Author: Jane

At our October meeting we were treated to an unexpected talk by member Daphne Dedman. Our booked speaker was unable to attend (she will come in 2023 instead). Instead, Daphne kindly gave us a talk about her work: firstly, the work she has done on repairing and restoring Masonic banners and then on her own work. Banner restoration started with volunteering to repair the banner for Worthing, and it gradually snowballed until 10 years later she has become rather an expert. Daphne explained how she  preserves as much of the original work as possible, only replacing some areas if they are beyond repair. The work encompasses goldwork, silk shading, applique, fabric painting and much more. Sadly I am not able to show any of the banners here, because we don’t have permission from the Masons to show them.  However, the second half of Daphne’s talk was about her own work, and she brought some lovely examples to show us. We were all impressed with the range and quality of Daphne’s work. Isn’t it good to see someone’s work all laid out together for people to enjoy. Scroll down below to see some examples of Daphne’s work.

Mary Crabb gave an interesting and thought-provoking talk at our August meeting, called ‘Significant Figures’. As well as appealing to embroidery/textiles enthusiasts, this was a moving talk that reflected the themes of loss and remembrance. Mary is a weaver and basket-maker, who was inspired to create a body of work to honour her grandmother’s first love, Cecil, who died in France in 1915 very soon after lying about his age in order to enlist.

Despite an apparently happy marriage later on, Mary’s grandmother always remembered her first love, Cecil, referring to him as ‘my Cecil’. She kept a postcard on her mantlepiece, with Cecil’s photograph on one side and some brief notes on his life on the other side. Mary’s work became a mission to honour Cecil’s life and to understand the way her grandmother kept his memory alive. Part of Mary’s journey involved visiting places associated with Cecil; for example on the 100th anniversary of his death Mary visited the beautiful cemetery in France where he was buried, where she placed a posy in his grave.

Mary decided to create a memorial plaque for Cecil, using her twining skills. This was created in copper, and the design is a mathematical creation based on the number 18, due to the 18 years of Cecil’s life.

Mary visited Cecil’s school, where she was shown a roll of honour of all the old boys of the school who had gone to war, and she learned that 255 did not return. This inspired a new piece of work, a reflection on the real cost of war in the loss of young life. Mary’s mathematical mind came to the fore in this project: she created a very long line of stitched white tape, on which she embroidered lines (like a school register) with an ‘up’ arrow for those who went to war, and a ‘down’ arrow for those who didn’t come back. Each boy had a number in the book, and for each one who didn’t come back Mary made a ‘dog tag’ that she attached to the tape. Each tag represents a young man from the school who didn’t return. Cecil is number 481.

Mary was always very moved by her grandmother’s love and loyalty. She created a piece of work that reflects this. She painstakingly wrote the text of her grandmother’s postcard onto white paper, time and time again, then twisted them and made them into many individual medallions. Each medallion represented all the days in each of the years in which her grandmother had remembered Cecil; presented together on a large wall, they represented the decades. You can see a photo of the whole installation on Mary’s website.

Judging by the intelligent mathematical question asked by someone behind me in the audience (you know who you are!) other people had a better grasp of the mathematical concepts behind Mary’s work than I did. However, Mary’s talk appealed on very different levels, including the intricacy of her work and the historical context. It was fascinating to hear about the way her grandmother honoured Cecil’s memory for so many years. It was interesting to hear how such a big body of work can be inspired by one idea, in this case the lifelong remembrance of a lost love. To see more of Mary’s work, and the courses that she offers, go to https://www.crabbbaskets.com/

It doesn’t seem like a whole year ago that we were just cautiously coming out of lockdown. Our picnic this month was the anniversary of our first in-person get-together in July 2021. Formally the new SCS group started earlier in the year, but our first meeting with ‘real humans’ that summer rather than rectangular people on zoom felt like a new beginning, so this years picnic was a nice anniversary. Numbers were slightly depleted this month, due to holidays, Covid, and the extreme heat. However, those who attended had a good day, and managed to stay cool with the help of a collection of gazebos. Our stand-in David Bailey this month was Sue P, so thanks for the photos Sue.