The Victorian House of Arts and Crafts - Episode 2

It is week two at the Victorian House of Arts and Crafts.  This time our crafters are decorating a bedroom.  The crafters are still getting used to each other and personalities are starting to emerge.  The run time for this episode is 59:14.

The crafters have now been living in the house for a week and have worked on the parlor.  The judges’ favorite item from the parlor was the wallpaper.  However, there were personality clashes.  Now this week, they will be working on the bedroom.

In the Victorian Period, the bedroom was an oasis of calm.  Earlier in the era, the bedrooms were crowded with objects, but in the arts and crafts period the clutter was removed and the bedrooms were less cluttered.  The three objects three of the crafters will be creating are a bedspread, a set of panels, and a bedstead.  Rod and Abdollah will be jointly creating the bedstead.  Abdollah is pleased with working on the object because there is no wood splitting involved.

After the assignments, the group goes to research the artists and designs to work on the bedroom.  During this period embroidery went from a woman’s craft to high art.  Niamh the embroider will be working on the bedspread.  She goes out in nature to take inspiration for her design.  Rod and Abdollah work on constructing the bedframe.  They also have the challenge of working together on this project.  Abdollah finds himself wanting to soak up the knowledge Rod has.

Stephen is a potter and his skills are going to be challenged with his assignment, making panels using the Gesso Method.  The Gesso method requires the building up of layers on the canvas.  He works with an expert on Gesso.  Keith, one of the judges will help Stephen get a start on the project.  Stephen will definitely be gaining a new set of skills.

The Gesso Method was rediscovered by Mary Seaton Watts.  She came from a privileged background but wanted to gather artists together to share their skills.  She set up schools to help train others.  Even though the arts and crafts movements were liberally minded, women crafters still had to fight for recognition. 

The project manager this week is Isla and she starts outlining schedules for the other crafters.  She had Rod have butted heads in the first week.  She goes and whitewashes the walls in the bedroom in preparation for a mural.  Once she whitewashes the walls, she will work on painting the mural.  Bryony will work on a clock for the room as well.

Niamh gives the crafters a lesson in embroidery, she will need all the help she can get for the bedroom.  The boys, Rod and Abdollah learn their lessons however they are reluctant to give up time in the workshop to help her with the bedspread.  The artist commune is coming together and collaboration flows, except for Stephen.  None of the crafters have worked with Gesso before.  He is nervous that his first time working with gesso will show in the artwork.  Niamh continues to work on the bedspread.  Working with the other crafters is proving to be a challenge for Niamh, who feels like she will be discovered as a fraud as she continues to work on the bedspread.

However, despite them working together, there are still personality clashes.  Everyone was their own boss in the modern age and am used to spending time on their own.  Bryony notices that they were their own individuals in their worlds.  So, working with five other personalities is proving to be daunting.  The crafters will have to work on keeping an open mind and giving and talking with each other.  This is evident in the woodshed when Isla and the boys clash over the bedstead design.  Eventually, the crafters conclude that they will have to meet more often to catch each other up on their progress in hopes that meeting more often will release some of the tension.

This reflects in the arts and crafts communes in the past.  Some collaborations worked for decades other collapsed due to personalities and money.  So will our commune fall apart or will they find a way to work together?  Tune into the rest of this episode to find out!

I am starting to conclude that this would not be a series to show to a history class but should be shown to an art class, especially a high school art class.