learning by hand

as part of my Maker Membership work i have been trying to consider some ideas around Learning by Hand which i could cope with - i'm currently working with an even more foggy brain than usual due to a recent cycling accident and subsequent injuries - so i'm hoping that this will give the little grey cells something to help them get back into the swing

i started a brainstorm/mindmap and quickly homed in on the idea of Handbooks as instructional textbooks (inspired by Joanne's exploration of a needlework textbook), and what we can tell about people's manual skills by looking at their hands - Sherlock Holmes saw hands as an open book, revealing important clues about people's lives - those two areas that led me to the idea of creating a hand-book of hand outlines (prompted by Susan's multiple, Katano shibori hands) which would display some of the features resulting from people's lives and hand-skills - the changes and adaptations to the hands of artisans which reflect their specialist skills and learning

these changes could be shown through density and texture of stitch, different textile surfaces and techniques like quilting, trapunto and manipulation and maybe some colour, although i prefer to avoid that in favour of texture because it is tactile - i have a good selection of whiteish thread and yarns as well as fabrics which should allow me to echo most of the relevant features

meanwhile i have gone through my fabric collection to choose appropriate textiles on which to stitch the hands: handkerchiefs, hand towels and vintage linens - some of which include handstitching and embroidery, but all have been handled over the years by their makers and users, who became familiar with the textures and feel of each piece of cloth

potential handbook fabrics

i have prepared outlines of my hands as well as Mick's as templates and am already imagining a handbook which illustrates so much more than the physical adaptations shown on workers hands before i have made a single cut or stitch - this has definitely got the little grey cells back on track and stimulated!

mine are in blue

now i need to collect information and images about the features of hands which carry out different skills - e.g. Musicians, Dyers, Stonemasons, Carpenters, Metal workers like Blacksmiths and Silversmiths, Weavers, Cobblers, Lacemakers, Seamstresses etc - i would love to hear from anyone who has contact with people who worked in traditional hand skills as i aim to focus on those in use during the Victorian period