Tag: Embroidery

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The art of embroidery with Menangle artist Elaine Balla

camdenhistorynotes

2011 Camden Show Embroidery by Elaine Balla

Embroidery artist Elaine Balla created a decorative artwork about the Camden Show in 2011 for its 125th anniversary called ‘The Camden Show. ‘

Elaine entered her embroidery work in the competitive arts and crafts section of the show and won the Champion Exhibit Ribbon.

The art of embroidery has long been popular with local women and has a history that goes back to ancient times.

What is embroidery?

Embroidery is a decorative art or craft in which the artist uses fabric and other materials to apply thread or yarn using a variety of styles and stitches.

The art of embroidery is practised worldwide and can be traced to ancient China. In medieval England, high art was controlled by guilds and used in textiles in church rituals.

Embroidery was used to tell stories and as a form of biography at a time when women had few legal rights and were mostly illiterate. It was an expression of women’s agency.

Embroidery was passed down through generations of women who were the gatekeepers of community storytelling and secrets.

Embroidery artwork ‘The Camden Show’

Elaine spoke to Camden Historical Society president Ian Willis about her artwork, ‘The Camden Show’ and her other embroidery work.

Elaine said, ‘The Camden Show work took a couple of months to complete. ‘

She said, ‘I was under pressure to do the work due to the date of the 2011 Camden Show as the deadline’.

Elaine Balla’s embroidery artwork The Camden Show, which she has donated to the Camden Historical Society (I Willis 2024)

The Camden Show work is an example of crewel embroidery using thicker thread than silk-cotton embroidery threads, with some highlights in silk and gold, e.g., the balloons.

Elaine first drew the artwork on paper and then transferred the design to the linen cloth on which the embroidery was worked.

The artwork tells the story of the Camden Show. The centrepiece is a representation of the show ring with fireworks going off behind the show rotunda.

Cattle are found in the top right-hand corner of the work, proceeding around the ring. The story then moves through the poultry pavilion to the show hall displays, including flowers, jams, cakes, and photographs.

At the bottom of the work are the entry gates. The design then moves onto the ferris wheel and other sideshow stalls, including the Dodgem cars and clowns with moving heads.

The rural exhibitors, including the tractors, other farm equipment, and the show jumping, are in the top left corner of the embroidery work.

Beneath the title are fruit and vegetable displays along with the flowers.

The embroidery is a wonderful representation of a very popular community event.

Embroidery artwork, ‘Family Story’

Another work Elaine entered at the Camden Show in 2010 was ‘Family Story’.

The work tells the story of her family, the farm, the villages of Menangle, and the town of Camden, centred on St John’s Anglican Church and St James Anglican Church.

The centre of the work shows the family farm, the house with the family’s dogs, Tiger, Suzie and Rusty.

Elaine said, ‘The work is a panorama of her life story in Menangle.’

Embroidery artist Elaine Balla with her prize-winning artwork The Family (I Willis 2024)

She finished the work over several months.

‘I completed a couple of hours every night’, she said.

In 2010, Elaine was featured in an article in the Camden press after winning the Most Outstanding Exhibit at the 2010 Camden Show with the embroidery.

The work is 140 centimetres by 55 centimetres and ‘featured over 40 years of memories’. (Camden Advertiser, 2010, ud)

‘I just wanted to have memories of where we have been. Places change. It’s really just a memory of our times,’ she said. (Macarthur Chronicle 2010)

She was ‘delighted, pleased and happy to win the prize.’ (Macarthur Chronicle, 2010)

‘I don’t really go in shows to win’. (Macarthur Chronicle, 2010)

She said, ‘If people do not enter their craftwork into the show, there won’t be a show’. (Camden Advertiser, 2010, ud)

Elaine said that she started embroidery when she was 12 years old and asked her mother if she could do an embroidery. The first work she attempted was an apple, and then she moved on to bigger projects.

Husband Steve proudly admits that Elaine put ‘a lot of effort into her work’.

Elaine and her husband Steve recently moved into Menangle’s Durham Green, downsizing from the family farm. The framed embroidery has brought many happy memories from the farm with her.

Exhibition at the Campbelltown Arts Centre

Elaine Balla is a member of the Embroiderer’s Guild of NSW, Campbelltown Group, and she was featured in a retrospective was part of the “Ruby” Exhibition of The Embroiderers Guild NSW, Campbelltown Group, at the Campbelltown Arts Centre held between 10-12 February 2023.

