Foxgloves, Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy and Embroidery

About two years ago someone very close to me was diagnosed with Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy with obstruction (HOCM). This is a thickening of the heart muscle and usually hits the press when a footballer or athlete drops dead without warning (although it must be said that this is rare, I believe only about 1% of HOCM sufferers are at risk of sudden cardiac arrest). HOCM is a genetic disease so a diagnosis affects the whole family, tests have to be arranged and other factors have to be considered such as life insurance and mortgages. For awhile it was difficult to make sense of things, then I started sewing and so began Love in Idleness.

I am not great at gardening but a couple of years ago my Mum gave me some foxglove seeds from the plants in their garden. My daughter and I planted them in the front garden and the next spring we had such a beautiful display of not only pink but pale peach colour foxgloves. It was around this time we received a newsletter from the Cardiomyopathy Association with an interesting article about the use of digitalis in the treatment of heart disease http://www.cardiomyopathy.org/index.php?id=3538 

Most people know that the foxglove is a poisonous plant but it can also save lives. In recent years cardiologists had moved away from digitalis as studies had suggested it didn't help to prolong life, but now they are finding that this study may have been wrong and are once again recommending it for patients with heart failure.

On a lighter note I recently found out that the foxglove is the county flower of Monmouthshire, the county I now live in.

The name foxglove is a corruption of the word ‘folk’s glove’ and the plant has long been associated with the fairy folk. Other names include fairies’ petticoats, fairy caps and fairies’ dresses. It is rumoured that if you see a foxglove bending over, there may be a fairy hiding in one of the bells.

The name Digitalis  means ‘finger length’, and this name is said to have been given to the plant by the German botanist Leonard Fuchs in his Herbal, which was published in 1542. The name foxglove was first recorded in C14, however, in Scotland it is sometimes called bloody fingers or dead men’s bells due to the plant being poisonous.

New beginnings, fine silver, silk and hand embroidery

When I first started Love in Idleness I knew that I wanted to embroider wild flowers into jewellery, and that was about it. I knew nothing about starting an on line shop, nothing about advertising and nothing about pricing. I bought pewter frames which were nice and then looked at what I thought was similar work on line. I then came up with a ball park figure as to what I should charge. And so began what has turn out to be a nice little self funding hobby. However, I want this to be a successful business and since starting I have met other designers through Twitter who have made me realise that I am being unrealistic with my pricing. As http://poppysparkles.blogspot.co.uk/ has said "Don't compete on price- it won't make for a viable business". How some of the designers on Etsy ever make any money I will never know. I believe that if the price doesn't reflect the amount of work that has gone into a piece it makes the customer doubt the quality.

In the beginning I bought square pewter frames...lots of them, and after while of sewing miniature wild flowers into them I began to get bored of squares. I wanted to make each piece unique, make the entire pendant a Love in Idleness original. After being inspired by a book on metal clay I found at the library and then later discovering the beautiful work of  http://www.silverpebble-jewellery.blogspot.co.uk/ I thought I would try making my own frames using silver clay, which, when fired leaves fine silver (99%).

I read all I could and then finally took the plunge and bought all I needed to start out. I made my own mold to shape the frame around using fimo, rolled the clay and then sculpted the pendant shape. I have done a lot of work in clay in the past and was amazed how similar it felt. I pressed a blackberry leaf into the back of the frame and allowed it to dry for several days (just to be on the safe side).

Then came the nail biting moment of firing it, after two test strips I went for it. When silver clay is first fired it is still white so it was with some apprehension I took my wire brush and started cleaning, it felt like archaeology, brushing away the dust to find beautiful, shining silver. After further polishing I then used an antiquing solution to really bring out the definition of the leaf.

I am so pleased with the result, when you hold it in your hand it feels like a fossil discovered while out rambling.


Meanwhile, I had been working on a variation of my bramble design, the new oval shape opened up all sorts of opportunities:

I am working on a silk/cotton blend and using fine continuous filament floss silk thread. I use a combination of stem stitch, satin stitch, seed stitch and anything else that fits in. Once finished I mounted the embroidery on card and set it in the frame.

All in all, bearing in mind I am also a full time Mum, this piece has taken me about two weeks. To price this using my previous technique would be unrealistic and an insult to all the embroidery artists and jewellery designers I admire. I have taken a tried and tested pricing formula and priced it at £92.

