Crochet G

Full on day of visits, all part of the job.
 
Very interesting speaker at lace group tonight - Nicolette, a Departmental Lecturer in Russian and European Studies was talking about her research for her doctorate, focusing on two villages in Slovakia - looking at folklore.  Her profile says:
 
My second area of interest lies between the areas of Design History and Cultural Studies, and concerns the history of textile crafts in Eastern Europe, as well as the integration of folklore and ´folk art´ into domestic design in Czechoslovakia and Poland. I have a particular interest in the relationship between the production of so-called ´folk arts´ and the formulation of Socialist Realist aesthetics, and the ideological appropriation of crafts into projects of Communist state-building. Having previously written about the effects of socialist cultural policy on craft practice and theory, as well as its ongoing influence on contemporary concepts of authenticity and heritage, I have recently turned my attention to investigating how artisanal craft and folklore were implicated in the visual economies of the socialist state in Poland.
 
Nicolette also brought some items of underwear collected from Poland when researching crochet lace.  Not very practical, but gave us all a good giggle.
 
X