Telling a Story
Embroidery of Fouldridge, Lancashire by Margaret Stansfield (Great-GrandAunt)
Emily Bode tells stories with her collections. Often about family and friends. Thinking “what does my Bode look like?” and “what story do I tell?” I was led down a path of discovering more details of my own families past. Namely how on my mothers mothers side the family is firmly rooted in the Lancashire cotton trade with multiple generations working as cotton manufacturers from the 1800s through to the early 20th Century.
In an embroidery from the early 1930s (see right) by my Great-Grand Aunt Margaret Stansfield (daughter of William Nutter Stansfield (1866-1953), a cotton manufacturer in the Colne area of Lancashire, whose Father James Stansfield (1832-1921) was also a cotton manufacturer in the Area) we can see the village of Fouldridge on the outskirts of the mill town of Colne in Lancashire, showcasing three vital components of English Manufacturing at the turn of the century; The Railway, The Canal and The Mills.
I want to find out more about life surrounding the Mill industry, both Cotton (what my family was involved in) and Wool, in the early 20th Century. Who was involved? Where did they come from? How did they dress? What did they do for fun?
By answering these questions I hope to paint a picture of the people and the society around them to draw inspiration for a collection based on their lives, using fabrics that they would have both worn and manufactured.
I further wish to sample the craft of the era, taking my Great-Grand Aunt as an inspiration, looking at hand embroidery techniques as a means of visual story telling. Furthermore, looking at wool and in particular felting (which I’ve begun sampling for patchwork quilts) I want to experiment with appliqué in a similar manor to design a full bodied collection that not only uses the craft and material of the era/location but also tells its story.