I hope you would agree that this is a realistic price given the work and materials that have gone into creating this miniature work of art, and I hope that this is the start of a new and exciting chapter to Love in Idleness jewellery.

Thanks to Mother Eagle,  an artist I greatly admire and someone who appreciates the work that goes into creating these pieces.

From A Streetcar Named Desire to Bernard Leach's cabin.

I have just realised that I haven't really introduced myself, this is me, Victoria Matthewson:

 

Oh dear.

I was born Victoria Collins in Buckinghamshire, I had a perfect childhood with loving parents and an older brother who taught me a healthy appreciation of Star Wars, Middle Earth and rolling dice on a Sunday afternoon.  

I  always enjoyed studying art and drama and after A-Levels I decided that and actor's life was for me. I was accepted at Guildford School of Acting and spent three jolly years doing pretentious things like pretending to be a blackbird for 5 weeks.

Here I am playing Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire:

 

And here I am in Jim Cartwright's play Road (I am in the White dress, it's set in the 80's so I need no excuse):

 

 

During rehearsals in my third year I decided to make and embroider my own graduation dress, I had a lot of time on my hands, this was the result:

 

 

A sign that maybe acting wasn't the life for me.

I met my husband while working at the Odeon cinema in Guildford. I would heartily recommend a cinema job to any young person who is interested in films. Apart from free entry the camaraderie was the best I have ever experienced.  

For someone who spent three years training to be an actress I am very proud of my achievements since. I worked my way up to Assistant Manager at the cinema then left to explore Australia for a bit (well, you have to don't you). After coming back and getting married I begged English Heritage for a job as I thought it would interest me. A very brave lady decided she wanted to work with this strange ex-actress and I am so grateful to her for giving me the opportunity to learn about so many amazing building. I have stood on the roof of an C11 church looking at lead work, I have been in a World War II anti aircraft simulator and ventured down the military tunnels under Plymouth. I stood in Flodden Field while an expert described the heart of the battle that happened around me.

My favourite case was an application to list Bernard Leach's cabin that he had built in the grounds of Dartington Hall. It was a small wooden cabin, designed by Leach to be his home and it was here he wrote his work 'A Potter's Book'. Such a simple building but we recommended it for listing due to historic association. Our recommendation was rejected by the Secretary of State for several reasons but the one that sticks in my mind is that Bernard Leach did not get enough Google hits. Sigh.

Anyway, I became a full time Mum after having my second daughter and, much as I love this job, I started to feel like I needed to do something for myself, and so began Love in Idleness...

Commissions

Just before Christmas I was asked by two different people to do two separate special commissions, a cornflower and a bluebell. I had actually photographed a cornflower the previous summer that I found in the car park on the school run but had shied away from trying to sew it. There are some flowers that are difficult to scale down and I had always looked at the cornflower and thought it was just too complicated. Still, I like a challenge so I tried a few sketches and actually it was really enjoyable to draw.

 I transferred the sketch onto the silk and hooped it up, I have tried using wooden hoops but just can't get on with them. As the fabric is cut close to the image I find using a rubber hoop keeps the tension I need, working on such a small scale can sometimes mean you really need to be a bit rough with the work. I know this may be frowned upon by other embroiderers but it works for me.

I started with the bulb, I love the definition of the diamonds but they were very difficult to work, I started over three times before I was happy. Once I was happy with this I started on the petals, this was great fun, I worked in tiny stem stitch and graded pink, black and three different shades of blue.

 This is some of the smallest stitching I have done and I am really pleased with the result.

I can't show you as many images of the process of the bluebell, the run up to Christmas, my daughter's birthday and the spread of the noro virus around our house meant that I wasn't thinking so much about photographing as I went. To start with I hadn't managed to take any decent photos of bluebells throughout the year so I had to rely on my library of wild flower books. I decided that to try and sew the entire flower would be unrealistic so I concentrated on a single bell. Again, I had to start the piece several times, I found the angle of the long stitches difficult, but eventually I got it. 

 I work with a magnifying lamp and sometimes can't appreciate if the piece is working or not until I put it away, give it a break, then look back on it. Every time look back at this work I love it a little bit more, it is so simple but affective.