen Working
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
Basket-weaver Owen Jones's studio is a small stone structure with a large wooden door that moves with the breeze, filtering in the natural light onto stacks and bundles of wood at various states of transformation. I was fascinated by the various tools he used, like a sort of mallet made from a small log with a thick branch handle, or a measuring stick that was literally a stick with carved notches. The organic fluidity between raw material, process, and end product suggested a hall of mirrors. We talked about the performative aspects of his work, and about re-enactment. As a way to subsidize his income and to balance out the solitary times with some social interaction, he often teaches and goes to re-enactments to demonstrate his work. He says he would never sell his baskets in a store because that would make him like a “machine” and his workshop would become like a “factory.”

Here is Owen, pausing for a moment with the basket we made together today.
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Thursday, August 18, 2005

BBC Radio Cumbria


BBC Radio Cumbria
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
Today was a great day. I got up early and drove with my partner Daphne to Kendal, where I had a 9:40 interview with BBC Radio Cumbria. After less than a second in the studio, the headphones were on and I was speaking to Val Armstrong, whose morning radio show used Donovan’s “Mello Yellow” as its background theme music. Although we did speak for a full ten minutes about Notion Nanny’s past, present, and future aims, the main thing I remember about the interview was how she referred to me as a “lucky girl.” Indeed. “How would you like,” she asked her listeners, “to be paid to travel the country for a year just watching people?” Not exactly, well I hope I made it clear that I am trying to do more than that.

After the interview we went to visit the Quaker Tapestry, a community-based embroidery project depicting 300 years of Quaker insights and experiences in narrative crewel work on 7 panels of specially woven cloth.
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Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Braiding a Love Token


Braiding a Love Token
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
Dorothy is pinning down a love token I braided so that it will lie flat.
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Glory Braid


Glory Braid
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
Here is a "glory braid" Dorothy taught me to make using ten pieces of straw.
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Love Tokens


Dorothy's Work
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
Dorothy Horsfall made these two love tokens. The horseshoe is used in weddings as a good luck charm and a fertility symbol.

In M. Lambeth's 1974 book "Discovering Corn Dollies", it is explained that the history of corn dollies goes back to ancient times when the sun, moon, and elements became gods to be appeased with gifts and sacrifices. She writes, "Because early people realized the necessity for moisture to germinate the seeds they thought it part of the ritual of sowing that the sower should weep and so all corn dieties were weeping gods, who shed fertilizing tears."

"Many European countries had a custom of cutting the last handful of corn in the field. In Britain it varied from country to country; some preferred to throw their sticks at it until there was nothing left, others thought it held an evil spirit and trampled it into the ground. Many treated it with honor for they believed the corn spirit had retreated into it as a refuge when the rest of the crop was cut."

Harvest emblems were made using this handful of straw as thank offerings to their gods or idols. In fact, it is from the word 'idol' rather than 'doll' that the term 'corn dollies' comes from. The first shapes made were simple sheaves or bunches of wheat decorated with wild flowers, resembling a vaguely female form. These had names such as Mother Earth, Harvest Dame, Maiden, Old Man, Hag, Cripple Goat, Harvest Queen, Harvest Gosling, and Quail.

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Dorothy with Samples


Dorothy with Samples
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
This is Dorothy Horsfall today, holding a board with examples of many different braids or "plaits" one can do.

Dorothy used to have her own workshop and museum dedicated to straw craft. But now she lives with her son, and teaches classes in her bedroom.

We spent all day sitting by the window, chatting about straw and life in general. While I tried my hand at several different forms, Dorothy worked on packaging the straw earrings she makes. They remind me of Victorian mourning jewelry made of hair.
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Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Room 50


Breakfast by the Lake
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
Today I walked over to the Prince of Wales Hotel and ordered a cup of coffee at the restaurant. "What room are you in?" the waiter asked. "Oh, uh, I am staying across the street at the Wordsworth Trust," I replied. "Well don't tell anyone," he said under his breath, "or else you would have to pay." What a pleasant surprise, I thought, though I would have been happy to pay. He walked me out to the garden and set my tray on a table by the lake. "If anyone asks," he said, "just tell them you are in Room 50." How luxurious. Like being a tourist.
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How to Make a Poet

Tonight we went to a poetry reading by the renowned English poet Hugo Williams.

