Bridging Arts

Sunday 22 August 2010

Notes on muslin

A Sunday morning spent filing - will have to move office shortly and am packing up. Come across a loose sheet of scribbled notes on muslin made during a visit last year to the V&A with Restart 50+, the group of Bangladeshi women we were working with in Wandsworth.  We looked at 18th century embroidery patterns and everyone was filled with excitement. Papers and embroidered muslin brought out from the archives by curator Mor Thunder prompted various thoughts from the women that I scribbled down at the time. Do not want to lose them now.

 - 80 yards of the finest muslin can fit in a matchbox
- if you leave fine muslin out on the grass overnight, the dew will make it invisible
- the musin industry was destroyed by the Raj.
The visit was inspired by a piece of muslin brought into a focus group we ran a few months earlier with the women.