Jennifer Forest

Is it Art? Grace Kelly: Style Icon

“So”, he says with a smile “Is it Art?”

I had just spent a few minutes praising the beauty that is Bendigo Art Gallery’s Grace Kelly: Style Icon exhibition from the V & A Museum. Just truly gorgeous 1950s dresses and attractive hats and shoes, (and the less appealing 1970s kaftans but I won’t mention those)…… all up a very pleasant way for a textile devotee such as myself to spend a Sunday morning.

My pre-booked ticket in hand I joined the queue for the first session of the day: 10am, and I just have to say I was glad I went in early. By the time I left at about 11.30 the gallery was packed! The exhibition unashamedly focuses on the wardrobe of Grace Kelly, this is not a hard hitting critique about the role of women in the 1950s, or the Cinderella dream. But does it have to be to be in an art gallery? (No, I don’t think so.)

Grace Kelly’s life in the movies and as the Princess of Monaco is told through the exhibition labels, and the clothes on display are linked perfectly to those stories. In a world where the clothes on offer (in Australia anyway) are pretty boring, taking time out to enjoy the beauty of design and skill of craftsmanship is a treasure.

But to the question: is it art?

With my professional background as a (history) museum curator, my husband well knows the debates that rage in museum and gallery circles. Hence his provocative question, he knows my answer.

So are the ‘soft’ things, those dresses really art? Do they deserve a place in an art gallery? Isn’t it all just a bit populist to have an exhibition of dresses?

So to make an inexpert stab at an answer (I studied history, not art!), I googled, as you do these days, a definition of art.

You can see the answer here:

Most of it says the same thing around this theme:

“The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power”.

To me, that seems pretty straight forward, an item can be considered art for:

• its beauty or 
• its emotional power, so its ability to tell a story or connect with you at an emotional level. 

Then to Beauty

I can say that I definitely appreciated the Grace Kelly collection for its beauty. It takes a high degree of design and practical creative skill to produce such beautiful clothing. So on that count alone, I think a gallery is justified in having a textile collection on display. It meets the beauty criteria.

Source: Flickr The Foxling is the source for both the photos of Grace Kelly's wedding on this post. This one is the dress worn for the religious ceremony and the photo at the top of this post is the dress worn to the civil wedding ceremony.

Tell me a story

I can’t assume that everyone who viewed the exhibition would come away musing on:

• How we all love Cinderella stories. (Or do we?)   
• How a woman in the 1940s and 1950s made her way to the very top of a highly competitive industry. (The movie business)
• Why do textiles and craft have to fight for recognition for the centuries of creative endeavor and design skill by both men and women. (There are just so many museums full of tanks and trams!) 

But for some it would raise these and other questions. It did at least for me meet the story telling / emotional connection criteria as well.

So it meets both criteria, so I am very happy that its on display and protected by the V&A. (As my husband knew I would answer!)

I would also argue there are plenty of things in art galleries which may meet only one criteria – beauty or emotion – and in some cases fail dismally on both accounts! But then I guess beauty, like art, is all in the “eye of the beholder.”

Behind Jane Austen’s Door Giveaway

Thanks to everyone who downloaded a free copy of Behind Jane Austen’s Door when it was on the Amazon giveaway. I must say I was completely surprised at just how many downloaded a copy, so many people! I do hope you enjoyed it! And, very exciting …… I got my first review which you can see over at Amazon and I copied it below, because well...getting the first review is always, always so exciting!

“What a delight! If you are a Janeite then you surely enjoy Jane Austen's novels over and over and OVER again. This charming, short Kindle read is a look behind the scenes at how a Regency house, manor or cottage, is run! The floor plan is before you and you are escorted via the author through the rooms - sweetly told about the goings on of each room, their importance and what likely sort of discussion you would partake in when in such room(s). Great book to own to re-read from time to time as the background of the living situations during Jane's era is most fascinating to me. “

If you’ve read your copy, do feel free to tell me what you thought: send me a comment here or leave a review over at Amazon.

Behind Jane Austen's Door Giveaway

Source: Flickr Suandjames

It must be the month for giveaways! This weekend my second book "Behind Jane Austen's Door" is available for a free download from Amazon Kindle.  If you don't have a kindle (you really are missing out - no just kidding!) you can download a version for whatever device you have or read it straight on your computer.

So what is Behind Jane Austen's Door about?

Have you ever wished you could escape the everyday and just for a moment live in Jane Austen’s world?  

