Blythe House visit with Kay

I loved this trip, not only because I adore looking at vintage fabrics. Love big old dusty books. It was a beautiful building, but mainly it brought back memories of my grandad.

I did not know what to expect to see on the tour. I knew Blythe House held the archives for the V and A, and also the science museum. What awaited me was a wonderful collection of fabric and wallpaper samples. I was like a child in a sweetie shop, not knowing where to look first. My grandad as a profession used to design wallpaper for stately homes. I suppose to be more accurate, he was an artist who hand painted and restored wallpapers in stately homes. His house was always filled with samples of his designs, colour wheels, and the smell of paint. As a child I completely took them for granted. Even got told off for scribbling with felt tip pens over some of them. I had wondered why the adults were making such a fuss, "I had enhanced them had I not?" were my thoughts.


Here at Blythe House were samples just like his. Beautiful, delicate designs, and I felt emotional seeing them. It never had hit me until then that I was doing a degree in a field in which my grandad had worked. I knew he had gone to Art College where he studied to become a painter, something his father had done before him. I wanted now to ask him all the questions about his artistic life. All those questions as a child you never consider. Why ?.... he was just grandad. He whistled, and gave me fruity polo's.

Blythe House had a wonderful collection of fabric sample books out for us to look through. Heals fabric sample book for example, an invaluable guide to a company renowned for promoting modern design in Britain. My firm favourite on display was the collection of Presage Paris Fashion Forecast books. Amazing they were, all like pieces of art in themselves the way they had been compiled. I could have scooped them all up and taken them home with me.

It was a wonderful morning, and certainly a source of inspiration, which I would use to research into any future designs I may do. Thank you Kate for introducing me to it, and reminding me what a clever grandad I did have.

V and A visit - Textile Collection

The V and A does house a marvellous collection of textiles. In fact, as far as collections go, it is amazing how many collections the V and A does have. A rambling beautiful old building, filled with an Aladin's Cave of collectables.

On Making my way up to the textile collections I have to confess to getting side tracked into other galleries which intrigued me. I especially liked The Modern 20th Century Collection, with it's unusual chairs of all various shapes and styles, one even made from paper!! The collection of radio's throughout the years. The paper dresses. The quirky 1950's and 1960's ceramics, all very patterned and shape related. Lots of item's in this section I found I could easily draw idea's from to produce new designs, either through drawing or photographing the objects.

The Theatre and BBC Archives Collections with the elaborate costumes, and posters from years gone by. The Fashion Collection showing styles and fabrics throughout the years, all again proved interesting and a useful tool to draw information from both visually and also to tell a story about that time in history.

The textile collection was very informative if not a tad conservative for my tastes. Set up in darkened rooms, which I appreciate is required to protect theses precious fabrics, but also gave an oppressive feel. The cabinets which housed the Japanese and Chinese fabrics, were beautiful cabinets, but to view the fabrics you had to pull out slides within the cabinet. A novelty at first, but actually made the process of viewing the samples difficult, and I have to confess to not viewing them all because of this.

What did strike me was how much information can be gained from the textile collections about the various cultures that made them. The techniques they used. How different countries produced their own style, basically how they lived their lives at that time in history. How the textile had become a useful tool to depict life at that time, like a photograph today for example.

I particularly liked the peasant art shown here in embroidery, which was the easiest technique for amateurs at the time. The pieces were worked by the women of the household, mainly for domestic use, but sometimes for sale or exchange at a local market. The peasant art from the nineteenth century seemed to strike a cord in me as to how I research for my art today. Careful examination of the peasant art motifs and designs usually showed that the original sources of inspiration were early seventeenth century patterns. Over the decades these patterns percolated down the ages creating new designs with a renewed vitality. The peasant artist obviously looked at older collections for their inspiration, as I do today.

I also became aware as I wandered around the textile collection, that although a valuable source of information, it is ONLY collections of things. Further research on a subject/culture/design would need to be obtained to gain a truer picture of the subject/collection being looked at. This dawned on as I was looking through the Japanese kimono designs. I researched this topic for The Alternative Fashion Show earlier this year, and found the information given on this subject in the textile collection very limited, and rather poor if I am honest. Regardless of this I kept reminding myself that it is only a collection, a slice of history, and we are lucky to have such information to help us to learn. I also felt lucky I was able to fill in the gaps with the knowledge I had researched myself on kimono's. On saying this, The Japanese Collection within the V and A has a very impressive collection of kimono's.


The priests vestments (The Chasuble Collection) were very beautiful. Each one elaborately embroidered on silk and velvets with gold threads. Each chasuble told a story, depicting mainly a bible story or the cross, in some cases both. This "Opus Anglicanum" (English Work) or "Acu Pictoria" (Painting with a needle) was valued highly as metalwork and jewellery at the time. It was traded and bought mainly by rich nobles and the church (to make these chasuble). This style of embroidery was truly England's finest, but soon competition from Embroidery workshops in Italy, Netherlands and Spain meant the quality of craftsmanship declined although the range of patterns, silks and velvets increased. Hence we moved into a new period in textile history.


I enjoyed very much the tapestries, they were grand, large and overwhelming. All depicting life at the time. What fashions were worn, and what pass times were implored (hunting for game and deer). I was interested to learn that at his death in 1547, Henry VIII owned 27,000 tapestries.

After the textile collections I took myself off to the Islam Collection, namely to look at The Ardabil Carpet. One of the finest and largest Islamic carpets in existance. It also has great historical importance. It was commissioned as one of a pair by the ruler of Iran, Shan Tahmasp for the shrine of his ancestor, Shaykh Safi-al-Din in the town of Ardabil in the province of Azerba jan in North -West Iran.

It was completed in 946 on the Muslim calendar, 1539-1540. It seemed amazing to be stood close to such a rare item, and I felt it was lucky to be preserved in such a rare way by the V and A , and hopefully preserved so future generations can enjoy it too, when it becomes much older and rarer.

The V and A was a fantastic Aladins cave of collectables. I certainly would use it as a place to go and source research for my work, and gain knowledge. A great place to also sketch and photograph objects too. I am aware also though, that collections alone do not tell the whole story about a culture and a time in history, and that further reading and research must be obtained to gain a more true understanding of what the whole story is. A collection is just a small momentum, like a keepsake from a holiday. But, without such collections we are not able to appreciate the true craftsmanship of articles (textiles in this case) over time, and see them for real, not just view them in a book or on the internet. So I applaud the V and A, and certainly shall be visiting it and it's collections time and time and time again.