The image gallery below is a selection of Elaine Balla’s embroidery work at the ‘Ruby’ Exhibition at the Campbelltown Arts Centre in 2023, with images provided by Joan Kolar.

Elaine exhibited around 50 works in a variety of embroidery styles, representing 60 years of embroidery artwork.

The embroidery artworks included varying styles and pieces, including tablecloths, pictures, cushion covers and more.

The embroidery was done on linen, silk, and Madeira linen in styles including crewel, drawn-thread, pulled-thread, cross-stitch, Goldsworthy, cut-work, and more.

Elaine has exhibited her embroidery elsewhere in Australia and overseas.

The Campbelltown Group of the Embroiler’s Guild in NSW features a triennial exhibition at the Campbelltown Arts Centre.

Macarthur Chronicle 2010 ud

Reference

Elaine Balla, Interview, 4 February 2024.

Joan Kolar, Group Convenor, Embroiderers’ Guild NSW Inc., Campbelltown Group, Email, 5 February 2023.

Joan Kolar, Images from ‘Ruby’ Exhibition at Campbelltown Arts Centre, 2023.

Updated 13 February 2024. Originally posted on 11 February 2024.

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An embroidered silk postcard for Millie at Christmas 1916

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A postcard from Frederick for sister Millie

During the First World War, local soldier Frederick Kelloway sent his sister, Millie, an embroidered silk postcard to celebrate Christmas and New Year at home in 1916.

The front of the embroidered silk postcard that Frederick Kelloway sent his sister Millie in 1916. (KCordina 2023)

Millie’s great-granddaughter Kellee writes on Facebook that

Frederick was overseas serving his country in WWI. Sadly, by the time Millie received the Christmas wishes, Frederick had died in battle on 29th November 1916.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086479871666

In the early 20th century, postcards were a cheap and easy way for people to keep in touch with each other, and this especially applied in the First World War.

History of postcards

The postcard was an integral part of the global postal system.  

The Philatelic Team at Australia Post states that the first postcard appeared in Austria.

The world’s first postcard is recognised as being issued 150 years ago, by Austria in 1869. This was a simple, blank, light-brown card (8.5cm x 12cm), with an area for a message, the address and an officially imprinted stamp on the other side, which was half the cost of a normal letter.

An economics professor from Vienna had written an article in the newspaper suggesting that there must be a simpler, cheaper and more practical way to send a short message than a letter, and the Austrian postal authority answered his call.

https://australiapostcollectables.com.au/articles/150-years-of-the-postcard

The first Australian postcard was issued by postal authorities in New South Wales in 1875. Postcards had been approved by postal authorities in Great Britain in 1870 and the United States in 1873.

Australia Post states that the first postcards were Post Office monopolies and that private postcard makers had to submit blank cards to postal authorities to have a stamp image printed on the card.

Unstamped pictorial postcards from private makers were not allowed to be sold in Australia until 1895 when they were approved for use in Victoria. An adhesive stamp was placed on the card, and it had to ‘measure not less than l inch x 3 inches nor more than 5 ¼ x 3 ¼ inches’.

The first pictorial postcard was introduced in Tasmania in 1894 and by the New South Wales Post Office in 1898. It had scenes on the back and space for a short message. At the time, Post Office regulations stated that only the address could be on the front of the postcard.

Postage rates were 1d within Australia and 1½d overseas with a New South Wales stamp. The postcard trade boomed in Australia, especially between 1900 and 1910, after which the letter rate dropped to 1d in 1911.

 Postcards were a much easier way to contact someone than writing a letter, and they became souvenirs. Postcard collecting became popular.

Frederick Kelloway’s embroidered silk postcard

 Frederick Kelloway’s card is an embroidered silk postcard that was part of a thriving trade in France during the First World War.  

The Australian War Memorial has a collection of over 1000 woven, printed and embroidered silk postcards. The themes covered include

Australian Themes, woven and printed silk postcards, general greetings, greetings to relatives, silk postcards embroidered Wife / Darling or Mother, Sister, birthday greetings, Christmas and New Year, units and camps, flags, France and Belgium.

https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/RC00688

The first embroidered silk postcards were made for the Paris Exposition in 1900, and their manufacture peaked during the First World War.

By 1915, France had a thriving cottage industry of outworkers, and around 10 million postcards were made by 1919.

The embroidery was done by French women, often at home, on a strip of silk mesh with around 25 to a strip. These were then sent to factories for cutting and mounting on postcards.