Jane Austen did not place her stories in palaces or on the battlefields, but in that one building soimportant, then and now: the home.  The house, and lack of a home are key to Jane Austen’s novels: Elizabeth Bennett and her sisters in Pride and Prejudiceknow they will be homeless when their father dies, Elinor and Marianne in Sense and Sensibility are evicted by a cruel sister-in-law, Anne Elliott in Persuasion is forced to leave a loved home due to the folly of her father, and both Catherine Morland inNorthanger Abbey and Fanny Price in Mansfield Park are the dependent guests of wealthy families.  Only Emma Woodhouse is the unfettered mistress of her house inEmma.

Marriage was more than just a romantic alliance for Elizabeth Bennet or Elinor Dashwood. It also meant a home of their own, and a valued role as mistress of the house and estate.

“And at that moment, she felt that to be mistress of Pemberley might be something!” Elizabeth Bennet visits Pemberley, Pride and Prejudice.

But to get that home, to secure that marriage, Jane Austen’s women had to walk a tightrope of social expectation, field off competitors and rise above their embarrassing family situation, all while remaining true to themselves. Behind Jane Austen’s Door explores the challenges and experiences of Jane Austen’s women lived in their object of desire: the home.

 

 

 

International Quilt Day Giveaway

Photo Source: Flickr - some gorgeous quilts from the very talented Jennifer Worthen.

Early one morning, very early, I woke on a cold Aussie winter morning and turned on my skype.  I had breakfast and waited to be called "into the TV studio" of The Quilt Show in the USA.  I was interviewed by the lovely Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims about Jane Austen's Sewing Box, and then a few months later the show went to air and I was on TV in the USA! Wow! And I didn't even need to make the 20 hour flight there. 

Well, to honour International Quilt Day next weekend The Quilt Show are giving away free episodes and lots and lots of them!  From March 16 -18, you can view 117 shows for free (this is usually a subscription service).  

When my DVDs of the series arrived here, I had great fun watching all the different techniques and stories they have about fabric and quilts. I particularly liked learning about trapunto quilting. The Quilt Show has a huge range of techniques, so if you've some spare time next weekend have fun!

If you are curious, I was in Episode 608. 

 

 

Welcome to my new site!

Welcome to my new site! I've been blogging over at another site but decided it was time to make some changes.  So as my first post I'm trying out posting a video. Hope you enjoy it!

What would Jane Austen keep in her sewing box?

I don't have a huge collection of 19th or 20th century sewing tools, just a select number of things I have inherited or found at vintage fairs. But I have meet people who have a passionate love of collecting sewing tools, and they have some truly amazing items.

But aside from that what would Jane Austen have had in her sewing box? Here's a list of what a typical Regency gentlewoman would have as her sewing tools:

1. The most useful of other sewing tools were work bags and huswifes. A gentlewoman may own several work bags of different sizes and materials, used to house different projects.  Bags for plain sewing were made from off-cuts of dress fabric and were mostly plain or worked with sample stitches. Work bags for traveling were decorative pieces with embroidery designs stitched and then sewn into a bag.  Silk and crewel work embroidery techniques are commonly found on Regency work bags often with elaborate floral designs. It held all the materials and tools needed for the embroidery that a visiting gentlewoman could complete in company.

2. Tucked into the workbag was a huswife, a small case to hold needles, scissors and threads.  Examples of these from the Regency era also show a range of styles, fabrics and sizes. Most huswifes were quite small and made from off-cuts of women’s dress material and men’s linen shirts material. A common small style is a rectangular three-fold huswife with pockets for threads and needles and a tie for scissors. The huswife was rolled or folded up into a small bundle and secured with a ribbon wrapped around the middle.

3. Also tucked into the work bag was often a thread case (there's a pattern for these in my first book). A highly decorative embroidery piece required many yards and many colours of thread, which were kept together in a thread case.  A thread case was designed solely to hold the thread winders and included a series of small pockets on the inside. It too was rolled or folded in upon itself and secured with a button or ribbon.  Embroidery threads did not come pre-packaged as is common today. Rather a gentlewoman would work out what colours and how many yards she needed to work her piece before visiting a haberdashery store, linen drapers or all purpose store like Ford’s in Emma to purchase the yards off the roll. She then took her yards of thread home to wind around a thread winder. Thread winders were an art in themselves with many decorative ivory thread winders worked in France. Other common materials used to make thread winders were bone, mother-of-pearl and wood. Thread winders were common presents carved by the men of the family for sisters, mothers and wives.

4. During the Regency, needles were still hand worked steel and therefore fairly expensive purchases.  Needles were kept in needlecases so they didn’t get easily lost. A needlecase was a very simple folded piece of card or fabric with woollen or linen pages inserted into the middle on which to secure the needles.  The outside was often decorated - painted with watercolours like the one Jane Austen made or embroidered if fabric.  Needlecases made from silver could also be purchased.