At one point, between poems, he remarked, "Poets are created when people move from one culture to another, or when people have experienced war (like prep school, or a real war)."
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Monday, August 15, 2005

Oak on Oak on Oak


Oak Bundles
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
This week I am working with Owen Jones, known throughout the region as the “last” remaining maker of a particular type of traditional oak basket called a swill. He learned the technique from a man who was formerly the “last in the line,” and organically it became his livelihood. “I am a traditional maker,” he said, “and I feel quite comfortable in the safeness of that, as opposed to art, which is about opening doors and breaking with tradition.” Nevertheless, he was interested in my research as an artist, and we agreed that in exchange for helping him in the forest for a day, he would help me to make a basket.

On one of the most fun days I have had since I got here, Owen took me to the part of Grizedale Forest he has been working in for the past eight years, a fenced-in area he has special permission to use. There are tracks that have been worn into the earth over centuries by people doing the same kind of work Owen does. “You can feel the sense of history in these woods,” he said, “and I quite like that.” He has made a sort of outdoor studio that instantly brought to mind memories of playing in the woods as a child, the way a fallen tree becomes a bridge or a big rock becomes a stage. All around us were various interpretations of a log: log as pedestal, log as pen post, log as tarp weight, log as table, log as chair. And in tidy piles that lined each work area where a tree had once come down, there were logs for firewood, for making charcoal, and for boiler fuel, bark for leather tanning, and branches for besom brooms, all stacked up and ready to be used. Even the leafy treetops, which were of no other use to Owen, were left in piles providing future architecture for the homes of woodland creatures. One could easily imagine the pleasures of working there, especially in the wintertime, next to a crackling fire, looking out over the silhouettes of trees into the distant mountains.
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High Point

Today was a great day, probably the best day I have spent in Cumbria so far.

I went with Owen Jones into the forest, riding side-saddle on a 4-wheeler, bouncing over rocks and through mud puddles into a protected section of the forest leased by the National Park Service. In exchange for demonstrating his work and helping me make a swill basket, I had agreed to help Owen in the woods for a day. After surveying the piles of wood in his outdoor studio with a "shopping list" of kinds and sizes he needed for various projects, Owen set about felling some trees including the one we will use to make the basket. Using a chainsaw, he gracefully groomed each fallen tree, and I sorted and stacked the pieces into the correct piles. It felt like tidying the forest, and was very satisfying.

On our way out, we stopped when Owen saw a hazel branch sticking straight up from its tree trunk at a 90-degree angle from the ground. It will be perfect, he said, for the oval rim of the basket. So he sawed it off, handed it to me, and it became my lance as we charged out of the woods.
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Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Historical Market


Historical Market
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
Inspired by her discovery of an obscure King's Charter from the year 1111 that granted the people of her region the right to hold a public town market for buying and selling goods, Dorothy revived the tradition with an outdoor historical crafts market in which people could peddle their wares whilst demonstrating their craft in period costume.

This is Dorothy demonstrating her straw craft skills at the Historical Market she started. When asked what she thought about the markets and shows of today, she said that the stalls are often too expensive and the good craftspeople won't go, "so it's all rubbish."
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Wicker Man


Bill Hodge
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
This is a picture of Dorothy's straw supplier Bill Hodge, holding some of her early corn dollies.

