Look what I did this weekend!

I’ve wanted to have my hands decorated with henna, sometimes called mehndi, for a long time – about 12 years, since a colleague had hers elaborately done for her wedding (this was Joanna of the Embroidered Coif Kit, who will be joining us for the 9/26 embroidery session – yay!). I finally got a chance this weekend, at my twin nieces’ six-year-old birthday party, oddly enough. My brother had a magician/balloon artist for the children’s entertainment but also booked a henna artist, on a whim, and because he thought the girls and their guests would enjoy it. We certainly did – all the children (except the smallest and wiggliest) and most of the grown-ups got a design.

After all those years you might think the reality wouldn’t match my anticipation, but actually I am delighted beyond all reason. For the past couple of years I’ve been thinking quite a bit about how and why human beings decorate themselves (did you spot the massive understatement?), with clothes and jewelry and make-up. I think the impulse to adorn the important and special, to highlight attractive characteristics and hide the rest, is universal to human societies, or very nearly so. Personally, hands have always been special to me, more than special, almost magical.

You may have seen the photos of the embroiderers’ hands at work that I frequently post here. I love to watch skilled hands manipulate tools and materials. The urge to create, the ability to create, the process of creation even more than the end result is fascinating to me. I was captivated by the symbolism of decorating the hands, to call attention, to accentuate, to honor.

For a full 10 – 15 minutes each, the time it took Heather to decorate them, my hands were forced to be idle. I spent the time admiring her skilled hands as she drew the design free-form. Then for about 30 minutes, I waited, still with idle hands (pretty unusual for me) while the henna dried. It took hours for it to flake off, and Heather says the designs will last a couple of weeks. I think, as long as they last, I will be spending some time contemplating and appreciating my hands.

From Marty, via the comments:

What would they have kept in their knitted pocket? Also, were these pockets made in other ways, such as quilted or of leather?

We surmise that the colonists kept small personal items in their knitted pockets, also coins, although there was little use for coins during Plymouth Colony’s early years. We guess perhaps a comb or a thimble, a handkerchief, a letter, or ? I recall one interpreter who was portraying the mother of a five year old son. She always kept two or three little pebbles in her pocket as if he’d brought them to her. I thought that was kind of weird, this being long before I was the mother of a small son. Years later, I thought of her whenever I emptied my pockets at the end of the day and found pebbles.

Our interpreters keep all of those things in their 17th-century pockets, plus marbles, or a steel striker and flint and tinder (for period fire starting) and reproduction 17th-century coins. I know they also keep bent nails, bits of twine, yarn or rope, books of matches (for non-period fire starting), hard candy/cough drops and cigarette butts. These things I have cleaned out of pockets prior to washing/dry-cleaning.

If you look carefully at 17th-century paintings, especially crowd scenes, you can find many shapes and sizes of personal bag/pouch/pocket. They seem to be made of a variety of materials. Some look sewn of cloth or leather. Of course quite a number of embroidered “sweete bags” survive in modern museums, but these would have been beyond the means of most of the Plymouth residents. The V&A has a book called Bags, written I think by Valerie Cummings. Most of the examples are post-1650 (alas) but it is worth a look.

We have two or three kinds of small-to-medium-sized leather pockets/pouches represented on our sites as well as the knitted ones. There several more kinds I would like to have, but have not yet developed either the methods to make them or sourced all the components we’d need.

Wendy sent this entry:

Of the many things that happen during a session one of the most interesting is the general conversation, exchange of ideas, favorite books, food, movies and music. To continue the exchange and sharing here are a couple of things:
At the last session I mentioned several books that deal with the women who accompanied their husbands to sea and the life that they and their children led. It’s an eye opener to contemplate: a ships kitchen in a boiling sea, all the forks and spoons going overboard, dentistry and childbirth to name but a few issues and all while wearing a skirt and petticoats.

So for those that asked here are a few titles to look for:
Sail Away Ladies by Jim Coogan pub 2003
Hen Frigates by Joan Druett pub 1998
Captain’s Daughter, Coasterman’s Wife by Joan Druett pub 1995
Petticoat Whalers by Joan Druett pub 2001
Captain Ahab Had Wife: New England Women and the Whalefishery, 1720-1870 by Lisa Norling pub 2000

Who among us doesn’t look for new ways to store and keep tidy our stash of stitching supplies?
The boxes or “Thread Chests” we are using to store needles, silk perl and the GST have gotten quite a bit of attention and many questions regarding where to get them. Tricia found them and used one for a project she created called “Pandora’s Sewing Box” published in Just Cross Stitch magazine. They are the perfect solution for this project as well.
The one we use is called ”Travis” and is available from Creative Imaginations – www. CreativeImaginations.us
Here is the stock number and description – #16333 Travis Case-3 Tray Inserts
Here is the direct link to the page – http://www.creativeimaginations.us/store/16333.php

I have been able to spend a good deal of time recently working on the gold thread embroidery and it is really beginning to make the piece come to life. While the polychrome embroidery is always impressive,
once the gold goes on a project, you realize that the piece was previously ‘flat’. There is nothing like that sparkle. I almost finished the gold work on the collar recently and couldn’t help playing with the lace lengths that our friends had finished for the wings. Here you can see it curved around the edge where the lace will finally be applied in the finished waistcoat. Just breathtaking. This object won’t need any light to be shone on it. It will be a beacon of its own. And we haven’t added the small ‘oes’ on the embroidery yet! Another level of sparkle to go!

Tricia

Having a ton of people working towards a common goal is really fun. Not something you often get in needlework which is usually a solitary activity. When we have work sessions, there is always something going on that you haven’t seen before and we are all whipping out camera to document the techniques we have developed or discovered. Here is one that we can share.

During the last session, Carolyn came up to prepare more bobbins with metal thread and spangles. We had a nice visit from Mark with more spangles, delivered in his classic rusty can again! We may have to make him some sort of silk fabric covered box to carry these amazing precious ‘gems’ so they come to us in a more proper manner. I am not sure that those who use the nails he makes show the same reverence for his work as us ’spangle ladies’.

Instead of keeping the spangles loose in a jar, we keep them on safety pins. We put 25 on each pin so we can keep count of how many we have and have used without having to touch them. Even thought the ribbon was plaited with gold, it has been rolled and cut at the edges exposing the silver. When we want to put them on the metal thread, we put the end of the thread through a needle and can easily put the needle thorough 25 at once by holding the safety pin up. Once the pin is removed, they are on the gold thread and it can be wrapped around the bobbin. We use mini-hair clips to keep the bobbins from unwinding and creating a tangled mess.

Rebecca only needs a hat and coat, and she only needed the coat because it was raining ferociously that day.

She looks great, and did great even on her very first day. This all happened a few weeks ago; she’s really no longer a “newbie” anymore, and in a couple of weeks when we hire a few more interpreters to end out the season, she won’t even be the new kid anymore.

We have a phrase here, that describes the state of being prepared to receive museum visitors – camera-ready. Often the interpreters will head down to work on the Village site in the morning not quite entirely dressed. They’ve got clothes on, period clothes even, but maybe they’re not buttoned, maybe the women’s hair isn’t tied up, maybe they haven’t removed eyeglasses or nose rings, maybe they’re carrying a Dunkin’ Donuts cup.

Sometimes, we have a film or photo crew on the site before 9:00 and everyone needs to show up “camera-ready.” In that case there’ll be a big note in the Carriage House letting everyone know that.

Here Rebecca is technically camera-ready, but she still needs a couple of items to be really done.