lost legacies - the next stage

firstly, the chemise piece now has a provisional title "baby makers", and it has spread it's reach to the women partners of the male Cantins in my family line up to my grandmother - there are 5 generations of these but 6 partners because the third generat Cantin male married a first cousin, another Cantin so i included both partners of the second generation males - that sounds complicated but makes sense when you see it on a family tree!

between them the 6 women had 57 listed recorded children (one had 13!), and only the first, an enslaved woman who had been granted her freedom, was recorded as having a job or profession - she was listed as a dressmaker

anyway, once the cage is constructed i will be adding items and embellishments to represent their lives and some elements indicating what i feel they might have missed out on because of the limitations imposed on them

the fun part is assembling and creating that collection of items and embellishments

i "accidentally" started a collection of needle cases by having a unintended ebay frenzy! it's been fun opening all the parcels 

just one of several!

and i also found just what i wanted to represent some of the children - these are the tiny favours used in a traditional French epiphany cake (Galette des Rois) which where originally a fava bean (une fève), but later became tiny unglazed porcelain favours in various relevant shapes, my favourites being the swaddled infant Jesus - i was delighted when i tracked some down online