Daft Punk cross stitch sampler

This is the first cross stitch sampler I ever designed. I made one of these for an Etsy customer yesterday and even though it was the first one I ever designed, it's still one of my favourites.

I think it's because these Daft Punk lyrics really do sound like the sort of  Empire-building, self-improving words of wisdom that the Victorians were so very fond of. They just fit perfectly in a Victorian-style sampler and make me laugh every time.

If you'd like a Daft Punk cross stitch sampler, I'm always happy to stitch one. Step inside ye olde Etsy emporium and say hello.

Boring Brian Eno cross stitch

Do Something Boring - one of Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies rendered in cross stitch. Not just for Eno acolytes: the perfect soothing Victorian-style accessory for any post-modern corner of the home.

For best results, listen to Music For Airports and have a nice, weak cup of tea while staring out of the window in a meaningful way. I won't tell anyone that you're just thinking about what you're going to have for supper.

Available in my Etsy shop.

Please Don't Do Coke in the Bathroom

Here's my mock-Victorian Please don't do coke in the bathroom cross stitch sampler, worked in faded blues and reds on a crisp white background.

Just the job if you have a problem with Victorian gentlemen abusing your facilities. Available now in my Etsy shop as a special custom order.

Victorian papier mache chair

These days, papier mache is associated mostly with small objects: boxes, plates, ornaments. The Victorians used papier mache on a much grander scale, with ornate papier mache furniture being very popular, especially after the display of this spectacular Daydreamer chair at the Great Exhibition of 1851.

"This chair was made from papier mache... and inlaid with mother-of-pearl in the forms of snowdrops, poppies and angels, and covered with buttoned upholstery. It was decorated with "two winged thoughts": one "troubled", in the form of bat-like wings, and one "joyous", illustrated by a crown of roses, both divided by a symbol of hope, the rising sun". (Introduction to Victorian Style, David Crowley, Eagle, 1998)

As anyone who has ever spent hours tearing up little bits of paper and glueing them round a balloon would testify, papier mache is a time-consuming craft. Imagine the number of labour hours that would have gone into making a chair like this. A Victorian papier mache chair would have been constructed from over 100 layers of paper, all applied by hand: testimony to the almost limitless supply of cheap labour that could be tapped into in this era.

Victorian hairwork

One project that I am hoping to help get off the ground this year is Transition Town Worthing's Re-Skilling group, which will be offering training in many of the skills and crafts that our grandparents took for granted. I don't think that Victorian hairwork will be on the agenda.

To us, the idea of preserving a departed relative's hair in the form of a bracelet, necklace, or hair ornament for prosperity seems macabre in the extreme. The Victorians had a deeply ritualised and sentimental view of death and the grieving process, with different modes of dress, length of mourning, and expected codes of behaviour following a death all clearly set out, depending on your social class. To a Victorian lady undertaking a lengthy period of mourning, maybe creating such a hairwork memento mori would have been a soothing way to fill the hours and reflect on the loss of a loved one.

Ambitious hairwork pieces would have been undertaken by professionals: a large embroidery of a weeping willow using the hair of both living and deceased family members to depict the tree and a grieving family standing beneath the branches.

Instructions for simpler pieces, including woven hairwork bracelets, or tubular head dresses, could be found in illustrated magazines and were made by more accomplished lady crafters at home.

Hairwork wasn't only used at times of mourning - it was seen as quite acceptable to use your own hair to make jewellery or love tokens to give to family and friends as a token of affection. I would like to see the look on someone's face if I did the same thing today...

The illustration above is of a large ribbon brooch made out of tubes of woven hair, with a hand painted brooch in the middle.

Crochet Victorian choker

I made this crochet choker over the Christmas period, adapting a Victorian pattern from a 1970s craft encyclopedia. It's made from black crochet cotton with a black satin ribbon tie. I might also use the same lace pattern to make some cuffs, or maybe the hem for a coat.

In the 1970s book, they were using the same lace pattern, run up this time in crisp, white crochet cotton, to trim the layers on a floaty, hippy skirt - it looked very pretty and romantic. It's always interesting how many different effects you can get from one basic crochet pattern just by changing the yarn or colour.