In a ground-breaking survey taken primarily from literary
sources, Threading Time reveals the essential link between
the human spirit and the art of connecting threads. Whether
looking at stories about clothing made in the Garden of Eden,
a medieval manuscript, or modern fiction and poetry, the
author traces the importance to humankind of a craft that has
never ceased since it began at least forty thousand years ago.
The author's conception of threadwork throughout is generic,
including all kinds of work done with thread, yarn, or fiber.
In the author's long-range view, threadwork becomes more than
a garment, a rug, or a tapestry on the wall. It is often a
bond shared with contemporaries and with ancestors, a link be-
tween humans and cultural beliefs, even a tie between humankind
and the Divine. This age-old association of interwoven fibers
and humanity is found today in a metaphor that is used to convey
the concept of shared traditions, values, and beliefs: the fabric
of society. A rip in the fabric can be alarming; mending it is
necessary to avert instability and even chaos.
Threading Time opens with stories from biblical traditions
that continue to influence society. Next come portrayals of thread-
workers in Greek and Roman myths and those suggested on the famous
marble frieze carved on the Parthenon of Athens. The author then
turns to Piers Plowman, Chartres Cathedral's windows, the Bayeux
Tapestry, and other textile evidence from the medieval era; she
suggests how threadwork in those centuries became identified with
spiritual faith and belief in miracles.
An illustrated French manuscript and the Apocalypse Tapestry high-
light a discussion of changes in the lives of cloth workers that
occurred during the Renaissance. Works by two Germans—playwright
Gerhart Hauptmann and artist Käthe Kollwitz—illustrate labor
struggles that persisted for centuries in textile production.
Selections of poetry by English poets such as Robert Burns and
William Blake provide glimpses of protests made by some against
economic forces dis-rupting the lives of textile workers during
the Industrial Revolution.
Novels by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edith Wharton, and D. H. Lawrence
suggest that threadwork activity itself may arouse, release, or
inhibit strong feelings, even erotic passion, between men and
women. These novels also demonstrate that needlework and its
products can be used to stigmatize, ostracize, or control an
individual. Both fictional and real-life accounts follow in a
discussion of works by three nineteenth-century writers—Charles
Dickens, Louisa May Alcott, and Mary Boykin Chesnut—who illustrate
the power of threadwork during wartime to transform solitary
individuals into patriots and lift the morale of civilians who
share common beliefs and objectives.
Afterward, novels by Edith Gaskell, Edith Wharton, and Theodore
Dreiser, as well as several memoirs, offer examples of textile work
that individuals have done in peacetime when their daily survival
hung by a thread. Finally, the author turns to twentieth-century
American authors Margaret Mitchell, Alice Walker, Anna Quindlen, and
John Updike for glimpses into families whose members are linked by
threadwork.
As an original view of threadwork written from a broad chronological
perspective, Threading Time will appeal to textile artisans and
collectors. It will also interest lay readers of literature, women's
history, and cultural history.
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DOLORES BAUSUM and her husband, Henry, a retired professor of
history from the Virginia Military Institute, traveled extensively
for many years. During these travels Bausum found herself
increasingly interested in collecting fabric folk art. In 1985
she began designing quilts and locating superior quilters, eventually
establishing a shop, Quilters of Virginia, in Lexington, Virginia.
Works from her shop were included in the U.S. State Department's
Art in Embassies Program and displayed abroad in two American
embassy residences. The Bausums make their home in Beloit,
Wisconsin.
