Provenance: Flame Stitch

Flame stitch - that bold, often colorful, zig zag pattern - is hot.  Think of flame stitch as a design rather than needlework, especially when considering how it is used today.  While flame stitch is trendy now, it has been around forever, probably since the 13th century.  Let’s take a quick look at flame stitch’s history.

The origin of flame stitch is murky and romantic.  Most scholars agree that it is primarily Italian, with either a dash of Hungarian or Middle Eastern roots thrown in.  Flame stitch could be a hybrid of two stitches, the brick stitch and the Hungarian stitch (seen in the 13th century German altar curtain below) brought to Italy by a beloved Bohemian princess on her many trips there.  Alternatively, flame stitch may have a Middle Eastern relative, given its resemblance to ikat, that traveled to Italy via the Silk Road.

While we can’t DNA flame stitch, one of the earliest surviving examples is found in England.  There, in the Elizabethan manor, Parham House, an entire room is still upholstered in Italian wool from the 16th century bearing a flame stitch pattern. The principal bed at Parham House also is adorned with flame stitch.  Surely it is not coincidental that Mary, Queen of Scots (who ruled Scotland then) was Marie de Medici’s sister-in-law.

Italy has few extant early examples of flame stitch.  Some 17th century chairs wearing the pattern reside in the Bargello Museum in Florence, explaining why flame stitch is sometimes called “Bargello” or “Florentine” stitch.   The French call the pattern “Bergamo”.

Flame stitch remained popular in the 18th century spreading throughout Europe and to the colonies.  It often decorated clothing then, as these British shoes and American pocketbook from that time period show.  It truly must have been all the rage, as the ladies of the Greenwood-Lee family thought it chic enough to include in their c. 1747 family portrait.

Flame stitch never really went out of style.  The Scalamandre flame stitch velvet covering these 19th century settees is period perfect.

New fabrics are still being created today.  Have a look at these textiles from Schumacher and Zimmer + Rhode, and how designer Nina Farmer upholstered a chaise in flame stitch for her Boston townhouse.

In the 1970s, flame stitch wallpaper was all sorts of groovy.  Meg Braff recently updated that old seventies look with a new wallpaper dubbed appropriately, “Flambe.”

The flame stitch pattern (and its appeal) hasn’t changed much over the years.    With maximalism now in vogue, we wouldn’t be surprised to see a fully upholstered flame stitch room someday soon.

Flame stitch.  Still on fire.

This post was guest edited for CLOTH & KIND by Lynn Byrne. lynn is an expert in decorative arts and design history, who also has written extensively about art, travel, and interior design. She studied decorative arts at Parsons and is well-known for explaining design terms and themes found throughout history.  

PHOTO CREDITS // German altar curtain from Bayrose, ikat example from Hand Eye magazine. Parham House photos by Andreas von Einsiedel for Homes & Antiques magazine. British shoes from Metropolitan Museum of Art.  Pocketbook from Museum of Fine Arts.  Family portrait from the Museum of Fine Arts.  Nina Farmer’s home, by Paul Raeside.  

---

Flora Crockett

That last name sounds familiar.  We associate it with a man who had an adventurous and independent spirit: Davy Crockett.  Turns out that Davy's trailblazing qualities have traveled the generations and were imbued in his ancestor, artist Flora Crockett.

Never heard of Flora Crockett?   Well it's time you did.  The paintings by this forgotten artist were recently lauded by leading art critic, Roberta Smith, for the  New York Times as " a body of work that could hold its own in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art or the Museum of Modern Art and in the history of abstract painting." Roberta's "first sighting" of this extraordinary work took place at  an exhibition mounted by Meredith Ward at her New York City gallery.  The very day Roberta published her discovery, I hurried uptown to see the works for myself. 

My first hand view did not disappoint.  Crockett's paintings are sparkling.  Her color sense  is joyous.  Hues of complimentary colors of orange and blue, red and mint green, yellow and lavender are brushed on loosely in biomorphic and  geometric shapes.  

In later works, Crockett further defines shapes, and speaks to negative space, by delineating her canvases with bright, tangled lines.

Crockett paints with a knowing hand.  One can see the influence of famous artists like Leger, Miro, and Kandinsky. But Crockett has a signature, crisp, beaming color palette and her free-flowing compositions are unique.  Take a look at this painting by Crockett on the left and  Kandinsky on the right to compare:

Crockett's artwork also reflects the time that it was painted.  This body of work was completed between 1965 to 1973 when Crockett was in her seventies.  It was just after the Color Field paintings of artists such as Rothko and Frankenthaler re-invigorated the use of color by making it the point of their work. This painting by Crockett in particular recalls the blocks of color employed by those artists.

By now, you are likely wondering why you never heard of Flora Crockett before.  It is a classic tale of a struggling artist working hard to support herself while trying to save money so she could take time off to paint.  Sadly the pressures of putting food on the table seemed to impinge on Crockett's artistic creation.  A graduate of Oberlin College with a major in art and mathematics,   Crockett was employed in the fields of art education, design, sales and engineering during her life.  This left time for only 3 solo art shows in her lifetime, the last one in 1946.  

Yet her efforts to further her own art education show that her art remained very important to her.  In 1918, she married an Italian sculptor and, in 1924, they moved to Paris.  There, Crockett found work directing a school for orphans.  Somehow she also was able to continue her education at the Sorbonne, the Louvre and Leger's  Acadamie Moderne, where she eventually became the director.  