We called Mr. Hodge to see if he had any wheat for sale (Dorothy just calls it "corn"), but he said it hadn't been harvested yet, and anyway so much rain this year had dirtied it.
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Straw Implements


Straw Implements
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
These life-size straw implements were made by Dorothy Horsfall's mentor Fred Mizen. In commemoration of the one hundred year anniversary of the famous 1851 Great Exhibition at London's Crystal Palace, a Festival of Britain was produced in 1951 for which Mizen created a larger-than-life royal Coat of Arms consisting of an eight-foot-tall English Lion facing an equally impressive Unicorn of Scotland. A department store was so enamored with the figures that they borrowed them for their store windows after the festival. In a shameful act of disrespect, the huge pieces were then "misplaced", and left for mice to dismantle before Mr. Mizen could get them back.
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The Book of Straw


Dorothy's Book
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
I spent all afternoon with Dorothy Horsfall looking at the research she has done for a book on straw craft. From the story of Rumplestiltskin who spun straw into gold, to pagan goddess worship and Demeter, Greek goddess of all vegetation, from the history of 19th century straw plaiting schools in the English hat industry that would employ girls starting from age three, to Napoleonic prisoners of war (1796-1816) who would create elaborate works of straw marquetry using the interior contents of their mattresses, we covered a lot of ground. Dorothy showed me examples of typical straw work objects, such as Lancashire oak fringe, which once formed the curtains along church windows, to Welsh border fans and spun straw Swiss lace. "You've got me on my hobby horse," she said, and indeed she is an endless resource on the topic of straw. We decided to make a date for me to return and learn some plaits.

Pictured here are some photos of Dorothy's teacher Fred Mizen with his enormous straw animals.
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Queen Dorothy


Queen Dorothy
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
Today I went to visit Dorothy Horsfall, who has dedicated much of her life to straw craft. She had begun using various craft techniques in her work with prisoners and psychiatric patients over thirty years ago as an occupational therapist. In the context of an in-service course for teachers in the 1970s, she met straw expert Lettice Sanford, who held summer schools at her home in Hertfordshire called Eye Manor. Dorothy studied with Ms. Sanford, and then later with Minnie Lambeth and Fred Mizen. For many years Dorothy was on the list of speakers for the Women's Institute and the Townswomen's Guild, longstanding organizations that serve women in rural and urban districts, respectively.

This is a picture of Dorothy in the early 1990s wearing a crown made by Ruth Wylie of Hampshire. In the background you can see the interior of the museum dedicated to straw work that Dorothy opened in Coniston, which unfortunately no longer exists. Along with several of her straw world colleagues, Dorothy also founded the Guild of Straw Craftsmen, which remains alive and kicking today.
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Monday, August 08, 2005

An Interesting Lock


An Interesting Lock
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.

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Ceramic Chimneys


Ceramic Chimneys
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.

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Dry Stone Wall


Dry Stone Wall
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.

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A Walk to Hawkshead


Foot Path Gate
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
Today I took a walk to Hawkshead via the public foot path. The next few posts document a few things I saw along the way.
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Saturday, August 06, 2005

A Ruskin Lace Sampler


A Ruskin Lace Sampler
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
This is a picture of a Ruskin lace sampler by Elizabeth Prickett. I had seen a similar one in the foyer of her home, which stays in my mind. Embroidered on it is a poem that reads,

'Grant that I may see the Stitch until my dying day.
When the last thread is snipped and scissors tucked away.
The work I have done lives on so other folk can see.
The pleasure I have known in the skills given to me.'

The poem is an adaptation of 'The Needlewoman's Prayer' by - anon., given to
her many years ago by a student. She says, "The piece of work was my millennium effort and also represents thirty years of my teaching Ruskin Lace."
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Rainbow Colours


Rainbow Colours
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
This is a sewing box made by Cath Moss, a member of the Lakeland Lacemaker group and a student in Elizabeth's Prickett's class. Cath's use of color is revolutionary, since normally Ruskin lace is done in white or neutral monotones.
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Learning to Lace


Learning to Lace
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
This weekend I attended a two-day course taught by Elizabeth Prickett in an agricultural hall in Kendal, along with a group of women called the Lakeland Lacemakers. Elizabeth laid out examples of her work on a small stage, and then came around giving individual instruction to each person throughout the day. Over tea and biscuits, I worked quietly, trying to make my fingers do the intricate needlework while listening to the local gossip, including news of various deaths and terminal illnesses as well as childhood stories of life during World War II.