Seen But Not Heard?

Source: Flickr -Lin pernille

Jane Austen’s mother sent each of her babies at the age of three month old out to a local family to nurse and raise the child. The baby was raised in another family’s home but was visited each day by their parents: seen every day but perhaps not heard everyday?  At the point when the child could walk and talk, they returned to the family home.

From the first time I read this, I always thought this sounded a bit  harsh. Mrs Austen though was following a rather old and mostly aristocratic tradition of sending babies away to another family until they grew into capable children. By the time Jane Austen was born though it was far more common to bring a nanny and nurse maid into the house to provide care at home for babies, even in aristocratic families.

Despite Mrs Austen’s old-fashioned habits, parents were expected to take a proactive and hands-on role in their children’s care and education, whatever the form that education took. It was not uncommon for children to be educated at home, as the five Bennet sisters are in Pride and Prejudice: but that did mean serious study under a tutor, governess or freelance teachers.  

There were schools, like we know today. However many schools were like Harriet’s school in Emma, relying on the qualities of the head teacher rather than any external curriculum or management.   Such a school was suitable for the ‘Harriets’ of the world but not the 'Emmas'. And that's because someone like Emma had to learn how to run a large household, and where did you do that? At Home! The best way to make sure a son or daughter knew how to run an estate or the household was for them to learn directly from Mum and Dad. A child older than 10 or 11 was expected to accompany their parents on their daily routines, whether that was supervising servants or meeting the bailiff.  

With so much formal education outside the home these days, did they know something we have forgotten?

Should You Write A Craft Book?

I went down the traditional find- a-publisher route for my bestseller Jane Austen's Sewing Box: that is, make a sample project, write a chapter, search for publishers who might be interested, contact, cross fingers and hope..... and I was very lucky to find the amazing Kay Scarlett who completely understood the vision, and took it to new heights. But I suspect for many crafty writers, finding that one person in the publisher's den, who really "gets" what you are on about is really very rare, and sometimes impossible.

Self-publishing a crafty ebooks potentially opens up new avenues for would be writers, the tools are out there now, like Amazon Kindle's publishing platform and other online distributors like Smashwords.  Createspace and Lulu also let those same ebooks become print editions.

But before you go to all that effort of doing a craft book you need to think about this. And let me tell while it sounds glamorous to write craft books, its actually a lot of sweat and tears. You have to make original designs, do various prototypes to make sure it will work, make a final project version, write up your instructions so others can understand them, plus write a chapter, you need the ability to design, create and write.... and that's just the first step!  Don't get me wrong here: I would do it all again! But its not for the faint-hearted.

I've followed Sister Diane of Craftypod fame for some years now, I always enjoyed her podcasts and great blog posts. So I must say I was delighted when she asked me to review her latest ebook Write, Publish and Sell Your Crafty Ebook.  I've done a couple of her courses and bought a couple of her ebooks, which are always great. And her book on writing a crafty ebook actually explores a lot of these issues behind writing a crafty book: will people want it? what's involved in writing? what's involved in creating? If you want to write a crafty ebook (or even a crafty print book) you need to think about this carefully.

Here's my full review I wrote on the new Craftypod book: "Write, Publish and Sell Your Crafty EBook by Diane Gilleland of www.craftypod.com fame is a must buy for all Indie writers and publishers!  The up-to-date information is a necessity and the comprehensive range of worksheets will get you taking action. Drawing on her own solid experience of writing and publishing eBooks, Diane Gilleland takes you step by step from:

• Idea conception and the writing process,
• To the technicalities of getting an eBook out there, and
• Then right through to what it takes to sell an eBook in the frantic Internet world.

The section on marketing and selling your eBook alone is worth purchasing this book for: it provides an excellent process you can repeat over and over again to promote your eBook sales, and any other crafty products you may sell. The easy to read and beautifully designed Write, Publish and Sell Your Crafty EBook is invaluable for anyone serious about becoming a craft writer and publisher."

Sugar & Spice and All Things Nice?

Source: Flickr the green gal

I tend to do a lot of research when I'm preparing for a book (or report for work or anything like that).  I like to make sure I have the big picture fully under control! Which means that I then often have a lot of left over research, which I thought you might find interesting. So over the next few months I'm taking that research and  I'll post interesting features up here...... The first one is on sugar, I love sugar even though its not good for you!

