Some Favourite Toys

Some of our favourite finds from the tissue wrapped treasures in the museum stores.

A Sad story, Wedding Dress - Boer War

These photos show the original wedding dress from museum stores...

A wedding dress

One of the objects we were shown in the collections was a wedding dress made by a woman during the Boer war. Her husband-to-be never returned from the wars and the dress remained in the family, unworn until the family donated it to the museum. We aren't allowed to know who the family are or any details of the story so we created this dress as a little homage to the lady - whoever she may have been....

We've had a fantastic time rooting through the intriguing boxes stacked up in the back rooms of the museum stores. Each one is filled with beautiful parcels of tissue wrapped with string and inside each parcel is a treasure. Theres a phenomenal amount of 'stuff' - and the museum staff have been very helpful and incredibly patient as we trawl through the piles. Quickly realising how easy it would be to become bewildered by the sheer volume of 'things', we've decided to focus on the toy and costume collections. They appeal to us as textile artists and also because they have such personal connotations, having been well loved and well worn. They carry an aura that is quite tangible of their previous owners and often arrive with stories of those people passed down through the generations.