Interview with Hark Jeung

I was sitting in the sales room of the incubator this morning, trying to get certain areas of the detail ribbon on the plain white wedding shoesI have redone to lie flat. The shoes are now an red/pink/purple with mottled gold gilded heels and patches of mottled gold scattered on each shoe. Nothing plain about them now.

Anyhow, I was working on the parts where the ribbon has to do curves it doesn’t want to do, when a woman entered and introduced herself as a Hong Kong journalist and photographer named Hark Jeung. She has been spending some time in Norwich and more or less fallen in love with its textile history and decided to write a book on that and on what kinds of textile creations were being made in Norwich now.

We ended up sitting down and talking for almost three hours. And then, having spotted Rebecca Spragge’s corset, Hark Jeung had me contact her for an interview,too.

Obviously that has to be the highlight of the day, though there were several other good things as well, including being offered a legacy fabric stash. Someone up there knows I want to do a line like Desigual’s for those of us who are older and curvier and can’t fit into theirs. By the way, I’m going to call my own line Intreped Threads. Now to come up with a good logo.

What type of thing would an intreped thread do, do you think?

Corset Customers and Local Wools

Pocktorian Textiles, the textile incubator, progresses in small measures, day by day. Yesterday, Rebecca Spragge

http://www.rebeccaspragge.co.uk/

brought in one of her marvelous corsets along with some cards. It was more for attention getting than for selling, or so she thought, so she didn’t initially set a price for it. However, not five minutes after she left, someone asked the price. After I had another query about the price later in the day, I contacted her and she set one.

Looses is a place for treasure hunters, lots of well-used of doubtful further use, yet lots of genuinely desirable antiques as well, and some marvelous things in between that are beautifully made, yet the workmanship was lavished on something not nearly as useful now and when the piece was made, like some of the beautifully housed old phonographs. I, of course, notice the textile treasures, like a christening gown lavished with several types handwork. Should it be a surprise that those interested in searching out the treasures among the bric-a-brac are also interested in the work of a present day maker that has the potential to become a treasured antique?

Today came more confirmation that I am on the right track with my intention of featuring locally sourced wool, rovings, yarn, and other materials of interest to makers. My mailing list for locally sourced knitting yarn and felting tops is begun.

If you are a local maker of any kind of textile work, including paper or baskets, or a local farmer who has fleeces, or wool, or roving, or felting tops, or handspun yarn, or yarn from local wool or alpaca, or a woodworker who makes equipment for textile work, knitting needles, spindles, spinning wheels, warping mills, even looms, please contact me. Help me really bring textiles back to Norfolk.