The Forgotten Medieval Craft of Cloth Staining: Episode #49
Jo Andrews
From the grandest palace to the poorest cottage, so called ‘stained’ cloths brought colour and joy to everyday life in England for hundreds of years. These specially painted and stamped fabrics formed the backdrop to funerals, ceremonies, processions, masques and tournaments that required banners, flags, pennants or scenery from 1300 onwards.
But this world of dazzling medieval colour and pattern has been mostly lost to history because so much of the cloth has perished, and the craft of the stainers has been so little understood. Now Haptic & Hue re-discovers the secrets of making stained cloth and looks at how it was used.
Invisible Hands: Tapestry Weavers and Artists: Episode #48
Jo Andrews
Great tapestries have been used to decorate and embellish homes and palaces for centuries, and yet the hands that created these works remain almost completely forgotten. Art institutions treasure their ancient tapestries woven painstakingly over many months and even years and know almost everything about them, except the names of those who created these extraordinary pieces. Modern artists, like Picasso, Henry Moore, and Marc Chagall see their work rendered into a different and exciting form by tapestry weavers, but no one remembers who the weaver was or is.
The Garment That Sweeps Through History: The Everlasting Cloak: Episode #47
Jo Andrews
There’s a piece of clothing that has a good claim to being a universal garment. It is thousands of years old and yet it featured on the catwalks last year. It’s stylish and at the same time the humblest and simplest of garments. It has been worn and enjoyed by rich and poor alike. It has been repurposed and re-shaped throughout human history and it has fulfilled many functions.
Ukraine’s Revolutionary Act of Embroidery: How Identity Survives in Stitches: Episode #46
Jo Andrews
As the war in the Ukraine brutally shows, few people have had as hard a struggle down the centuries to maintain their identity as Ukrainians. For hundreds of years, they have been occupied and subjugated by one power after another, the Ottomans, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Russia, Poland, the Nazis and Russia again. Through it all Ukrainians have held onto their traditions, one of the strongest and most powerful of these has been the beautifully and skilfully stitched motifs on plain linen or hemp shirts.
Images from Haptic and Hue’s sixth season of podcasts