Tuesday 5 January 2010

Fuegians



This was meant to be a cushion, requested by a friend. I used cotton canvas (I don't know where it is from, there were a lot of similar lengths in the Cloth House, roughly woven, all with a stripe or two), but did not calculate how big the characters would be given the count of the weave. It is much too big to be cushions. I will probably cut it in half and put each pair of names on a stretcher.
The lettering is taken from various samplers in the V&A's book of samplers.
These were the names given to the four natives of Tierra del Fuego that were taken to England on the Beagle. They were on the ship, being returned to Tierra del Fuego when Charles Darwin sailed on it. Boat Memory died on the way to England.
PS. Of course, these were not their names at all. Their names were: El'leparu, O'run-del'lico, and Yok'cushly. There seems to be no record of Boat Memory's real name.