Thomas Colley and the Osbornes

 

The final design! (unframed)

 

John Butterfield gives the finger to Ruth when she asks for milk...

 

Thomas Colley collects money from the crowd at Ruth Osborne's ducking

 

 

Dead cattle!

 

 

The back of Ruth Osborne (unclothed!)

 

Needlelace calf - in creation!

 

First piece of stumpwork for the design!

 

The background canvas on its slate frame - ready to go!

 

My design!

 

Costumes of mid 18th century country folk

 

Key events in the Ruth Osborne ducking incident

 

Friday 23rd May 2014

Today, I have finished!!!!

In one of my ‘history of stumpwork’ books, the account is given of young ladies who spent a couple of years working on their samplers.  In my opinion, they got off lightly!

Seriously, and unbelievably, I have just stitched my last stitch.  I believe I may be one of the first embroiderers to capture a rude finger gesture in raised embroidery (see close-up photo) but could be wrong?

All that has to be done now is the mounting and framing…but a wet Bank Holiday looms, and so what better way to occupy myself?  And then hand-in to Daphne Knott next week and finally – the exhibition.

This has been such a super project.  I hope loads of people are able to get to see our work next month, and enjoy our explorations into these fantastic archives.

What on earth will I do with myself now…….?

Sunday 30th March

Time marches on!  The project is going great guns and everyone is producing fantastic work. One person has even finished her project, which is a spur to those of us who have been trundling at a more leisurely pace towards the exhibition deadline.

I am getting more detail laid down now. Ruth Osborne has appeared from the past, at least in back view. And other elements in this black episode of history are taking shape.  I have added some more photos and committing (at least to myself) to make great strides over the next week as things are quite light on the work front for the next few days.

I’ve decided to call the work ‘Instruments of Darkness’. This is a quote from Macbeth, and I am certainly not the first to extract/apply it to examinations of witchcraft allegations/actions.  But how apt it is!

Thursday 30th January 2014

The design is progressing!  One of the challenging aspects of stumpwork (though its not unique to stumpwork) is that you are creating a three-dimensional narrative work and thought has to be given to the layers of the embroidery so that the final design is coherently constructed. What comes first so that all the groundwork is in place, what is the next layer, and the next, and so on. Sometimes there’s a bit of an engineering challenge too in finding materials and approaches to look like the intended three-dimensional end effect!

So I have been putting in some of the very first layer.  What you can see in one of the photos here is a low angle shot of Ruth Osborne’s body.  She will be clothed eventually and, as will be evident, the stumpwork embroiderer need have no practical grasp of human anatomy! But what does need to be created is some realistic foundation for the clothing so that the eventual impression is of a human body.  The under-layer is put on with a layer of felt and stuffed.

I’m also attaching a photograph of one of the cattle from the design (see photo below) being created in needlelace.  These will also be padded once applied to the final design.  The heads for the cattle will be done separately so that I can apply and pad them up more distinctly than the bodies.

Friday 13th December 2013

Clearly an auspicious day!  Creative writers are always mindful of the ‘tyranny of the ‘blank page’, and it seems just the same with embroidery.   But no longer… I have made my first few stabs with the needle – one signpost and a few needle-lace grass leaves. Hurrah!

12th November 2013

So I’ve made some progress!  The design is roughed out, the canvas is on the embroidery frame, and I am more or less ready to get going.  I’m just going to read through all the original depositions to Thomas Colley’s trial in the archives to see if there are any particular physical descriptions of any of the main characters (over and above those in published trial accounts).

For the design, I have tried to convey something of the key events in such a way as to depict the linkages between people and actions, and the circularity of life stories in general.  Poor Ruth Osborne, but also in a way, poor Thomas Colley who was also to some extent a victim of manipulated circumstances.

Anyway, my plan is to work up the different elements of the design on separate smaller hoops and transfer them to the main canvas. I wanted to work on a black background not only because the events were black days in themselves, but also because it will highlight the stumpwork nicely.

Right then, the needles are sharpened, the threads are ready, and off I go!

6th November 2013

The Threads of Time project is proving very inspiring!  From the first meeting of all interested textile artists, I was drawn to the ‘witch’-ducking trial of Thomas Colley in 1751.  I have long had an interest in 16th century social history and the local English history of witchcraft and drawn on this for some of my creative writing, so this was an opportunity to extend my knowledge into another century altogether!

In reading around the trial and events that led up to it – and benefiting from some really useful input from Professor Owen Davies of the University of Hertfordshire – I came across a great article which contained a very apposite quote –

‘The history of witchcraft is on almost any account so largely the history of human actions that, it may be, transformations, flying broomsticks, even the prince of darkness himself should be regarded as decorative embroidery of the fabric of behaviour.’

(Carnochan, W. B., ‘Witch-hunting and belief in 1751: The case of Thomas Colley and Ruth Osborne’  Journal of Social History, Vol 4, No. 4, Summer 1971, page 402).

It was meant to be!

So my design is still being worked up.  But I would like to try to depict the fact that much of history’s recorded events (in this case we have Thomas Colley’s recantation of witchcraft signed the night before his execution) need careful interpretation.  Just as is the case today, the apparent facts do not necessarily reveal the truth. I know I will be using stumpwork embroidery (it was past its heyday by the 18th century, but what the heck!) but I am still figuring out the details and thinking about which particular scenes will best convey the idea overall.

Part of the background research has been an investigation of 18th century costume – as worn by those less well off.  This alone will be a new challenge for slightly rusty stumpwork skills!

So the next stage will be the exciting one – putting the background material onto the embroidery frame and actually getting going!

How is everyone else getting on?

Frances Green