![\"a](\"http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/week-twelve-5.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
They are very quilt-like but I have started to play with other arrangements.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n The original Laminex \u2018silver\u2019 feathers now have trial oval borders imitating the doiley. <\/p>\n I also need to resolve their backing. I want them to be fluid, to read as a \u2018textile\u2019 to be placed on a table but firm enough to be draped over a pole, hung or framed as needed. They also need to be held together firmly. <\/p>\n These Laminex works are multi-layered but the overarching themes here include the lost heritage of doiley-making as a by-product of new domestic products made to aid the modern women. A little bit of research leads me to some old adverts for Formica\/Laminex that now sit on a new Pinterest<\/a> page. I love Pinterest for its ease of recording visual prompts. Within the theme of (black)<\/strong>swan these Laminex works are in the subsection \u2019feathering the nest\u2019 – the making\/decorating of home.<\/p>\n The two books I am reading at the moment are both full blown stories of home. Both books are about Home and domesticity in a specific place and time where feathering the nest<\/em> was a very different task from the mid 20th century of my Laminex life.<\/p>\n It is my non-fiction read that has me really excited though. Home<\/strong> by Judith Flanders, was shown in a previous post (dated 18th March). It is memorable book already because this is the first time that I have defaced a book – underlining sentences and recording comment beside text. WEEK TWELVE \u2013 (march 23-29) It is week twelve and my week has just lengthened. I started with \u2018short\u2019 dates to realistically represent the working time I had available – four days. Alas, as always, my days rarely work to plan and I find that, yet again, compartmentalising just doesn\u2019t work. Instead I rush to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","spay_email":""},"categories":[2,12,4,13],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=214"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":227,"href":"http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214\/revisions\/227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/janmullen.com.au\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/p>\n
\nI have started splitting them into different colourways, again with oval borders on.
\nI will have to make decisions soon about size – I originally envisaged a few big pieces but I need to be open to making BEST pieces not BIGGEST.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nMy shelves are stacked with all sorts of fibres, many now splayed across the table – from sheer silks and beautiful thick woollens to recently purchased Wettex!<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nAs such, Wettex\/modern synthetic cleaning cloths have a strong link to the death of the doiley. \u2028As polished wooden dining tables and scrubbed wooden kitchen tables retreated from favour and fashion, their old fashioned polishing cloths\/delicate care\/hard housewife yakka were replaced with the ease and colour of Laminex tables and synthetic cloths.
\nTelevision, introduced to Australia in 1956, is certain to have reduced domestic making – previously radio had allowed eyes and hands to be kept productive.<\/p>\n
\nIn turn I discovered the reason why the brand Laminex<\/a> dominates my world – it was a dominant Victorian company and my Builder father would have certainly purchased locally.<\/p>\n
\nMy nightly fictional read is a re-read. Lark Rise to Candleford<\/strong> by Flora Thompson is a gentle reminisce – a veiled autobiography – of hamlet in the late 19th century England.
\nI plucked this off the shelf after reading a Salman Rushdie oldy – The Furies<\/strong> – a black read if ever there was one – so I needed a white antidote quickly!
\nHaving read Lark Rise before, a long time ago though, I knew that this book deserved to be revisited now. I had also recently re-read The Mill on the Floss<\/strong> by George Eliot with her, yes her, wonderful descriptions of home life back in the early 19th Century.<\/p>\n
\nI have read the introduction twice so far. Wow! It is such an eye-opener as to how we look at history. Can\u2019t wait to dive back to it.<\/p>\n
\nI have always regarded books as almost sacred objects\u2026so much so that when my first born, as a toddler, grabbed a book from the shelf and had a chew, the horror I felt is still etched in my memory!
\nIn the past I have written out important bits by hand, paraphrased whilst re-writing, scanned, photocopied and taken snaps. \u2028My research books are often simply littered with sticky notes until I can get back to them.
\nI think that I have turned a corner that I won\u2019t regret.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"