Abbey Price-Selvedge Magazine Article Research

As an idea for our end aim for the project we’ve decided to research in to writing an article on Lee Mills for a writing competition that Selvedge magazine are currently running. We felt that the best step towards developing this as our outcome it would be a good idea to research the articles that Selvedge magazine have recently done on the subject of archives in textiles.

In my research in to the magazine I looked at the nov/dec 2013 and the jan/feb 2014 issues.

Nov/Dec Issue:

In this issue of the magazine I’ve found an article on:

"Archival Quality" -Blodwen’s Welsh Heritage Blankets

This article is about a project called Blodwen’s Heritage Blanket Project. The project is based on the idea of old Welsh weaving mills sustaining through the new modern times of textile production. The project is basing it’s new work on an archive of patterns from Welsh weaves dating to the 17oos.
I felt this article relates to the type of article we would approach in doing about the Lee Mills archive. I think looking through the article and how its been written and the imagery used it has been useful in giving us ideas and inspiration for our project.

Jan/Feb 2014 Issue:

In this issue of the magazine I’ve found two articles relating to the topic of archives:

"Deconstructing History"-Unpicking 17th-Century Women’s Dress

This article is about 17th century women’s under garments from a collection at the V&A. I felt this article related to the topic of archives and Lee Mills as the V&A has large ranges of archives in many different areas of art and design.

 ”Silk Screen”-Ptolemy Mann Visits The Whitchurch Silk Mill

This article is about the silk that has been produced from the silk mill in Whitchurch since 1815 till the present day. I felt this article related to the Lee Mills archive project in the way the silk products produced from this mill from the past are archives themselves.

I feel from this research in to current Selvedge magazine articles it has become clear that the magazine and it’s readers are interested in stories about textile and fashion heritage, which means that creating an article based on the archives at Lee Mills will be suitable for Selvedge magazine.

Reference: Selvedge nov/dec 2013 jan/feb 2014

-Abbey Price