The Women's Domestic Needlework Group was established in 1976 by Australian feminist artists Marie McMahon and Frances Phoenix, members of the Sydney branch of the Women's Art Movement, with an interest in reclaiming and focusing attention on the undervalued field of women's traditional craft work. [1] [2] The other members of the collective were Joan Grounds, Bernadette Krone, Kathy Letray, Patricia McDonald, Noela Taylor and Loretta Vieceli. [3]
Phoenix and McMahon collected d'oyleys from second-hand shops and donations, and began running weekly workshops, open to the general public, initially at the Tin Sheds and then at the South Sydney Women's Centre. Their goal was to share and learn such skills as crochet, embroidery, lacemaking and weaving. After obtaining Crafts Council funding, their major exhibition, The D'Oyley Show, An Exhibition of Women's Domestic Fancywork, was held at Watters Gallery, Sydney, in October 1979. It then toured regional New South Wales galleries in 1980. [4] The group collaborated with Earthworks Poster Collective to produce a series of screenprints about women's needlework, which served as wall panels for the exhibition. [5] Examples of the posters are in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the National Gallery of Victoria.
The group sought to counteract ingrained attitudes in education that positioned craft as a minor art. [6] Needlework was strategically chosen to reflect the traditional patterns, symbols and images that have reoccurred throughout history, and the common techniques that many women would relate to. [6] The traditional forms, techniques and patterns of d'oyley work displayed in the exhibition included: Teneriffe lace wheels; Rose and Shamrock pattern; Latin American 'Sol' lacework; continuous braid lace; filet crochet; spinning star pattern; embroidery with crochet edge; flora and fauna designs; ecru cushion covers; sandwich d'oyleys and jug covers; scalloped d'oyleys; snow crystal pattern; crochet and knotting; limerick lace; Italian 'Punto Tagliato' lacework; petit point; and applique. [6]
As Australian writer and journalist Anne Summers argues in the exhibition catalogue, "It is only at this (level) of culture - everyday life - that women have an explicit and acknowledged place." [6] As well as documenting the works in the exhibition, the extensive exhibition catalogue included research and practical information on Aboriginal crafts, Australian Designs and Designers 1890 - 1940, historical exhibitions and competitions, poetry, histories of women's labour in the textile industry (European and Australian), the development of craft guilds, and caring for textiles. [6]
The exhibition, Dissenting D'oyleys: The Women's Domestic Needlework Group, exhibited ten of the original screenprinted posters, and was shown at the New England Regional Art Gallery, Armidale, New South Wales, in 2021. [2]
Crochet is a process of creating textiles by using a crochet hook to interlock loops of yarn, thread, or strands of other materials. The name is derived from the French term crochet, meaning 'hook'. Hooks can be made from a variety of materials, such as metal, wood, bamboo, or plastic. The key difference between crochet and knitting, beyond the implements used for their production, is that each stitch in crochet is completed before the next one is begun, while knitting keeps many stitches open at a time. Some variant forms of crochet, such as Tunisian crochet and broomstick lace, do keep multiple crochet stitches open at a time.
Embroidery is the craft of decorating fabric or other materials using a needle to apply thread or yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as pearls, beads, quills, and sequins. In modern days, embroidery is usually seen on caps, hats, coats, overlays, blankets, dress shirts, denim, dresses, stockings, scarfs, and golf shirts. Embroidery is available in a wide variety of thread or yarn colour.
Needlework is decorative sewing and textile arts handicrafts. Anything that uses a needle for construction can be called needlework. Needlework may include related textile crafts such as crochet, worked with a hook, or tatting, worked with a shuttle.
Berlin wool work is a style of embroidery similar to today's needlepoint that was particularly popular in Europe and America from 1804 to 1875. It is typically executed with wool yarn on canvas, worked in a single stitch such as cross stitch or tent stitch, although Beeton's book of Needlework (1870) describes 15 different stitches for use in Berlin work. It was traditionally stitched in many colours and hues, producing intricate three-dimensional looks by careful shading. Silk or beads were frequently used as highlights. The design of such embroidery was made possible by the great progress made in dyeing, initially with new mordants and chemical dyes, followed in 1856, especially by the discovery of aniline dyes, which produced bright colors.
