Another very exciting development that evening was the offer, by archivist Graham Ward, to collaborate with me to catalogue Clarice’s archive and all the work made from it, including this current project. Graham Ward is a fascinating man, painter, illustrator, past Dreamland archivist, Librarian and bookseller, Graham now runs the wonderful Oscar’s Festival Cafe in Broadstairs. It will be a great experience to work with him.
In the meantime i have started to photograph my growing collection of pillowcases. I have 25 so far and need about another 30. It seems to be getting harder to find them (probably because i have been buying them all) and i seem to have lost my knack on Ebay having been outbid several times lately. If any readers of this blog find any, and they must be hand embroidered, please get in touch!
This pillowcase featured is the first one i bought back in November 2011 when i was just beginning to develop my ideas. The stitches used for the embroidery are a a combination of stem stictch, satin stich, french knots and straight stitch. I bought it from Scotts Furniture Mart in Cliftonville so unfortunately it has no history beyond this. I think i paid 99p for it – an absolute bargain and i have to say my favourite pillowcase so far.
