Welcome to NeedleXChange, conversations on the artwork of thread. It’s our podcast wherein Jamie “Mr X Sew” Chalmers talks with needlework and textile artists about their follow and course of.
Dr Susan Kay-Williams was the Chief Govt of the Royal College of Needlework from 2007 to 2024 and is a recognised professional on the historical past of color and textile artwork. In our latest NeedleXChange we cowl the historical past of color in textiles, in addition to how tapestries developed from a utility product to an artwork assertion, and all method of matters in between.
Susan’s perspective on textile artwork is exclusive, as we all know from reviewing her guide The Story of Color in Textiles
As we learnt from speaking with Susan, we take dyed textiles with no consideration within the trendy age, and many people are passive shoppers of colored threads and materials.
There’s a wealthy historical past in how our trendy use of textiles developed in relation to color. Within the Center Ages there have been extra colors out there to painters than there have been to dyers, so the woven photos have been unable to precisely characterize the colors of the time. The examples beneath characteristic Raphael’s Therapeutic of the Lame Man in paint and Tapestry and illustrate the purpose.
Susan has devoted nice items of analysis to exploring the strategies of color manufacturing. Her guide tells a narrative of energy, wealth and secrecy, together with how the Spaniards stored the manufacturing means of cochineal so secret that it was solely with the arrival of microscopes that individuals found that the color got here from a beetle and never a berry!
If you wish to study extra about material and color, you possibly can try Susan’s guide The Story of Color in Textiles, and to delve even additional into Susan’s data, you possibly can try our full NeedleXChange interview right here. You’ll by no means have a look at your threads in the identical approach once more!
The Story of Color in Textiles by Susan Kay-Williams is on the market from all good retailers. Why not get your copy from the Mr X Sew Amazon Retailer?
Don’t neglect our different episodes of NeedleXChange, which you discover right here!