The Royal School of Needlework (RSN) is a hand embroidery school in the United Kingdom, founded in 1872 and based at Hampton Court Palace since 1987.
Lace is a delicate fabric made of yarn or thread in an open weblike pattern, made by machine or by hand. Generally, lace is divided into two main categories, needlelace and bobbin lace, although there are other types of lace, such as knitted or crocheted lace. Other laces such as these are considered as a category of their specific craft. Knitted lace, therefore, is an example of knitting. This article considers both needle lace and bobbin lace.
Fiber art refers to fine art whose material consists of natural or synthetic fiber and other components, such as fabric or yarn. It focuses on the materials and on the manual labor on the part of the artist as part of the works' significance, and prioritizes aesthetic value over utility.
Mary "May" Morris was an English artisan, embroidery designer, jeweller, socialist, and editor. She was the younger daughter of the Pre-Raphaelite artist and designer William Morris and his wife and artists' model, Jane Morris.
A pot-holder is a piece of textile or silicone used to cover the hand when holding hot kitchen cooking equipment, like pots and pans. They are frequently made of polyester and/or cotton. Crocheted pot-holders can be made out of cotton yarn as a craft project/folk art.
Matilda Marian Pullan —also writing under the pen names Mrs. Pullan and Aiguillette— was a prolific and influential 19th century British writer on needlework who contributed columns to a wide selection of periodicals in the 1840s and 1850s. She was the author of numerous books on needlework, especially the decorative forms known as fancywork, and she wrote a comprehensive encyclopedia on the subject. She was also an extremely successful businesswoman who ran a needlework supply shop that expanded to become a mail order business. Towards the end of her life, she moved to America, where she opened a consulting business whose clients included the actor Laura Keene.
Mary Card was an Australian designer and educator.
The Earthworks Poster Collective was an Australian artist collective that operated out of the Sydney University Art Workshop, more commonly known as the Tin Sheds, in the 1970s. The collective, based in Sydney, New South Wales, was active from 1972 to 1979.
Frances Phoenix (1950–2017) was an Australian feminist artist known for needlework and poster designs. Phoenix contributed to the Women's Art Movement groups in both Sydney and Adelaide, as well as multiple community art projects.
Toni Robertson is a visual artist, art historian and printmaker from Sydney, Australia. She is known for her poster making and involvement in the Earthworks Poster Collective, which operated out of the "Tin Shed" art workshops at the University of Sydney.
Sera Waters is a South Australian textile artist, arts writer, and arts educator. She lectures at Adelaide Central School of Art.
Lilian Margery Dring was a British artist known for her paintings, poster designs and textile designs. needlework and embroidery work.
Marie Elizabeth Rita McMahon is an Australian artist, known for her paintings, prints, posters, drawings, and design work. Born in Melbourne, she has worked in various communities of Australian Aboriginal people and as of 2020 works in Sydney. Her work has focused on social, political, and environmental issues. Her posters about Aboriginal rights and Aboriginal life appear in major gallery collections in Australia.
Australian poster collectives were artist collectives established in the late 1960s, 70s and 80s in the capital cities of Australia, largely led by women and focused on various forms of political activism.
Carolyn Yackel is an American mathematician who has been Professor of Mathematics at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia since 2001. From 1998 to 2001 she was Max Zorn Visiting Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Indiana University.
The Tin Sheds was the common name of the Sydney University Art Workshop was an Australian art workshop in Sydney, New South Wales, founded in 1969. Its name lives on in the Tin Sheds Gallery at the University of Sydney School of Architecture, Design and Planning. Groups such as Optronic Kinetics and the Earthworks Poster Collective operated out of Tin Sheds.