Stott Park Bobbin Mill

 The bobbin mill opened in 1835 making a range of bobbins for the Lancashire cotton mills,  mills across the country and across the Empire. It was one of about 70 bobbin mills in Cumbria supporting the Industrial Revolution in cotton, wool, silk and jute.

It was originally powered by water, then steam and finally electricity. The landscape around Stott Mill is dominated by coppiced woodland and the easy availability of coppice poles was crucial to the development of the bobbin industry.

The bobbins were cut from the poles and then bored. The larger bobbins had a much more complicated process. Before the Factory Act of 1878 the mill was worked by men and boys as young as 8 all coming from the local area.

There were over 200 types of bobbin made at Stott Park and other bobbin mills all helping to support the Industrial Revolution.

It is a very interesting place to visit and only takes about an hour to an hour and a half to go around. Today it is a very pretty and tranquil place and belies the fact that life for men and boys working here would have been very hard.

It is well worth a visit and is a very pretty area to take in a walk and to pick up a bobbin to make a snippet roll!

Dyed Snippets Pictures

 In march I dyed snippets in a variety of colours. This included cotton, silk, linen, lace, close- weave and open- weave fabrics, buttons and threads.

The varying colours came not just from different coloured dyes but the fact that different materials have a different up-take of the dye.

The snippets were placed in a pleasing manner with some fabrics overlapping. It was then joined together with embroidery stitches in matching and contrasting threads.

I made three altogether and you can see them above.

I had lots of snippets left over so I am going to use them in making bobbin rolls.

Gummy Silk Paper

 As part of the embroiderers group I attend I made silk paper using the silk fibres which had not been washed to remove the sericin.

The fibres are teased apart and then laid out on baking parchment. They are sprayed with water and covered with baking parchment and ironed until dry.
 The water activates the seracin and they stick together to form paper.

Seeds and other fine things can be trapped within the fibres to make the paper more interesting.

Silk rods can be soaked and pulled apart and also combined with the fibres.

I made a piece of silk paper and combined thistle seeds and thought I would embroider a thistle over the top.

The silk paper needed strengthening with iron-on interfacing to support the stitching.

While I was using the silk rods I thought that if the silk rods were all included in a vertical pattern it would look like papyrus so decided to have a go at an Egyptian piece.

I made a base with the gummy fibres and attached the ironed silk rods vertically.

It was dampened and ironed until all was attached.

Ancient Egyptian geese were painted and then stitched over the top.

A stamp was used for the hieroglyphs

.Silk paper is fun to make and I am sure there are more things that can be done with it.

Flautist

 The flautist was based on the flautist decorating the Etruscan Tomb of the Leopards in Tarquinia. It was a beautifully decorated burial chamber and despite the fact that it was approx. 2500 years old in remarkably good condition.

The flautist was part of a painted scene going around the wall of the tomb featuring a band of musicians entertaining at a banquet.

I decided to try and represent the flautist in stitch.

The embroidery was made from  material collage on a hand painted background. The plants were printed with a hand made stamp and the borders were commercial stamps.

The background was embroidered by machine and hand stitching.

The double flute was probably bone so I tried to reproduce it by using heat-treated lutradur.

I visited the Etruscan sites in Italy just before lockdown and that was my last holiday.

Perhaps if the situation keeps improving I might be able to travel again.

Bobbin Roll

 Back in the summer I did some Eco dyeing on cloth, that was long and thin, using leaves from my garden.  The cotinus and acers gave the best prints. Because the printing was on a long thin piece of fabric, I decided to make it into a bobbin roll.

I mounted the strips on wadding and then decided to pick out the colours especially the pinky-purples to do some embroidery. I used hand and machine embroidery.

The better prints I mounted onto fabric and attached them as patches.

I then neatened the edge with machined rat's tail and then attached the fabric to a vintage bobbin.

The embroidered piece was wrapped round and round the bobbin and then finished with a button.

Creative Mending

 I went to put on one of my hand knitted jumpers and to my horror it had a hole in it, right in the front.  I realised the moths had been at it and it was too munched to darn.

Rather than throw it away or wear for gardening I decided to patch it!

I hunted for the left over wool and decided to knit a stripy patch to cover the hole.

Before I attached the patch I stabilised the hole from the back with some wool cloth stitched on the machine.

The patch was pressed and attached to the front to cover the hole with backstitch.

One new jumper with a creative repair!

Gourds

 I found these wonderful gourds in a florist shop and though that I must buy them!

They have been photographed and now I am drawing them. Their texture is wonderful and knobbly and just asking to be turned into stitch.

This is my first drawing using crayons.