This is my work area, showing the beginnings of my own sampler atop of Elizabeth's book, opened to the page explaining the "pyramid" shape.
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Thursday, August 04, 2005

Elizabeth Prickett


Elizabeth's Work
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
Elizabeth approaches her work in an orthodox way. “I don’t like colour,” she said. “The people who are attracted to this type of work are people who like discipline and monotones.” Once when there was a “hiccup” in the production of the appropriate linen, she grew her own flax and spun and wove it into the fabric she needed. Elizabeth decided long ago never to sell her work, since she figured that even at one pound per hour, people would never pay what it took her to complete a piece. But she, like Owen Jones, enjoys the interactivity of teaching, and relies on it to make a living in addition to sales of her book and a series of postcards.

Here are examples of Elizabeth's Ruskin lace work.
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Tea Time


Elizabeth Serving Tea
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
This afternoon I went to visit Elizabeth Prickett and her husband at their home in Torver. “Have you lived here long?” I asked. “Well I was born right there,” Mr. Prickett said, pointing through the picture window to a cottage framed by rolling green hills. We had a pleasant conversation over tea and biscuits while Elizabeth explained that she is only the fourth in a matriarchal lineage of women who have been teaching a type of lace worked into linen known as Ruskin lace. She was an important figure in making sure the technique was officially recognized as independent from all other similar lace forms, though in my opinion it should in fact be called Twelves Lace, because its real inventor was Marian Twelves, who was Ruskin’s friend Albert Fleming’s housekeeper. Anyway Elizabeth has been teaching Ruskin lace for over thirty years, and has written an informative book on the subject. Her work is on display at several local museums and she and some forty other women once created a Ruskin lace sampler for the Victoria and Albert Museum.
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Wednesday, August 03, 2005

A Wordsworthian Introduction

This evening we were introduced to the staff and resident poets at the Wordsworth Trust. Each of us was asked to say in a sentence or two what our ambitions for the residency are. Here is what a said, with a little elaboration.

My ambition for this residency is to engage with local makers in order to examine the role of craft in the construction of national identity. I hope to meet with traditional craftspeople to learn skills and to talk with makers about their relationship to history and to Englishness. I am also hoping to find pockets of traditional craft practice that one could characterize as revolutionary, as oxymoronic as that may sound. I am interested in the social histories around craft, especially instances of making under extreme circumstances, as in the example of trench art. In contrast to the assumption that crafts such as pottery or textiles are functional and/or decorative, and therefore mute, I would like to look at the potentially political function of crafts, as well as the use of decoration to convey a political message. I would like to explore traditional craftwork as a form of historical reenactment, in which the maker’s activities are like a form of lifestyle protest with anti-capitalist undertones. And finally, I would like to find a new word for the kind of “craft” that interests me.
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Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Perfect Imperfection

On the plane to Manchester I read the recently published Penguin Books paperback, On Art and Life, a reprint of John Ruskin’s famous chapter in The Stones of Venice called The Nature of Gothic. Ruskin was inspired by Wordsworth throughout his life, beginning with childhood visits to the Lake District where Wordsworth lived and wrote. In his attempt to define the characteristics of Gothic architecture, often lapsing into dramatic reveries that reveal his love of landscape and the natural sciences, Ruskin discusses the role of the craftsman.

He writes, “You must either make a tool of the creature, or a man of him. You cannot make both.” Ruskin champions Gothic architecture because of the infinite variety he sees in its ornament, the result of craftsmen who were given the opportunity to think for themselves in the process of making. He embraces the “tardy imagination, torpid capacity of emotion, [and] tottering steps of thought” that necessarily accompany such freedoms of expression given to the worker, encouraging the employer of manual laborers “to look for the thoughtful part of them, and get that out of them, whatever we lose for it, whatever faults and errors we are obliged to take with it.”

