I spent a day at the V&A. I'd been there before but couldn't tear myself away from the textile wing (except for tea in the Morris Room, well worth the visit). This time the textile wing is closed so I visited the British Galleries. Never fear, plenty of textiles there.
The light was very dim by the cases with textiles. All of my pictures came out black until I played in
Photoshop--so the quality isn't the best. I think the dim light helped the garments with metal and spangles really sparkle.
This glove had frills of metal-thread bobbin lace.
The embroideries were very fine--their
gros-point needlepoint was equivalent to what we consider
petit-point. Most of the stitches looked impossibly tiny. Look at the fine fillings in this piece.
The above design is for a mirror frame. It is unfinished and shows what a fine drawing the embroiderer worked from. The detail is amazing and you can see that level of detail was kept in the finished embroidery. Sure puts me to shame!
I saw plenty of crewel, saving that for a later post. On the way out I stopped in the gift shop for postcards.
And a book I'd been promising myself since I saw Mary Corbet's post on it on
Needle 'n Thread.
The light was very dim by the cases with textiles. All of my pictures came out black until I played in Photoshop--so the quality isn't the best. I think the dim light helped the garments with metal and spangles really sparkle.
This glove had frills of metal-thread bobbin lace.
The embroideries were very fine--their gros-point needlepoint was equivalent to what we consider petit-point. Most of the stitches looked impossibly tiny. Look at the fine fillings in this piece.
The above design is for a mirror frame. It is unfinished and shows what a fine drawing the embroiderer worked from. The detail is amazing and you can see that level of detail was kept in the finished embroidery. Sure puts me to shame!
I saw plenty of crewel, saving that for a later post. On the way out I stopped in the gift shop for postcards.
And a book I'd been promising myself since I saw Mary Corbet's post on it on Needle 'n Thread.
