Attached is a wonderful conversation between Tony Pinkney of Lancaster University and the Reader as to why anyone should bother with a Utopian book from the 1890s. The book is free to read on the site, the William Morris Archive.
News From Nowhere Introduction
It begins thus:
Reader: Why should I be expected to read a description of an ideal
society dating from the 1890s? What can that possibly have to do with
us today in the early twenty-first century?
TP: Well, do you think you already live in an ideal society,
then, so that you don’t need any help or ideas from the past? With a
global economic crisis battering us all from 2008 onwards, with
proliferating nuclear weaponry and dangerous international tensions,
with the democratic hopefulness of the Arab Spring running into the
sands, with international terrorism and the ‘war on terror’ mutually
reinforcing each other, and with the environmental problems of climate
change, energy depletion, habitat destruction and species extinction
accelerating rather than slowing down, I’m inclined to think we need
all the help we can get from the models of an ideal society that we
inherit from the past! We don’t have to swallow them hook, line and
sinker, but there might be helpful suggestions and inspiration towards
improvement there.
R: Well alright, things aren’t so good at the moment, I’ll concede that. But if, like Morris in News from Nowhere,
you have got a scheme for a good or even perfect society, why not set
it out as a series of clear-cut propositions that we can debate
straightforwardly? Why present it in literary form instead? Why turn
it into a story?
TP: As it happens, Morris did set out clear-cut propositions for
change in his political lectures of the 1880s. When you’ve got time,
take a look at ‘The Society of the Future’, which he first delivered
in November 1887. If you put your scheme into a story, though, you
give greater concreteness to your abstract system; you can give a
firsthand feel for how it works, you put flesh on its bare
bones. Instead of saying, as a sociology textbook might, the economy
is organised in such and such a fashion, you can actually show people
working together under the new social relations, show them in the very
process of learning how to become new kinds of people (cooperative
rather than competitive, say). We as readers experientially
participate in such new relationships, we feel them on our pulses,
rather than just learning about them intellectually, as theoretical
possibilities.
20 December 2014
19 December 2014
DIY Hairpieces for the Lady Re-enactor, Part One
Some time ago, I purchased a cheap child's Rapunzel wig at Party City, as an alternative to more expensive hairpieces at Sally's or online. This was done for two reasons: ease of acquisition, and the fact that my natural haircolour is now a variegated sandy ginger blonde, which is very difficult to match.
The original wig was closer than anything else found, including the Sandy Blonde wefts at Sally's.
The first necessity was to tone down the unnatural blonde a bit. Into a pot with several dark Irish tea bags went the wig, soaking overnight. Then into a similar pot of dilute Manic Panic Atomic Turquoise conditioner, which is what I use to tone my hair around here. Easy, non-chemical, vegan. This was the resulting colour:
When the wig was dry, I combed it out with a shower comb and began to cut apart the wefts from the wig cap:
Don't be dismayed if you accidentally cut the weft, especially around the front edge.
When all the bottom wefts were off, I arranged then according to size:
The very top, I left whole as the basis for a fall of curls, as my primary hairstyle for Pre-Raphaelitism is 1870s:
The small wefts were then sewn together in pairs. they will be used for side curls, braids, and back curls, depending on need:
These will all go woven into my own hair, which, although hip length, still is not enough to make up the hairstyles of the 1820s-1900 to my satisfaction. Some of this volume in the latter period may be created with pads and frizzing, but not the mass of curls of the earlier periods.
The switches were then braided loosely so as to avoid tangling, ready for the next part of the adventure, curl-papers and rags:
As every reader of Victoriana knows, curling rags were used in the period, as an alternative to curling tongs (irons), which did not damage the hair. Some used curl papers instead, including Lord Byron and Beau Brummel.
More on which anon!
The original wig was closer than anything else found, including the Sandy Blonde wefts at Sally's.
The first necessity was to tone down the unnatural blonde a bit. Into a pot with several dark Irish tea bags went the wig, soaking overnight. Then into a similar pot of dilute Manic Panic Atomic Turquoise conditioner, which is what I use to tone my hair around here. Easy, non-chemical, vegan. This was the resulting colour:
When the wig was dry, I combed it out with a shower comb and began to cut apart the wefts from the wig cap:
Don't be dismayed if you accidentally cut the weft, especially around the front edge.
