Period Features

Leek Embroidery Society

In 1879 The Leek Embroidery Society was established by Elizabeth Wardle in Leek, Staffordshire. Elizabeth and her friends had been working on large, church embroideries for twelve years prior to her establishing the Society, and were well known for the originality and excellence of their work. Some women were employed and paid a salary, whilst others paid for embroidery tuition. Originally the work was undertaken in workers houses but gradually the demand was so great that a property adjacent to Elizabeth’s own house were taken as a schoolroom, workshop and commercial outlet, selling both materials and kits.

Face screen, 1890s.

Elisabeth’s husband, Thomas Wardle was a silk importer, dyer and printer, as well as a friend and collaborator of William Morris. Together they developed a range of natural dyes which could be used on the tussore or tasar silks, both skeins and fabrics, which Wardle imported from India. The natural beige tussore silk ground fabric had been originally imported from India by Thomas' father Joshua . He was unable to discover the secret of dyeing the natural tasar silk. Thomas continued his father's dyeing experiments using vegetable and mineral dyes, and in 1877 made a breakthrough by dyeing the silk to any shade required. The slubs or imperfections produced in the weaving process, due to poor reeling by the villagers in India, were also eliminated with modern reeling techniques. It was Thomas who gave Elizabeth some strands of tussore silk and asked her to devise a new form of embroidery, hoping to encourage needlewomen to use his silks. The dyes produced near colour-fast, clear soft and bright tones, Art Colours’ which were a great contrast to the harsh shades of aniline or chemically dyed wools used in Berlin woolwork. It was Elizabeth’s skill in blending the colours which was such a feature of Leek Embroidery Society pieces. Elizabeth and her gentlewomen embroidered secular and religious pieces with the Indian tussore floss silk skeins onto a tussore printed silk ground, the pattern acting as a transfer. Thomas had the silk printed in India to his own designs, in turn influenced by Indian designs. Damasks, brocades, silk plush and velvet, all dyed in Wardle’s works, were all used for backgrounds.

visit www.victoriana.com/Embroidery/LeekEmbroiderySociety.htm for more information.

Farrow & Ball At The RHS Chelsea Flower Show

The RHS Chelsea Flower Show, London 20th- 24th May. This year Farrow & Ball will demonstrate how to use their colours and exterior finishes to create stunning colour schemes for both the contemporary townhouse and traditional country cottage. Stand No. EA76.

The House Directory

Six years after its launch and becoming the
No 1 interior decoration directory (worldwide Google ranking), the online directory
www.houseandgardenaddresses.co.uk is opening a new chapter, it now offers
an even better sourcing service to our hundreds of thousands of regular users.

www.thehousedirectory.com

A brand new look – cleaner and smarter.
More user-friendly and even easier to navigate.
More answers to your sourcing problems.
Fast, free and user-friendly with no tedious log-in procedures.
Covers every sector of interior and garden design and decoration - listing over 3,500 companies.
Easy to search for the right shop, product or service.
Free monthly newsletter with the latest trends and useful info.
The free ‘Ask the Experts’ service for your decorating & sourcing questions.

Get Creative

Why not use Farrow & Ball Exterior Eggshell to decorate stone or terracotta plant pots or rocks - a great project to do with the children!

Whether painting inside or out, try to avoid painting in extreme temperatures. If it’s too hot, the paint will dry too quickly and you will not achieve a smooth finish. If it’s too cold or damp, the paint will take much longer to dry.

Little Greene and Morris & Co

We are now stocking a range of sample pots from Little Greene and Morris & Co.

Little Greene in association with English Heritage have revived a range of period colours, all of which have been fully authenticated. The colour card provides an easy guide to an era and for every shade a note to its provenance. Available in twelve finishes to order from the store.

The Arts and Crafts palette of Morris & Co was sourced from the comprehensive Morris & Co archive containing the complete spectrum of colours employed by the original block printed wallpapers designed by William Morris and his contemporaries. Designed and produced to exacting standards, these heritage paints are carefully produced in traditional chalky Matt Emulsion and Oil-Based Eggshell for use at home, available to order from store.

We still continue to be proud stockists of the excellent range of paints produced by Farrow & Ball. Based in Dorset, Farrow & Ball use only the finest ingredients and still manufacture paints and wallpapers by traditional methods.

Stair Rods and Runners

We have recently aquired a good selection of original brass stair rods complete with brackets. They are really interesting items as they come in various designs and sizes and are crying out for good homes and beautiful runners!

A traditional manufacturer of stair runners is Roger Oates, visit www.rogeroates.com  Their runners come in either reversible flatweave or velvet cut and loop pile in one of two widths, approx 60cms or 70cms, (widths vary according to the design). They are grouped together by colour for ease of choice. They can also join their runners together to make large rugs and wall to wall carpets.
They also offer a good choice of stair rods and brackets too.

Antique Fair Guide

A comprehensive on-line guide to multi-day antiques fairs in Britain is available from www.antiquesnews.co.uk

"Generally speaking a multi-day antiques fair at a well-known international exhibition centre, or leading provincial hotel or country house, is likely to be a show worthy of serious attention, as are grassroot bargains. These are the criteria for the majority of our recommendations......Whilst every endeavour is made to keep our calendar up to date, a telephone call to the organiser a few days prior to making a special journey is always advisable. Happy antique hunting!"

            

Original Handmade Tiles

Visit Welbeck Tiles www.welbeck-tiles.co.uk to view their beautiful range of designs. You can also download their brochure and price list.

Their tiles are designed and manufactured at their factory in Nottinghamshire, using traditional techniques that have been in use in the pottery industry for more than a century. This small scale, batch production gives the tiles a truly unique quality which can never be replicated in mass production. Over the last 15 years they have developed many truly unique processes which put Welbeck Tiles in a class of their own. Instantly recognized, and widely used in the best kitchens in the country.

"We are totally committed to producing what we believe to be the best, and most original handmade tiles you can buy.We sell our tiles direct from our factory to all over the world. We can help you with designing and calculating what tiles you need, and help you achieve the look that best suits your kitchen or bathroom."

New Member of Staff

Becky has recently joined The Period Features Team. She has already become a great asset and is busy with customers, dressing windows, conquering the computer and she has also found time to wall paper a door! Her hobbies include walking the dog and twitching! In the evenings she is busy with a foundation construction course in painting and decorating. Phew!!

Supplier of Heritage Seeds & Bulbs

Do visit a very interesting website that I have recently found www.thomasetty.co.uk.

Amble through a wonderful range of heritage seeds for vegetables, cottage garden flowers, wild flowers and heritage flowering bulbs. Also available is a list of resources and a vegetable seed timeline.