Fishy tales

The two designs here are both fairly early ones of mine. I did them both as tops to go on small boxes to keep “stuff” in: one for each daughter. You can see a complete box above. I had these made specially when I lived on Norfolk Island from the local Norfolk Pine there.

Both needlepoints are based on Persian designs. The one I called Pisces (see below) is based on the detail from a bronze bowl engraved with a central roundel approximately 2cm in size. Of course my version is much bigger. The bowl comes from Khurasan in Iran and dates from the early 13th century. The outer border of the same bowl is the basis for a lampshade design. I haven’t sewn this one up yet but the design is shown, also below, although the colours look very odd having been translated from a software program for doing tapestry designs, through Photoshop to turn it into a jpg file, but you can get the idea..

The width of the border on the bowl is approximately 1.5 cm. It is presently in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

The second design, known simply as Islamic Fish was originally painted on a fritware bowl in black slip under a turquoise clear glaze. The diameter of the original bowl was 14.5cm and it comes from Iran at about the 12th century. It is now also in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Shoals of fish were very popular and decorated many bowls and plates.

My mother has been fantastic over the years helping me sew up some of my designs. I could always think of new ones creating a back log of ones I wanted to get sewn up. And as anyone who has ever done this kind of work will tell you, it can be a very time consuming exercise. She has always been there encouraging me and offering her advice and support. My mum is definitely one of a kind and I love her to bits for it!