Although he acknowledges that the modern English mind seeks perfection, Ruskin’s reliance on the Christian belief in the individual value of every soul makes him an advocate for faults, shortcomings, and flaws. “Take them in their feebleness,” he says, “prize and honour them in their imperfection above the best and most perfect manual skill.” In our dealings with “the souls of other men,” Ruskin warns readers “not to esteem smooth minuteness above shattered majesty; not to prefer mean victory to honourable defeat.” He suggests that in reading the ornament of a room, the “perfectnesses” which might be assumed to express the greatness of England can be read instead as signs of slavery.

“It seems a fantastic paradox, but it is nevertheless a most important truth, that no architecture can be truly noble which is not imperfect.” He continues, “no good work whatever can be perfect, and the demand for perfection is always a sign of a misunderstanding of the ends of art.” For Ruskin, “to banish imperfection is to destroy expression, [for] all things are literally better, lovelier, and more beloved for the imperfections which have been divinely appointed.” With these words Ruskin is speaking out against industrialization insofar as it makes the worker into a machine or an animated tool, whereas the aim of art is to express humanness, and therefore perfect imperfection.
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Monday, August 01, 2005

We Are Seven

Today I set out with six other New York-based artists (Ian Cooper, Daphne Fitzpatrick, Rachel Foullon, k8 Hardy, Adam Putnam and Dana Sherwood) on a flight to England, where we will be in residence several hours north of London, throughout the month of August.

We were invited here by Adam Sutherland, Director of Grizedale Arts, a contemporary art commissioning agency located in Grizedale Forest at the heart of the Lake District in Cumbria. Working in partnership with The Wordsworth Trust, Grizedale Arts will be hosting us in a country house near the town of Hawkshead as well as in a hamlet of stone cottages in Grasmere once occupied by William Wordsworth.

Grizedale Arts is currently engaged in an ongoing series of residencies, exhibitions, festivals, public art events and other artist exchanges in the UK, US and Japan called Romantic Detachment. The Lake District is known as the place where literary Romanticism was born, and this multi-layered project explores contemporary artists’ relationships to notions of romanticism, landscape, history and tourism. A group of British artists recently traveled to the US to explore various romanticisms of the American landscape, presenting an interactive exhibition of collaborative projects and performances at New York’s PS1/MoMA in the fall of 2004.

Our residency was conceived as an opportunity to look at an American take on Romanticism, organized around the notion of an experimental commune. As a group, we have adopted the title We Are Seven after the Wordsworth poem in which a young girl attempts to reason with an adult that the dead siblings she plays with in the cemetery are actually still alive. Combining a perfect mix of childhood fantasy, audacity and morbidity, we felt it was a good starting point to describe ourselves, a group of artists from New York City whose work, though diverse, is connected by ideas of history, horror, and sexuality.

Here are the lyrics:
--A Simple Child,
That lightly draws its breath,
And feels its life in every limb,
What should it know of death?

I met a little cottage Girl:
She was eight years old, she said;
Her hair was thick with many a curl
That clustered round her head.

She had a rustic, woodland air,
And she was wildly clad:
Her eyes were fair, and very fair;
--Her beauty made me glad.

"Sisters and brothers, little Maid,
How many may you be?"
"How many? Seven in all," she said
And wondering looked at me.

"And where are they? I pray you tell."
She answered, "Seven are we;
And two of us at Conway dwell,
And two are gone to sea.

"Two of us in the church-yard lie,
My sister and my brother;
And, in the church-yard cottage, I
Dwell near them with my mother."

"You say that two at Conway dwell,
And two are gone to sea,
Yet ye are seven!--I pray you tell,
Sweet Maid, how this may be."

Then did the little Maid reply,
"Seven boys and girls are we;
Two of us in the church-yard lie,
Beneath the church-yard tree."

"You run about, my little Maid,
Your limbs they are alive;
If two are in the church-yard laid,
Then ye are only five."

"Their graves are green, they may be seen,"
The little Maid replied,
"Twelve steps or more from my mother's door,
And they are side by side.

