White Threads FlossTube #49 – Lighting for needlework in times past

Something that I've wondered about for a long time is how did embroiderers in times past, see to do their embroidery? Lighting was poor inside, with no electric lighting, and often only candles or firelight. For many they would have been working around and outside the home in the daytime, so couldn't make use of sunlight to embroider by. So when and how did they do their embroidery? And consider that they often used to work on fabric counts of 60-100 threads per inch which is much, much higher than we are used to these days.

Today I explore this in my White Threads FlossTube video, with a possible solution from Kari-Anne Pedersen, Curator of Costumes and Textiles, Norsk Folkemuseum, Olso, Norway. I make pictorial visits to open air museums such as Hancock Shaker Village in Massachusetts, Skansen in Stockholm and Norsk Folkemuseum along the way.

Episode notes:

[janicepardy]

Thank you for answering a question that has been discussed among my embroidery friends. I had always felt that it must have been done during the day because, being hardworking people, they would go to bed early and rise early. Not night owls like some people these days! We are so lucky to live in modern times.

[liliankok]

Thank you for another interesting floss tube. This is what we learned in Denmark also, the combining of tasks. Plus the professional embroiderers. Now, I have seen in a museum a device that helped candle light be stronger. It’s a long time ago, but it had to do with the light through a glass bubble shaped thing filled with water, if I remember correctly..

[alanawegner]

Thank you for discussing this topic. I imagine the cost of making candles changed across the world, depending on the availability of ingredients, so in some regions candles could have been used. I am aware that some lacemakers (and probably Embroiderers too) used a glass globe that defused the light from a candle inside, a precursor to our light bulbs. They are called Lacemaker lamps. Where there is a will, advancing technology provide many ways.

[cazcarolwhite]

I remember seeing reflector plates made of metal (I don't remember what kind) sitting on a wall or shelf behind the lamp. Seemed to work well too.

[joannsundbergumberger]

Another observation, many of the older photos show women doing various needlearts sitting in the doorway, just outside. Knitting, Spinning and Handwork. Utilizing sunshine for lighting Another thought, personally I schedule my Hardanger Steps Always Doing my Cutting when I’m rested, have Good lighting and will be relatively undisturbed . Keeping a couple pieces to work allows me to always be at my best for each piece. Those ladies knit all socks and outerwear, probably in the evening with poor light, but cozy surroundings. Getting it all done, by careful planning. Hardanger and Smoyg were necessary beauty. We all need to keep that in our lives. Feeds our Soul.

[tim]

a) That far north the sun doesn't set until very late during the summer. (And it rises very early.) So there would be more hours of daylight than you might think. (Oslo gets about 19 hours of daylight in June.) Of course embroidery might be almost impossible during the long winter darkness.

b) People worked far fewer hours during pre-industrial times. In medieval England a serf was only expected to work about half of the day. Even for artisans, who may have worked 8-9 hours per day, the large number of holidays, saints' days, local celebrations, and other time off meant that the average person had about 1/3 of the year off of work. In medieval Spain the holidays added up to five months per year.

[jonaustin]

Keep in mind, too, that despite the fact that the study of opthamology was not far advanced, optometrists did exist and provided ground glass lenses to correct or enhance one’s vision. Their stock would include a variety of pre ground lenses that the patient would try in order to come close to correction of eyesight. I have a pair of my great-great grand(???)’s glasses that are actually bifocals with split lenses in each frame. The upper half of the lens is clear glass, and the lower half is ground to magnify comparable to my inexpensive “reader glasses” at a 2.0+ correction.