okay if I could time travel to the past, you know what I’d be most excited to see? THE QUALITY OF TEXTILES. Clothing was built to LAST before the industrial revolution and everything was HAND-MADE. We lose so much of women’s art from the archaeological record because textiles are perishable and we only get vague snapshots of what clothes and tapestries, etc, were like, and these would have been so important to everyday life! What did a hand-made toga feel like! How heavy was it! What did the tapestries hanging in castles look like! How did needlework enrich the home! Fuck! I love textiles!
textile arts are available in some places, at the hands of skilled artisans – I’ve seen the tapestries at Stirling Castle, modern reproductions that are incredible. also beautiful, the Kendall Quaker Tapestry (begun in the 80s) which describes the history and beliefs of that faith.
I’ve also been lucky enough to see the Bayeux tapestries. frail, but it exists, and is unfathomably valuable as an insight into the history- though maybe, not as beautiful and skilled as other things.
too much is lost, but lots is not, not yet.
I know! My favourite textiles come from the nomadic Pazyryk people in Siberia! Look at this saddle blanket!
This was found in a barrow tomb and it’s around 2300 years old!
This is a close up of one of the rugs!
Another saddle blanket!
A bridle covering for a horse!
Close up on a saddle cover!
What!! The FUCK!!
Another rug!
Normally nothing like this survives, and we are so, so lucky that these did because this is some of the most extraordinary art I’ve ever seen. But it also makes me wonder what we’re missing out on, and it’s impossible not to feel a pang at the thought of all this beauty rotting away
FantasyBoudicca 