The Pin Cushion
I’m covering coat hangers and need pins so I go in search of more
Among my bits and bobs, I find a pin cushion I haven’t used for years
It bristles with pins, not the glass headed pins I favour these days but the dull brass pins I used when making Bobbin Lace
As I turn it over in my hands it almost comes alive with new significance
My dad was a lovely man; he died when I was just 17 years old.
So sad because I was becoming aware that he was a man, so much more than ‘just dad’; he was a person of interest with a past and a family I knew nothing about
His parents had both died before I came along and when he was gone, so were they
For whatever reason mum did not talk about any of them
Years later and thanks to the internet I discovered a great deal about my father’s family
It is so very interesting to see many of my interests reflected in the occupations of these people with whom I share a genetic code
My grandmother’s father was a silver smith, his father a gardener; however it’s the women on my grandfather’s side that brought the greatest sense of connection.
Listed in the 1841 census Elisabeth, a new wife and mother, proudly owns her occupation as a lace maker. Living in the cottage next to theirs, in a Buckinghamshire village, is a woman, possibly her mother, also a lace maker.
I can imagine the two of them sitting at their doorstep overlooking the village green with all the comings and goings, making lace together. I wonder how many generations have gone before using the same skills.
So turning this roll of fabric and pins in my hands I can’t help but wonder, what these women would think of it?
I made it from a fine cotton, a Liberty paisley print. In 1841 it was yet to become an icon of expensive taste, even so it doubtless would have been beyond their simple budget. I imagine the brass pins would represent a small fortune to them.
Elisabeth and her farming husband would go on to have 9 children.
The industrial revolution would cause them both to look for new occupations in paper making, soon moving with the times to fresher fields.
I took up Bobbin Lace making in the late 70’s, 130 years later, in complete ignorance of this connection but…
God knows all.
Lace making for me was a hobby, a luxury, an escape.
For Elisabeth it would have been a necessity, the means by which together, she and William gained anything more than the most basic standard of living in those days.
These connections cannot be denied, I am mindful of so much that has gone before but…
All mystery to me
I am an open book to the Almighty! (Psalm 139)
One family may have been lost, but…
God, who is my Ever-Present, has restored to me a connection with things past
I take pleasure in the pale gleam of silver
I find peace pottering in the garden,
I prefer the countryside over city life,
Turning the pages of a book excites me
All of this, added to an Eternal Timeline and my sense of belonging to the wider,
Deeper,
Richly different family of God
Words and photographs © Denise Stanford 2010
Within the Vine 