The Imperial War Museum states:

The embroidered postcards were very popular with British soldiers who often sent them home. They were sold in thin paper envelopes but were seldom sent through the post in them.  They were too fragile and, more particularly, they represented quite an investment – they were not cheap souvenirs.  Usually, they were mailed with letters.

https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/embroidered-silk-postcards

Frederick Kelloway’s embroidered silk postcard does not have a stamp or address on the reverse of the card and would probably have been sent with a letter.

The back of the embroidered silk postcard that Frederick sent his sister Millie in 1916. There is no postage stamp or address on the postcard. Pointing to its cost and value to Frederick. The back of the card reads: ‘To my dear sister, From Fred. Wishing you a merry Xmas & a happy New Year.’ The mark at the bottom of the postcard is ‘Fabrication Francaise’, which means Made in France. On the bottom right-hand corner is the mark Modèle Déposé, which means Registered Design in French. (KCordina, 2023)

Frederick’s postcard to Millie has pansies and a four-leaf clover. The Australian War Memorial states that these have a particular meaning.

Typical images used were the swallow, the pansy (which was a very popular image in silk cards. Its popular meaning at the time was ‘you occupy my thoughts’), roses (love) and forget me nots (meaning true love, memories). Horseshoes and four-leaf clovers were also popular as symbols of good luck and remembrance.

https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C2829356

The Australia Post Philatelic Team state

Pretty pastel-coloured flowers featured prominently – a stark contrast to the harsh conditions faced on the Western Front, as did butterflies, birthday or sentimental greetings and the flags of allied countries.

https://australiapostcollectables.com.au/articles/150-years-of-the-postcard
This embroidered silk postcard has a large pink rose with a smaller pink rosebud in the design’s bottom right-hand corner. (AWM, 2023)

The Australian soldiers were away from home and often thought of their families, including those from Camden NSW.

Killed in action in 1916

Tragically, Frederick Kelloway was killed in action in 1916 and never made it back home to Camden.

Frederick Kelloway was killed in action in 1916. His obituary is on Camden Remembers (2023)

These are the First World War Memorial Gates at Macarthur Park. This image is from a glass plate negative taken by Roy Dowle in 1920. Frederick Kelloway’s name is listed on the gates along with other Camden soldiers and nurses from the First World War. (Camden Images)

Updated 24 April 2024. Originally posted on 29 December 2023 as ‘An embroidered silk postcard for Millie at Christmas 1916’.

Art · Artefacts · Artists · Collective Memory · Crafts · Cultural Heritage · Embroidery · Families · Family history · Fashion · Fashion History · First World War · France · Heritage · Hope and loss · Local History · Local Studies · Memory · Storytelling · War · War at home · Wartime

Embroided handkerchief, memories of home at Christmas on the frontline in 1916

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Embroidered silk handkerchief

At the Liverpool Regional Museum, there are poignant memories of home for an Australian soldier on the frontline at Christmas in 1916.

Christmas during wartime is a period of hope and memories of home. This embroidered silk handkerchief is full of meaning and memories for an Australian soldier.

An embroidered silk handkerchief sent to an Australian soldier on the frontline in 1916 at Christmas (Liverpool Regional Museum)

Embroidered souvenirs during wartime were popular with the troops, and they were light and easily folded and posted from home.

The troops could easily carry these momentoes in their kit bag as they moved around the front. 

The embroidered silk handkerchief was a personal item from a loved one who had taken the time and effort to hand-sew the design on the material.

The curator at the Liverpool Regional Museum has written:

In the heat of the First World War, many continued to find comfort in the small holidays that dotted the year. The highlight was Christmas, which held high prominence throughout Australia from the 1910s.

As war waged throughout the world, Christmas brought sorrow for those separated from loved ones fighting in far-off lands. As a result, embroidered cards and fabrics were frequently purchased by soldiers. As souvenirs to send home, they were a powerful message to loved ones as a reminder during these times apart. These elaborate gifts were handmade, often featuring traditional or patriotic symbols, generally adorned with the flags of the countries fighting the war.

This handkerchief belonging to the Ashcroft Family is one of these souvenir gifts. Made from white silk, it is hand embroidered with a Christmas Tree. The bauble decorations illustrate the flags of the Triple Entente, the allied powers of World War One, which then included Great Britain, France and Russia.

https://mylibrary.liverpool.nsw.gov.au/My-Library/liverpool-regional-museum
An embroidered silk handkerchief sent to an Australian soldier on the frontline at Christmas 1916 (Liverpool Regional Museum)

From the Ashcroft Collection at the Liverpool Regional Museum.