The Story of the Craftswoman and Seamstress

Wanted :  a needle swift enough to sew this poem into a blanket - Charles Simic

I hope that this week's challenge inspires you as much as it does me.   How often do you regard yourself as a craftswoman or a respectable artisan when you do mending?

Mending by Daniel Ridgway Knight

Needlework can be such a chore at times :

How much friendship and support have you received from your circle of creative women?

The Sewing Circle by Daniel Ridgway Knight

This week I would like to draw inspiration from the humble art of sewing, mending, seamstressing (is there such a word?), knitting and all kinds of needlework.

Where there are needlework, there is art and there are memories and stories to be shared.    Share with us your creations that tells the stories that were sewn into your heart!

www.art-is-you.com

There is such healing power in the making of art and especially in the art of sewing and needlework.  Do you remember the fairytale about the Twelve Swans?

A decoupage by Queen Magrethe of Denmark of the Wild Swan Fairytale

It begins with eleven princes, and their little sister, Elisa. An evil queen turns the brothers into swans (they change back to their true forms only at night) and sends Elisa to live with peasants in the country. After many hazardous adventures Elisa finds her way through the woods to the sea, where she meets up with her brothers. They carry her over the ocean to the country where they live, a place of forests, mountains and castles. As she sleeps, a fairy comes to Elisa in a dream and tells her she can lift the enchantment from her brothers, provided she makes each of them a shirt out of nettles. But she must not speak a word till she has done: if she does, her brothers will die.  She begins the work, but she has only finished one shirt when  the king of the country comes across her while he is hunting. He falls in love with her, takes her back to his castle, gives her ‘regal gowns’ and has her hair ‘braided with pearls’. They marry, and she falls in love with him too, but is determined to press on with her task. The archbishop, however, believes she is a witch. He follows her one night when, having run out of nettles, she goes to a churchyard to collect more. The archbishop accuses her of witchcraft, the king can find no other explanation for her trips to the graveyard, and of course she cannot speak: he declares that the people must decide on her fate. They do – they say she’s a witch and must burn. Still she keeps sewing, still she won’t speak. Just in the nick of time, her brothers appear. She throws the shirts over them, and they are transformed into their real selves.  



And then there is the story of Rimpelstiltskin, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and more!  So there is definitely something very wondrous about the art of sewing, weaving, looming, and knitting!

http://amylulita.blogspot.com/2010/06/june-15-weaving-in-out-art-opening.html

http://kidsartmarket.blogspot.com/2010/03/sock-monkey-paint-weaving.html

By Angie of Artangel on Etsy.com

Kate Greenway

Whimsical Dress by Maggie

And finally, my own nostalgic musings on the happy memories of needlecraft

Happy creating and a great week!
Hettienne