red flannel pieces
I have been thinking again of trophy cloth and red flannel pieces and have been patching a tennis ball with stroud red cloth.
’some of it in N America started as ‘trophies’ - small pieces cut from the jackets of captured/killed British soldiers and then attached to or worked into artifacts and garments as a decoration, to show off a Native American’s ‘victory’ (much the same as scalps, but there was more of it and it would be more easily divided up’
March 4th, 2010 at 11:31 am
trophies signify victory; in sport the runner-up also gets a trophy of sorts. in trade no one comes out empty-handed regardless of who has come out on top in the exchange. the beaver skin, and other materials that were exchanged for Stroud cloth, were ‘trophies’ or else were used to make trophies, such as the top hat (might call it a trophy hat)
might be interesting to explore whether visitors to the museum would be interested in donating pieces of Stroud Cloth for a patchwork item (maybe a quilt). on the other hand to try a similar exercise with pieces of fabric that have some relation to the themes such as old tennis memorabilia, top hats, objects acquired on trips abroad etc. you could maybe photograph and return them to visitors? stories that relate would also be interesting to capture . . .