"My stockings there I often knit,
My kerchief there I hem;
And there upon the ground I sit,
And sing a song to them.

"And often after sunset, Sir,
When it is light and fair,
I take my little porringer,
And eat my supper there.

"The first that died was sister Jane;
In bed she moaning lay,
Till God released her of her pain;
And then she went away.

"So in the church-yard she was laid;
And, when the grass was dry,
Together round her grave we played,
My brother John and I.

"And when the ground was white with snow,
And I could run and slide,
My brother John was forced to go,
And he lies by her side."

"How many are you, then," said I,
"If they two are in heaven?"
Quick was the little Maid's reply,
"O Master! we are seven."

"But they are dead; those two are dead!
Their spirits are in heaven!"
'Twas throwing words away; for still
The little Maid would have her will,
And said, "Nay, we are seven!"
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Saturday, July 16, 2005

Arts & Crafts

Last year in London, Sarah Carrington and I went to hear art historian and curator Linda Parry lecture on the Arts and Crafts Movement. Her talk was hosted by the William Morris Society in the elegantly decorated lecture hall of the Art Workers Guild. Parry was working on an exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum, which I have since seen, that examines the Arts and Crafts movement as the first truly international art movement. The following are some of our notes, as they relate to Notion Nanny.

The Arts and Crafts movement originally took its name from the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, whose first exhibition analyzed the state of British industry and tried to reconsider the decorative arts, a genre previously considered to be of minor importance. Across the Western world, the context of political and social turmoil in the late 19th century led to a longing for escape from industrialization. Artists and writers extolled the values of the 'simple life' and tried to recall and revive previous ways of living and working. This led to a celebration of local vernacular traditions in a bid to strengthen national identities undergoing significant change, and many countries attempted to redefine their national identities through an exploration of traditional heritage. Though the Arts and Crafts movement today is sometimes characterized in terms of making on an amateur basis, its original protagonists argued that with improved working conditions, everyday goods would be better designed and made.

Ruskin's writing underpinned the movement as a whole. He provided a 'beacon of sense' to people jaded by industrialization. Stones of Venice proved to be most influential on William Morris, as it confirmed his belief that medieval art was 'made by ordinary men.' Morris argued that ideal workmanship would only be realized in Britain if people moved away from degradation in the workplace and if employers provided their workers with more enjoyment. His own workshop was organized like a Medieval guild, and his employees worked slowly and laboriously to make beautiful things that the factories couldn't.

Influenced by the A&C movement, colleges developed courses and workshops to teach design and the decorative arts, and in 1896 Lethaby established Central St. Martins College. At the same time, a series of workshops were established in rural areas by philanthropists who attempted to 'take advantage of local skills and resources,' for example the Langdale Linen Industry in Cumbria. Unfortunately, the workshops were rarely sustainable, as the only buyers of their products were in London due to the unexpected but necessarily high price of the goods being made.

Ultimately, the movement appealed to a need for escape among urban professionals who craved rural experience and nature, and the work produced meant little to the rural communities themselves. Rather than providing the masses with well-made things by respected workers, the movement provided a relatively few wealthy patrons with the fruits of its labor. Morris's friend and colleague Ashbee despaired at the privileged image of the A&C movement and felt that this disparity between the object's creation and its user was responsible for the movement's decline. Unlike Ashbee, Morris realized that the movement would not achieve his political goals and he focused his need for change on direct political agitation.


Interestingly, the Arts and Crafts movement in the US was characterizedentrepreneurialneurial spirit unseen in the movement's UK manifestation. The American movement managed to utilize A&C principles with greater commercial success than was possible in the UK, for without the 'moral baggage' of the UK movement, it was far more financially successful and sustainable. Some examples of US A&C enclaves are the Birdcliff Institute in Woodstock, as well as a similar community established in New Jersey.

Parry argued that A&C values are as relevant today as they were then, since there is still little opportunity for small-scale production of goods, and mass production is detrimental to the whole. She also noted that this longing for nature and simplicity through handmade goods still holds strength today.

