Stroud International Textiles

Ideas are progressing well and now in collaboration with poet Tawona Sithole ideas and words are emerging which will find themselves embroidered onto tennis balls .

unravelling red thread from a ball

i have been thinking of Tawonas comment on red routes of trade

‘you get the sense of infiltration or spreading out, as well as the sense of thriving, the bustle of the milling industry coursing through the veins of a community as does red dye in the waterways as does a certain red pigment that we all have in common ‘

art work by artist Bernadette Cotter.

red threads wound together to create a ball

A full stop or period (.) (sometimes point or dot) is the punctuation  mark commonly placed at the end of sentences. In British English, it is known as a full stop. “Period” is the preferred term in North America.

The term STOP was used in telegrams in place of the period. The end of a sentence would be marked by STOP, because punctuation cost extra. The end of the entire telegram would be noted by FULL STOP.

Full stops ( red tennis balls)to stop viewers their tracks allowing them to view objects in a different light

each full stop with a different word or embroidered texture?

I visited the button company in Cork.. I have never seen so many buttons.

red museum object : buttons                           

today i heard the phrase play a straight bat 

1. (British) to avoid answering someone’s questions or giving them the information they want

When asked about the affair, he plays a straight bat.

2. (British old-fashioned) someone who plays a straight bat is honest and has traditional ideas and beliefs

Wilf has played a straight bat all his life - I can’t believe he’d get mixed up in anything illegal.

words from Tawona:  ‘just some phrases that came to mind: ‘paint the town red’ or ‘having a ball’, both meaning to have a good time. the opposite side of that would be the idea of being ‘in the red’, where a cheque might bounce - 2 sides of red. the idea of trade is linked to accumulating wealth, with those better of from trade being better of in terms of gain. to gain an advantage through trade - in tennis you gain advantage from a deadlock (deuce) at the expense of the player at the other end of the court or ’sporting transaction’.

painting the town red :

meaning engage in a riotous spree.

origin  The allusion is to the kind of unruly behaviour that results in much blood being spilt

It is sometimes said to come from the US slang use of “paint” to mean “drink”, When someone’s drunk their face and nose are flushed red, hence the analogy.

Rudyard Kipling. in his book Abaft Funnel, 1889: “They would do their best towards painting that town [Chicago] in purest vermilion.”

trophy hat :a prize for a tournament .. batting history around in swingball tournament?

”Threads weave to make fabric in the first place, and then to decorate (embroidery) or to repair (patching), or attach two pieces in making a garment requires thread.
the social impact of requiring two people to work the loom is an interesting analogy on life itself, the challenge of living and working together. it mirrors the sport of tennis where you can’t play on your own, which also works well with the idea of trade where there has to be more than one party for that to happen . . .

the comment of ‘no Wimbledon without Stroud’ seems to emphasise the fact we can’t seem to get away from the concept of 2 - 2 parties to trade, at least 2 players for tennis, 2 weavers of the original loom, 2 parts that make the tennis ball

tawona

i like the idea of embroidered words and history being bounced around/batted about  ………………………………………the idea of taking something which is normally considered precious ( embroidery) and batting it around.

batting 

n

1. (Clothing, Personal Arts & Crafts / Textiles) Also called batt cotton or woollen wadding used in quilts, mattresses, etc.

2. (Team Sports / Cricket) the action of a person or team that hits with a bat, esp in cricket or baseball