Reimagining Aida’s Craft: Newlyn’s Textile Heritage with Elizabeth Loveday

The sole surviving textile piece from Mrs Dick’s Needlecraft Class, created by a young Newlyn girl named Aida Harvey James in the early 1900s, is now preserved in the archive of Penlee House Gallery & Museum. For Social Fabric, contemporary textile artist Elizabeth Loveday, based in Penzance, was commissioned to delve into the history of this remarkable work.

Through meticulous research and hands-on experimentation, she recreated test pieces to understand Aida’s techniques. Her final piece offers a vivid interpretation of what it might have been like to attend Mrs Dick’s class, following the same instructions that shaped Aida’s artistry.

It is known that Stanhope Forbes and his wife Elizabeth were ardent supporters of the Newlyn Industrial Class, decorating their home at the top of Chywoone Hill with its handmade items. Among these were curtains adorned with the same Sea Poppy motif featured in Aida’s work, demonstrating the enduring appeal of this timeless design.

 

Social Fabric is an exhibition of textile-based art showing across both our venues, presenting the work of contemporary female artists whose practices revalue old wisdoms and techniques using traditional textile skills with fresh perspectives.

Participating artists: Lyn Barlow, Ali Bassett, Nicole Chui, Lenka Clayton, Julie Cook, Aya Haidar, Elizabeth Loveday, Angela Maddock, Amarjeet Nandhra, LOW PROFILE, Jamila Prowse, Celia Pym.  (See Read More below for details of the artists and their work)