When all the bottom wefts were off, I arranged then according to size:
The very top, I left whole as the basis for a fall of curls, as my primary hairstyle for Pre-Raphaelitism is 1870s:
The small wefts were then sewn together in pairs. they will be used for side curls, braids, and back curls, depending on need:
These will all go woven into my own hair, which, although hip length, still is not enough to make up the hairstyles of the 1820s-1900 to my satisfaction. Some of this volume in the latter period may be created with pads and frizzing, but not the mass of curls of the earlier periods.
The switches were then braided loosely so as to avoid tangling, ready for the next part of the adventure, curl-papers and rags:
As every reader of Victoriana knows, curling rags were used in the period, as an alternative to curling tongs (irons), which did not damage the hair. Some used curl papers instead, including Lord Byron and Beau Brummel.
More on which anon!
04 December 2014
The Arts and Crafts Ethic as a Template for the Future
We are embarking on a long-term project which significantly promotes the Arts and Crafts.
This project will delineate the origins of the ethic of the Arts and Crafts Movement of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries in America, the British Isles and selected countries in Europe. It will explicate the manner in which the ethic was lived by members of the movement, famous and obscure. It will trace the revivals of this ethic into modern times, including the Wandervogel in pre-World War II Germany and the Back to Nature movement of the 1970s. It will show the strong underpinning of this Movement in various contemporary social and artistic movements across the world.
For the contemporary research, the project will include a website featuring surveys, a blog, and forum for discussion in community.
The result will be a published book on the findings, inspiring and leading people into a new, sane, sustainable future.
This project will delineate the origins of the ethic of the Arts and Crafts Movement of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries in America, the British Isles and selected countries in Europe. It will explicate the manner in which the ethic was lived by members of the movement, famous and obscure. It will trace the revivals of this ethic into modern times, including the Wandervogel in pre-World War II Germany and the Back to Nature movement of the 1970s. It will show the strong underpinning of this Movement in various contemporary social and artistic movements across the world.
For the contemporary research, the project will include a website featuring surveys, a blog, and forum for discussion in community.
The result will be a published book on the findings, inspiring and leading people into a new, sane, sustainable future.
02 December 2014
Blue to the Elbow with Topsy
An idea becomes a search, which leads us back to our roots:
In thinking about some of the finer gauge items for ladies and children - lovely spencers and caracoes and other such jackets that don't want to be of a woolly pully weight as with Fair Isle - a possibility crept into my mind: lace-weight yarn (such as we use for Shetland shawls) in Fair Isle patterns!
I suspected that the result would be an entirely different animal than regular Fair Isle, and I was right - it is very dainty.
But how to achieve our colours in a reasonable price-point for people (Rowan yarns having a nice range of lace-weight colours but not extensive and at $13 a hank, makes the finished products very spendy.) Well, clearly, taking an ivory yarn and dyeing it. Just as Morris did to achieve his soft colours back in the day. Going back to our roots here of concocting plant-based dyes.
There are two options for the wool, a washing wool with nylon added, and pure merino. The two will dye similarly, but the washing wool will survive normal laundering at a warm temperature.
As for the dyes, there is still the old option of bark, roots, leaves and berries, with the addition of mordants of alum, tin, copper and soon to achieve different shades.
But there are also now pre-mixed natural powder dyes in 48 beautiful colours, waiting to be blended. Mix water and powder, bring to a boil, add wool. No mordanting required.
I still do, however, think of Topsy at an important meeting, his arms blue to the elbow from an indigo dye vat.
In thinking about some of the finer gauge items for ladies and children - lovely spencers and caracoes and other such jackets that don't want to be of a woolly pully weight as with Fair Isle - a possibility crept into my mind: lace-weight yarn (such as we use for Shetland shawls) in Fair Isle patterns!
I suspected that the result would be an entirely different animal than regular Fair Isle, and I was right - it is very dainty.
But how to achieve our colours in a reasonable price-point for people (Rowan yarns having a nice range of lace-weight colours but not extensive and at $13 a hank, makes the finished products very spendy.) Well, clearly, taking an ivory yarn and dyeing it. Just as Morris did to achieve his soft colours back in the day. Going back to our roots here of concocting plant-based dyes.
There are two options for the wool, a washing wool with nylon added, and pure merino. The two will dye similarly, but the washing wool will survive normal laundering at a warm temperature.
As for the dyes, there is still the old option of bark, roots, leaves and berries, with the addition of mordants of alum, tin, copper and soon to achieve different shades.
But there are also now pre-mixed natural powder dyes in 48 beautiful colours, waiting to be blended. Mix water and powder, bring to a boil, add wool. No mordanting required.
I still do, however, think of Topsy at an important meeting, his arms blue to the elbow from an indigo dye vat.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)