In Notion Nanny, the current context of political and social turmoil will be referenced via objects relating to war, trench art, and revolutionary art movements. Through the representation of a Revolutionary War-era village character type, the figure suggests a longing for escape from the present crisis, and through the peddler figure specifically, escape from corporate power structures and the commercialization of art. But rather than extolling the values of the simple life, I am looking back to moments of complexity and conflict. By foregrounding various vernacular and popular art/craft forms I am trying to recall and revive ways of living and working that speak to the current situation I find myself in as a contemporary artist, working in the context of war and a deep national divide. Rather than a celebration of local vernacular traditions in a bid to strengthen national identities, I am questioning what the notion of national identity means, and how nations, communities, artists/artisans produce visual histories.

I would like to pick up on this thread of craving for rural experience and nature, and how that is always connected to the urban experience. When it strays too far into the actual countryside, it loses its charged meaning and power. I recognize that there is something urban in my desires, and that the context for this project resides in both urban and rural settings simultaneously.
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Wednesday, July 06, 2005

Field Research

On a one-week research trip to Cumbria, I tried to meet with as many local makers as I could, including a coppice worker, charcoal maker, wood turner, doll maker, knitter and hook rug maker, blacksmith, bone and horn carver, and a walking stick and rustic furniture maker. I met with each person for a couple of hours at their home or workshop. We spoke about the history of their craft and the notion of tradition, if and how they had apprenticed themselves to learn it, and how they feel about exhibiting, demonstrating, or selling it and in what context.

Alan Hartley, a coppice worker, described the ways in which the local forests have been worked and maintained for centuries. Coppice workers cut down young trees, strip them of bark, and use or sell the lumber for various things including, historically, furniture, firewood, charcoal, and bobbin-making. Alan does not consider himself a “traditional” maker, since he uses various machinery to help him do his work, including a circular planing machine which strips the bark from the trees. He says that he uses this machine because he has to make a living, and to do it the traditional way would be too laborious and time-consuming. However, being a coppice worker is traditional job, since it is an increasingly expensive and uncommon trade. Special forest areas have to be fenced off to protect against deer that would otherwise feed on the young saplings, and one has to get grants to do this kind of work and to keep the tradition alive. Alan, who has worked for the Forestry Commission, said that this is a shame, since most of the local forests are neglected and need maintenance.

Besides coppice work, Alan works in old houses to replace ceiling timbers. He considers himself an engineer rather than a craftsperson. According to him, the most traditional thing he does is to make traditional seats and pub furniture out of coppice wood. After the trees are cut and stripped of their bark, they are stacked against a tree and dried in the sun. Then each rounded pole is cut down to make the sturdy rustic furniture commonly seen in the outdoor areas of local pubs.

Alan described this work as a chosen way of life, one he has happily not taken a holiday from in twenty years. Making furniture is a “rainy day” project he does in the off-hours to keep himself busy when he can’t be in the forest. In an uncanny evocation of Ruskin, Alan said he only makes a few seats at a time, and only sells them through word-of-mouth, “otherwise it would be like a factory.” He is anti-advertising. His work is very tied to weather and nature. Making seats provides him with a slower pace of life and a chance to get out of the rain. He feels it is good for his health, and on a larger scale, “good for man,” since we need healthy forests for a healthy planet.

I met Audrey Steeley, formerly of Grizedale Arts, who now runs a heritage museum at the Heron Corn Mill, a working corn mill dating back to 1740. She told me a bout many local makers, and introduced me to Michael Booth, a wood turner who sells his work at the mill. Mike belongs to a local woodturning society, which holds monthly meetings and demonstrations. A prolific maker, he said he enjoys woodturning primarily for pleasure, and only sells his work to get rid of the surplus. Unlike other craftspeople in the region, he is not interested in showing and selling his work at the country fairs and agricultural shows, as he feels they are too expensive and boring, “like watching paint dry.” He doesn’t teach, because he has invented his own methods and techniques, and thinks he couldn’t teach the basics properly. So for £5 I bought a small wooden goblet he made with a ring around its stem, a somewhat common object he said, made as a way to show off your woodturning skills, and he explained how he did it so I could try it on my own. When I said I wasn't sure if I could do it as well, he remarked. "Well there ARE lady turners..."

