Chapter 10 - Research
The Past
Having started on the research for this chapter, I was taken on a fascinating journey from the invention of the first sewing machines with Charles F. Wiesenthal's British Patent number 701 for a machine to facilitate embroidery, therefore not sewing seams but embroidering to the invention of the two-thread lockstitch invented in 1845 by Elias Howe. The internet is a great resource for digging deeper into the subject and I became very interested in the history of the development of many manufacturers machine, downloading images of instruction manuals. A couple of years ago, I bought an Essex machine on eBay and the manual was fragile, so I had downloaded the manual from the ismacs site before and found it fascinating.
In the late 19th Century, Singer encouraged machine use and a seminal work on machine embroidery was produced in the 1930's by Dorothy Benson who was a teacher in the Singer workrooms. Her book Machine Embroidery ( The Artistic Possibilities of the Domestic Sewing Machine) is as useful today as it must have been inspiring when it was first printed. All the instruction is as relevant today as it was then. One of Bensons student was Rebecca Compton whose work is now in the V&A collections, her vision was to turn embroidery into a respected art form. She in turn taught Constance Howard. Howard went on to teach at Goldsmiths and become an inspiration for many future students.
The Present
Jan Beaney, Jean Littlejohn took innovative embroidery forwards and some mixed media textile artists have formed groups of contemporary creators such as the 62 Group. Val Campbell-Harding founded the Computer Textile Design Group in 1996 and again moved the form forwards teaching many students who in turn developed their own ideas and innovations.
Maggie Grey is a prolific creator and incorporates machine embroidery into her complex textile works. She has published a host of books instructing and inspiring aspiring textile artists to try new techniques.
There are so many creative stitchers currently that the form seems to have freed up artistic talents in so many ways. Some create tight photorealistic images; some have used the needle to make portraits and some completely abstract - the opportunities seem endless.
Continuing developments in sewing machines open new horizons to stitchers to create their own designs on computers and transfer these to the machine software which then interprets the design and stitches. I haven't had the opportunity, or the cash, to try one of these machines so I can't speak with any authority on what I think of them. I am sure that many will say as they have before, that like machine embroidery compared to hand embroidery, "it is the machine that's doing the work".
One of the interesting things that I have found is how many men seem to now be more interested in machine work and stitching. Richard Box, Mr Finch, Mr X all seem to be at the forefront of male stitchers. At a recent Alexander McQueen exhibition at the V&A, I enjoyed closely examining the stitching detail on some of his designs. Machine embroidered, not by him, but inspired by him. Such a loss to the creative world.
The future?
With the continuing development of sewing machines, IT possibilities, fabric developments, other product developments, needle and thread technological advances and of course the artistic human brain, who knows what the future holds?
It is interesting that many stitchers concentrate on one or two forms when there is a whole world of creativity out there with which to experiment. I think about the medieval stitchers sewing by candlelight and what they might have thought of where we are today.
Like many art forms, some people say, "What's it for?" My unspoken reply is that it is for pleasure, expression, personal development, relaxation (seldom that), meditation and so much more - making is at the soul of our being, it always has been and I hope always will be.
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