Sugar was without a doubt the taste of the Regency - sweet and in large quantities.  This was the first time that sugar became cheaper, before then people relied on honey for a bit of sweetness. Sugar was now used in almost everything: drinks to pastries, confectionary, jams, sweet breads and cakes. The popularity of tea, coffee and chocolate, with a sugar lump or two, also drove demand for sugar. Many old British recipes relied on sugar, flour, eggs and cream or butter as the base ingredients, with fresh and dried fruit, walnuts, almonds, wine and spices added to make the sweet buns so typical of the era.

The ‘Bath Bun’, a yeast bun sometimes with dried fruit or caraway seeds, was baked in sugar and then sprinkled with sugar. Moving into the dining room, a Regency guest would not be surprised to find sugar in a chicken dish, vegetables or a pudding (which was usually fat and flower, not necessarily a dessert).

Sugar was of course also found in large quantities in the sweet diary desserts, like custards using cream and milk, and jellies also served at the dining table. But sugar came at a huge cost: sugar was only so widely available due to the Caribbean sugar plantations, like Sir Thomas Bertram’s Antigua properties in Mansfield Park, and their slaves. Sugar needs warmth, lots of land and lots of cheap labour: the West Indies had the warmth and land and cheap labour, well, came from slaves captured by British ships.

During the late Georgian era, the abolition of slavery was a key political debate in certain circles. The anti-slavery campaign achieved some legislative steps to outlaw slavery, from the first step to outlaw slavery in Britain in 1772 then to the prohibition on the import of slaves to its colonies in 1808. It is questionable though how much this debate was played out in the confectionary and tea shops in town, or at the dining and drawing rooms of a Regency gentleman’s home. 

Fanny Price in Mansfield Park is willing to learn about Sir Bertram’s West Indies properties. “But I do talk to him more than I used. I am sure I do. Did not you hear me ask him about the slave trade last night?” [Fanny] “I did - and was in hopes the questions would be followed up by others. It would have pleased your uncle to be inquired of further.” [Edmund] “And I longed to do it - but there was such a dead silence! And while my cousins were sitting by without speaking a word, or seeming at all interested in the subject, I did not like - I thought it would appear as if I wanted to set myself off at their expense, by shewing a curiosity and pleasure in his information which he must wish his own daughters to feel’. Mansfield Park

My Life in Two Minutes

I have always enjoyed Valerie Khoo's My Life in a Minute blog posts that she does over at her site. So as I turn to my much neglected blog at the beginning of 2012, I thought it would be fun to write a post like her posts with a few exceptions such as this disclaimer: I don't pretend my life is anywhere as interesting as hers! But lets try this out: Thankful for: The gorgeous pink roses in my garden. They love the weather and keep blooming all summer: just have to love them. Plus its not just my garden, they are in my neighbours' gardens as well!

Buying: I bought a Kindle from Amazon which arrived last week and I love it! I read lots of books and have a great fear of being away from home without a book: doom and disaster, what will I do!  Now I have a Kindle that will never be a problem! I love paper books and I was a bit worried about what it would be like to read on, but it  is actually a really easy and pleasant experience.

Planning: I've been busying getting ready for the release of my next Jane Austen book Behind Jane Austen's Door.  This will be my second book on Jane Austen. I have at least another two books coming out in 2012 and one kind of Austen inspired and the other completely new and different!

Loving: This game my daughter is playing: Manga Play Secret Garden. We borrowed it from our local toy library, which is just absolutely fantastic. If you have kids, you should definitely check a toy library out, the fees are low and they have an enormous range of toys. Perfect for when my daughter says "Can I have?" "I want" and I say "Let's look in the toy library". Plus the best thing is when she gets bored, we take it back and get something else. Just fantastic! This is one of her latest borrows: its so gorgeous.  Magnetic shapes that come in a little metal tin with a book of designs to copy.

Reading: Two books, one print and one ebook.  I'm reading Kate Grenville's Searching for the Secret River for fun and Kim Kiyosaki's It's Rising Time for fun and education. Both great books! Surviving: The noise in the library! My wi fi is down due to over enthusiastic diggers and workman outside our house, so I'm in the library! Which is full of children doing scientific experiments and periodically squealing!

Craft Sanity Magazine Summer Issue

I had a delightful chat with Jennifer Ackerman-Hayward of Craft Sanity over Easter. It was quite a free ranging conversation about all sorts of things - including craft, Jane Austen, children and the towns we live in, just to name a few.  I've enjoyed her podcasts immensely over the years and was most interested in her latest magazine endeavour.

She has very kindly featured my book Jane Austen's Sewing Box in this forthcoming issue of her Craft Sanity magazine. Jennifer and her team always do such lovely covers, with interesting & different craft articles and patterns on the inside!  I truly don't think I will ever forget the random beanie knitter/ gifter from Issue 1.