I spent a lovely afternoon with Joanne Gill, who makes bobbin dolls from the wooden spools used for thread, as well as patchwork creations and beaded greeting cards. Trying to be, as she said, a “hostess with the mostest, “Joanne served up delicious tea and cookies in her immaculately clean home, as she told of how she has been a housebound maker, feeling poorly over the past several years. Crafts have been a way to occupy her idle hands and to stave off boredom. She has always been a maker, since she was a child and avidly watched Blue Peter, a project-centered television show for kids.

Joanne remarked that Notion Nanny is like a “journey” to learn the crafts of the peddler doll. She herself has journeyed to peddle her wares at the fairs, with some success in Cumbria but more in Newcastle. She attributed this to the fact that maybe her work doesn’t fit into the description of “traditional enough” for what people are seeking in this region. There is an interesting transformation happening in the Lake District, in which an influx of people are coming to the region and buying homes and property for holiday use. Many of these houses are only occupied by their urban owners for part of the year. Yet this growing population, seeking fulfillment of a particular notion of the countryside, have begun to transform the region into a kind of ideal fantasy of the countryside, leading some to wonder what happened to the “real” Lake District.

I spent another lovely afternoon with Audrey Grisedale, who works in lots of mediums and like Joanne, will “have a go” at any craft that strikes her fancy. In her parlor she set up an impressive array of objects that she went to the trouble of retrieving from friends and loved ones for the purpose of our meeting. You see, Audrey would never think of selling her work, rather she only gives it to people as gifts. Next to the fireplace a series of colorful crocheted teddy bears sat ready to be given to the police department for child victims of accidents. Other bears had been sent to children in war-torn regions of the world. She also showed me pieces of Ruskin linen and lace work she had done, which she intended to pass on one day to her nieces. On the wall were two hook rug banners depicting portraits of Herdwick sheep. These were made as memorials for local farmers who lost hundreds of sheep during a recent epidemic of foot and mouth disease in which mass hysteria provoked the government to have thousands of sheep killed unnecessarily. Audrey was visibly emotional as she told this story and its effect on her family who have farmed in the region of over three hundred years.

One of the positive outcomes of this traumatic event was an evening crafts group formed by Audrey and some other women in her community. Every week, women would gather to talk and make things. For the farms that lost their sheep, regular daily farming activities came to a halt, and this group became a positive way to offer women something productive to do with their time and with their feelings about the event. According to Audrey, the group was quite popular and it allowed the women of the community to come together, to exchange skills, and to expand notions of their individual identities. Whether it was in the sense of urgency evident in her making of the teddy bears and banners, her participation in the tradition of creating family heirlooms, or her desire to create a community-based crafts group as a therapeutic response to trauma, the notion of giving was key to Audrey’s craft pursuits.
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Saturday, July 02, 2005

English Popular Art


nanny-color
Originally uploaded by notionnanny.
A couple of years ago a British friend gave me a beautiful old book on English Popular Art by Margaret Lambert and Enid Marx. It is a slim 1946 hardback, itself a wonderful example of book printing of that era. This image in particular caught my attention. An example of a genre within 19th century popular art, it seemed that the peddler doll in some way also attempts to represent ALL of the popular arts, as individual objects in her basket. It reminded me of Robert Morris's self-reflexive art work "Box with the Sound of Its Own Making," a small cube with a mechanism inside that plays a recording of just that. I am interested in the doll as a multi-layered representation: it is the thing and it is about the thing simultaneously. The basket presents a context, the world of traditional and popular art, as though the doll produces or provides it, while also being a product of it.
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Friday, July 01, 2005

At Your Doorstep

Welcome to the Notion Nanny weblog, where you will find news and information about this project.
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