After her marriage failed, she returned to New York in 1937, and in 1940, she rented an apartment on 14th street. She lived and painted there for the rest of her life, holding down a variety of jobs to make ends meet. Her last art show was a group exhibition in New York's Overseas Press Club of America in 1965 when Crockett was 73.  Interestingly, all of the paintings so celebrated by the New York Times  (and seen in this post), were painted after that show. 

What sparked this late-in-life creative explosion?  Meredith Ward explained to me that by the time Crockett reached her seventies, she was able to retire and finally could devote her days to her passion, ushering in her most productive artistic period.  Flora Crockett painted solely for her own pleasure, in her little 14th street apartment, which, in part, explains the paintings' modest size (most are only 24" wide).  According to Meredith, at this stage Crockett would not even let her family see her work, turning canvases around to face the wall whenever someone came to the apartment.  It's fascinating.  Given the freedom of leisure, Crockett's creative genius finally and exuberantly burst forth.  And, with the confidence of age,  she kept it all to herself, not needing the affirmation of others.

After Crockett's death in 1979, her nephew, Austin Hart Emery, inherited her paintings.  He stored them in a barn in Albany.  Meredith Ward told me she heard of the works through a friend, who then introduced Meredith to Emery's daughter Mary Emery Lacoursiere, an artist and designer living in Nantucket.  

When Meredith Ward saw photographs of the paintings, she was immediately intrigued by this forgotten artist and began the process of cleaning the paintings and mounting the current exhibition.  She hinted that there may be more works by Crockett still in storage. How fabulous.  

Will the Whitney or MOMA heed Roberta Smith's advice and purchase a Flora Crockett? I hope so.  It would be sad if these dynamic and happy paintings were hidden away in private collections.  The world should finally be able to appreciate the art of Flora Crockett.

PHOTO CREDITS // Except for the painting by Kandinsky from Bloomberg.com, and the image of Flora Crockett from Meredith Ward, all images of paintings by Flora Crockett are by Lynn Byrne.

EDITOR CREDIT // This post was developed and written by guest editor Lynn Byrne.

Provenance: Nottingham Lace and Madras

Who hasn't been seduced by the image of lace, moving softly in the breeze, with the sun streaming through leaving an intriguing pattern on the floor.  Or perhaps a tuft of lace at the neckline of a beautiful woman.  So romantic.  Kind of feels a bit like Downton Abbey or a Ralph Lauren ad, don't you think?

Well, as it turns out, there is only one remaining mill in the world that continues to make true Nottingham lace (and its cousin, madras) - and it is, natch, the lace that you see on Downton Abbey and couture fashion from brands like Ralph Lauren, and Scottish designer Elizabeth Martin whose designs are shown above.  

Who is keeping this legacy alive? The firm Morton, Young and Borland Textiles, based in Ayrshire, Scotland about 25 miles from Glasgow. 

And what's so unique about MYB Textiles' lace? Two things, and both are irreplaceable.  First it is the looms that their product is woven on.  Nottingham refers to the place where the  machine and technology for making the lace first developed, not the lace itself, and MYB Textiles' looms are over 100 years old.  No other firm has them. 

MYB has carefully maintained their original looms from the company's inception in the early 1900s and acquired additional ones as other companies have gone out of business.  These special looms allow MYB Textiles to create wide width fabrics, with highly ornate patterns or, if need be, simple gauze-like textiles. 

But don't assume that MYB Textiles is lodged firmly in the past.  Rather it is the firm's unique ability to adopt modern technology while respecting it's heritage that has allowed the company to survive and thrive.  

And that brings us to MYB Textiles' second unique feature.  Unlike other companies that produced these textiles,  MYB has installed a carefully orchestrated apprenticeship program to allow skills to be passed down from generation to generation.  Plus, a look at the company's Tumblr account also reveals that they regularly take interns from Britain's designs schools, opening themselves up to fresh new ideas from young designers. 

An example of  MYB Textiles' ability to marry old and new goes to the heart of their business.  They have a vast archive of historic designs that they often draw upon for inspiration.  Yet, those designs are now developed with computer assistance.  The company has found a way to harness it's 100 year old looms with electronic jacquards allowing the use of CAD.  

 Margo Graham, one of just two Nottingham lace designers still in existence (her one-time apprentice, Kashka Lennon is the other) explains, "Designing used to be watercolors on draft paper (seen below, left)  but now it's computer-aided. The techniques are still the same but all the skills have been transferred. All the cutting and pasting had to be done by hand in the past, now it's a lot easier."

Even with the advent of modern technology, however, there is still much done by hand. Those 100 year old looms are quirky.  They run slowly and require careful monitoring.  

Once the fabric is loomed, it is taken straight to the darning room to be checked for imperfections.  A hand darner will "invisibly" correct any error, be it by adding missed stitches to the pattern or by removing an extra stitch, known as seeding. Not surprisingly,  it takes many years to become a good hand darner.

So what's the difference between madras and lace?  With madras, below left, the pattern is woven onto a gauze background, so that only the pattern, not the ground, needs to be designed.  Lace (below right), on the other hand, requires that both the background and the pattern be designed. 

Modern technology or not, its obvious that the lace and madras produced MYB Textiles are imbued with romance from the outset. 

EDITOR CREDIT // This post was developed and written by guest editor Lynn Byrne.

IMAGE CREDITS // All lace shown is produced by Morton, Young and Borland Textiles. Quote from Margo Graham taken from an article published in Homes and Antiques magazine in November 2014. Fashion designed by Elizabeth Martin and fashion photos came from Textiles Scotland. All other images from the MYB Textiles website.