The last few months have been excitingly busy. Amongst other things, I've been very happily teaching the history of folklore studies to a rather excellent group of continuing education students. Their stimulating questions have been helping as I'm formulating a series of forthcoming conference papers on the topic, and I've also gone back to agreeing to review too many books as a way of keeping abreast with what's going on out there. This has all helped at a time when I currently don't have even any honorary affiliations on the go. (University-based readers, I'm sowing seeds here...)
But I remain a folklorist because I'm interested in expressive folkloric culture and the minutiae of day-to-day cultural practices. From my initial interest in folk song, through my doctoral research in folk belief, to my current preoccupation with disciplinary history, I may sometimes have given the impression of not being too attentive to material culture. (A curatorial colleague has on occasion teased me for just this alleged failing). It isn't quite true, though, as my real joy this week at seeing a small but astonishing museum exhibition of embroidery has confirmed.
'Inspiration' at Havering Museum, Romford, is a small representative selection of the work of the late Wendy Pidgeon, my father's cousin. (She was technically a cousin, but I'll always think of her as an aunt). Wendy had been a pattern cutter professionally until the birth of her children. She later studied and then taught embroidery and was an active and brilliant craftswoman but, as her son Andrew noted in his eulogy for her, her creative practice encompassed art as well as craft, and she saw a very definite relation and distinction between them.
The single case at Havering Museum shows more of the artistic thinking, including her wonderful creative experimentation to highlight the range afforded by her technique. The transfer of Picasso imagery to fabric in 3-D models is a good example of this kind of testing of the boundaries of art and craft.
Wendy's phenomenal technical ability and wonderful eye are clear, as are her curiosity and experimentation. The case contains one of her many study notebooks, which contain ideas, images, test pieces etc. But even this is only part of her range. She had specialised in ecclesiastical embroidery, and the church of Edward the Confessor just round the corner in Romford Market is rich with examples of her work. (The piece below was displayed during her funeral service). Her craft became active in her belief practice, and she contributed to the very fabric (literally) of her church.
Such levels of skill and accomplishment in vernacular art and craft would already be worth celebrating, but there was even more to Wendy. She was, also, an organiser and developer of community for the learning and transmission of these neglected and threatened techniques. This was evident in her adult education teaching, but it also led her as a London College of Fashion student to seek out the Embroiderers Guild. On finding that there was no local branch, Wendy and Pat Hamlin set out to form one in 1992. She was tireless in working to cultivate and nurture. Romford Embroiderers (now no longer part of the Embroiderers Guild) continues to this day. Again, this guidance and development of community spanned all of her approaches to embroidery, as she also ran her local Church Embroidery Guild.
It was a joy and a privilege to know her and to see her work celebrated in this way. It is to be hoped that we will be able to document her accomplishments in some further, more permanent way. In the meantime, the display runs until later this week.
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