karen ruane: France

For centuries women have used cloth as a tool of comfort and as an expression of beauty within their homes. Creating cloth for warmth, cloth for shelter, our female predecessors embellished these linens with hand stitch using laborious and time consuming techniques thereby enhancing the functional beauty of objects which enveloped and protected their families. Inspired by these women I hope my creations pay tribute to and recognise the devotion expressed in cloth by our female ancestors .

''the use of traditional often time consuming process alludes to the devotion of a mother''. c K. A. Ruane 2007

Monday, April 25, 2016

France

vintage buys

workshop in progress

someone brought me a beautiful gift

oops, more shopping

I'm back.....there's no place like home. I am unpacking, washing, putting away cloth, salivating over one or two purchases and trying to take in everything from last week, how amazing it was, how exhausting it was, how busy it was (at times I struggled to get anywhere near my space), how friendly the people were, how excited they appeared to be about my work. I was humbled on more than one occasion and if I never hear the word ''magnifique'' again it won't matter because I heard it a zillion times last week. (there are many more images on my Instagram, there are also a couple of 16 second videos on there.)

The workshops were so successful, the learners were engaged and enthusiastic, leaving apparently very happy and excited to go home and finish their lace embroidery. I like to think I made some friends.....who knows, I feel as though I did.

I sold out of puffs, I sold a lot of buttons and ledgers and packets of embroidered cloth. I sold paperwork.....I didn't sell any pockets. I'm not actually surprised at that. The show was more of a venue for buying ''supplies'', threads, fabric, needles and such and I think most people attending would feel capable of making a pocket for themselves. (having said that...you would not believe the number of people I met who had NEVER stitched a French knot) The French knot and I were inseparable last week, I must have stitched hundreds of them for demonstration purposes and not in the workshop....for customers.

I did get offered a lot of money for one of my ''not for sale'' wrapping cloths but they are far too precious to part with. Lot's of leaflets regarding ''Stitching a Story'' were picked up too, there were a lot of questions about that so who knows....that class may well have a ''French'' feel to it.....we shall see.

I am very, very happy to be home. I have so much more to say about the past week...prepare yourselves if you have signed up for class....... I will have you yawning before the second week is over! I will speak more about France on here of course but I can guarantee I will be ''banging on about it'' in class for weeks.

Registration for ''stitching a story'' now open)

One or two of you expressed an interest in buying certain pieces if they did not sell in France. I can't remember who wanted what so if you want to ask about a particular piece please just mail me.

- See more at: http://karenannruane.typepad.com/karen_ruane/#sthash.wyCp5a21.dpuf

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