Patch by Ruth - Patches - Patchwork Object

Creator

Ruth

Story

This patch is based on my experiments with weaving and playing with ribbons in Coventry this summer, inspired by my Victorian ancestors - the Hennell sisters. Social reformer and writer Mary, and writers, artists and educators Sara, and Cara. Alongside Cara’s husband Charles Bray, a ribbon manufacturer and philosopher, they were close friends of the author George Eliot and are believed to have inspired the Meyrick sisters in George Eliot’s novel Daniel Deronda [i]. I’ve been enjoying reading her letters to them, as well as exploring their books, writings and art.

Combining ribbons, a modern Bluetooth ribbon printer and weaving, I explored this creative and intellectual heritage, alongside the feminine, yet industrial craft of ribbon weaving that supported it. The hair-like fibres, woven with ribbon and yarn indicate our shared DNA, and are inspired by actual pieces of my ancestor's hair found in Cara’s sewing box [ii]. The stamped ink bottle represents the Hennell sisters’ writings and letters, my handwritten letters inspired by them and George Eliot’s first published articles in Charles Brays’ Coventry Herald [iii].

The woven flower ribbon was inspired by Ada Lovelace’s 1843 description of Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine as weaving algebraic patterns, like the Jacquard loom weaves flowers and leaves. Mary Hennell wrote about ribbon, including the impacts of emerging technologies for the Penny ‘Cyclopedia in 1841 [iv], and Charles Bray sponsored the intricate floral Coventry Ribbon for the 1851 Great Exhibition, which combined a Jacquard mechanism with a Handloom. [v]

I snipped the pink ribbon with loops from a clothes label - it’s reminiscent of the scalloped ribbon trend of 1813, which built up ribbon manufacturing wealth in Coventry [vi]. Sara and Cara’s nature sketches and watercolour paintings [vii], and my nature sunprinting experiments on ribbon near their home, inspired the robin and nature silhouette ribbons.

[i] https://sda.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/sda/#!/themes/article/253
[ii] https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/sewing-box-unknown/CgG_I9nlwHh8LA?hl=en
[iii] https://www.jstor.org/stable/20082202
[iv] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Hennell https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Penny_Cyclopaedia_of_the_Society_for/8Jjqd969494C?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA487&printsec=frontcover (pg 487)
[v] Light side: https://www.coventrycollections.org/search/details/collect/90329 Dark Side: https://exploringeliot.org/object/coventry-town-ribbon/
[vi] Very useful Coventry Ribbon Timeline https://woventhreadsproject.co.uk/research/
[vii] This is one of my favourite, by Cara out of the window of their home https://exploringeliot.org/object/the-view-from-the-window-at-rosehill-by-cara-bray/

Further Reading: White, Rosalind. (2022) ‘Part Two: The Ribbon Trade’, Finding Middlemarch [Online Exhibition]. Royal Holloway, University of London. In collaboration with Nuneaton Museum & Art Gallery, Nuneaton Library, Coventry Archives and the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum and funded by the Arts Humanities Research Council. Retrieved from Exploring Eliot [https://exploringeliot.org/discover-george-eliot/finding-middlemarch/the-ribbon-trade/]

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Ruth

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