Threads Of Life - A History Of The World Through The Eye Of A Needle

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012019020420190205 (R4)Textile artist and curator, Clare Hunter travels through the centuries and across continents uncovering the lives of women and men who have used sewing and embroidery to tell their stories, sometimes in the most unlikely and hardest of circumstances.

From the political storytelling of the Bayeux tapestry's anonymous embroiderers, to the POWs who memorialized their lives in the harshest of conditions during WWII, to the marches celebrating one hundred year's of women's suffrage in 2018, this is a treasure trove of book. Clare Hunters reveals how sewing and embroidery are as much about identity, politics and memory as they are about craft and art. Threads of Life is also peppered throughout with moments from Clare's own life as a textile artist, for instance, her first adventures with needle and thread, or the discovery of a beautifully worked patchwork quilt in an aunt's attic decades later. Listeners will delight in this celebration of sewing as an intimate and powerful medium for telling stories.

Read by Siobhan Redmond

Abridged by Julian Wilkinson

Produced by Elizabeth Allard

Textile artist Clare Hunter's illuminating history of sewing and embroidery.

022019020520190206 (R4)Textile artist and curator, Clare Hunter continues her journey through the centuries and across the continents where she uncovers the lives of women and men who have used sewing and embroidery to tell their stories. Today, Clare discovers a quilt created in the harsh conditions of a Japanese POW camp during World War Two. Comprising sixty-six embroidered squares, each one reveals its creator's unique story where resistance, remaining connected to past lives and loves, and preserving a sense of self are poignantly memorialized in thread.

Read by Siobhan Redmond

Abridged by Julian Wilkinson

Produced by Elizabeth Allard

Textile artist Clare Hunter on the solace found in sewing for prisoners of war.

032019020620190207 (R4)Textile artist and curator, Clare Hunter continues her journey through the centuries and across the continents where she uncovers the lives of women and men who have used sewing and embroidery to tell their stories. Today, Clare is clearing out a relative's attic when she comes across an exquisitely worked quilt, which leads to reflections on the power of sewing to evoke memory and create connections to the past.

Read by Siobhan Redmond

Abridged by Julian Wilkinson

Produced by Elizabeth Allard

Textile artist Clare Hunter on the power of sewing to evoke memory.

042019020720190208 (R4)Textile artist and curator, Clare Hunter continues her journey through the centuries and across the continents where she uncovers the lives of women and men who have used sewing and embroidery to tell their stories. Today, Clare uncovers the embroidered stories for Mull's oldest residents and then travels back in time to explore the role it played in establishing the democratic ideals of the newly independent United States of America.

Read by Siobhan Redmond

Abridged by Julian Wilkinson

Produced by Elizabeth Allard

Textile artist Clare Hunter on the ability of sewing to create a sense of place.

05 LAST2019020820190209 (R4)Textile artist and curator, Clare Hunter continues her journey through the centuries and across the continents where she uncovers the lives of women and men who have used sewing and embroidery to tell their stories. Today, Clare turns to the potency of needlework and The Dinner Party, the monumental multimedia artwork created by Judy Chicago in response to Michelangelo's The Last Supper which celebrates women's achievements.

Read by Siobhan Redmond

Abridged by Julian Wilkinson

Produced by Elizabeth Allard

Textile artist Clare Hunter explores feminism and the potency of needlework.