Pulling Strings Reference Library: Tara Bursey

Our Pulling Strings Reference Library event next weekend is fast approaching!  More info to come in a few short days, but until then here's another book review, this one from our very own Tara Bursey!

Young Brides, Old Treasures: Macedonian Embroidered Dress
Bobbie Sumberg, Editor
Santa Fe: Museum of International Folk Art
(2013)

The summer after I left school, I was asked by someone I know at the Canadian Macedonian Historical Society to take a look at their permanent collection as well as consult with them about converting an unit in the building they are housed in into a mini-museum of Macedonian social history.  When I visited the collection, I was wowed by some of their beautiful (as well as some of their more humble) examples of Macedonian textiles even though much of it was in very rough shape.  One of my first little jobs fresh from school and a contract at the Textile Museum, I simmered with excitement thinking that this was the kind of work that I could actually make a life's work doing-- connecting textiles and social history, not to mention working with objects related to my own family's ethnic identity.

As I wandered through the CMHS's archive, I spotted this incredible book-- the massive catalogue of an exhibition that happened last year at the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  Young Brides, Old Treasures flaunts big, beautiful images of complete folk costumes from across the Republic of Macedonia with a focus on Macedonian embroidery. While embroidery is central, the costumes feature other trademark embellishments such as coin work and lavish red fringes and tassels.  Many thanks to Santa for getting me a copy of this catalogue for Christmas last year!  For those interested, my copy is in the PS Reference Library at Needlework-- hop over and give it a look!

Tara Bursey
Interdisciplinary Artist and Curator, Pulling Strings Member
http://tarabursey.com
http://tarabursey.blogspot.com

Pulling Strings Reference Library: Karen Thiessen

Our next Pulling Strings Library Project mini review comes from local textile and mixed media artist Karen Thiessen.  Karen can sometimes be seen at Needlework, the Pulling String Library's home base, stitching something tiny and beautiful, often with a Japanese flavour.  Her choice from her own collection celebrating the fine art of the stitch comes as no surprise.   Keep your eyes on the blog for even more reviews through April as we head toward our library launch!

Nui Project Embroidery Stitches 

Kobo Shobu, Japan, 2003 

Nui Project 2 Embroidery Stitches 

Kobo Shobu, Japan, 2007 

Sandra Brownlee introduced me to the Nui Project 1 and 2 books during a visit to her studio in 2010. The Nui Project is a group of male and female textile artists who have intellectual disabilities and live in a facility called Shobu Gakuen in Kagoshima, Japan. With the assistance of facilitators, Nui Project textile artists embroider ready-made shirts and other textiles to be sold as commercial products and the results are spectacular. The textiles aren't all wearable or functional but serve more as remarkable sculptural objects. Each artist has his or her own distinct style and the textiles are stitched intuitively. A common characteristic of the artworks is the awe-inspiring accumulation of stitches. I purchased the books from Yoshiko I. Wada’s Slow Fiber Studios online shop and they are now sold out. Contact the shop to see if the books will be reordered.

Karen Thiessen, textile and mixed media artist
www.karenthiessen.com http://dayindayout10.blogspot.com

Shirt by Naoki Fujimura and Aki Nozawa, Cotton shirt & Mixed Media, Hand work and sewing machine, page 38 Nui Project 2

Pulling Strings Reference Library: Kate Jackson

Welcome to the second installment in our series of mini "reviews" of textile books from the collections of some of our favourite textile heroes, this time featuring two offerings from fragile embroidery artist Kate Jackson.  Enjoy, and keep on the look out for more posts like this one over the next few weeks leading up to our April event in connection with the Pulling Strings Reference Library!

A Handbook of Lettering for Stitchers

Elsie Svennas

Van Nostrand Reinhold Company
1973 (original copyright 1966)

The first book is small but full of amazingness... I found this book in a great used bookstore that lives inside a fantastic bed and breakfast in Durham, Ontario.   The book is full of photos of different letters of the alphabet done in a variety of stitches.  There are also some charted alphabets but the best part of the book are the last pages with each page devoted to one letter drawn in amazing fonts.  I would say it is THE go-to book for anyone wanting to stitch monograms.

 

Sassy Magazine

 

I had a subscription to the magazine as a kid...from grade 6 onwards I think...  and I recently found a box of the magazines in my moms attic.  I was super inspired by them when I was younger.  They influenced my fashion style, I learned what DIY meant and made a shirt/dress out of a pillow case as one issue suggested.  My friends and I made zines all the time I crushed over a pair of Fluvvogs pictured in the magazine for years before getting my own pair. The artsy cool independent girl vibe in this magazine is for sure somehow responsible for me wanting to be artsy cool and independent!  I remember being thankful for Sassy when I was a kid and I remember bringing it into school and showing my friends who were all reading YM and knowing that MY Sassy magazine was different and ALTERNATIVE! and waaaaaaay cooler!   Finding that box last summer and rereading them does not disappoint.  

Kate Jackson
Textile Artist
Toronto, ON
http://katejacksonart.blogspot.ca/

Winterlore at Hamilton Winterfest 2014

Thea Haines, Blanket Fort 

Things have been a little sleepy here on the Pulling Strings blog for the last few months.  If you've been wondering what we've been up to since our last event, we were hard at work up until a few weeks ago in our respective roles for Hamilton Winterfest, a community event presented by the City of Hamilton Tourism and Culture Division that has been going strong for nearly four decades.  Jen was by and large the main brain behind this year's installment of Winterfest, I curated Winterlore, the outdoor exhibition that was part of the Winterfest kick-off event, and Thea was one of the exhibition's ten participating artists.  Her embroidered Blanket Fort (pictured above) was a beautiful and evocative tribute to the importance of warm textiles to Canadian pioneers in wintertime.

The photos below show more highlights from Winterlore and the Winterfest kick-off event.

Jacqui Oakley and Jamie Lawson, Awakening 

Tonya Hart, Phantasmagorical Nights 

 KalynDar (wearing some lovely Ukrainian-inspired accessories)

Hitoko Okada, Lotus Lantern

For more information and photos of Winterlore, take a look at the exhibition Facebook page!  Also, stay tuned for more information about our upcoming March/April event coming very soon!