Friday Inspiration - The Dinner Party Place Cloths

One of the highlights of being in New York City last week was being able to finally see Judy Chicago's The Dinner Party at The Brooklyn Museum.  I missed it during it's previous installations at different museums and then it sat boxed up for so long.  It was worth the wait!

Unfortunately, it's so dim in the viewing room that none of my pictures turned out.  Fortunately, I bought the exhibition book which has numerous photos of each place setting and lots of background information.  Definitely a great purchase!  

While the plates are beautiful, it was the fiber art on the place setting cloths that mesmerized me - wonderful needlepoint, tapestries, weaving, embroidery, crochet, ... and more.  If you haven't had a chance to learn anything about this amazing piece of art, take a look here.  I have a few of my favorites to show you from the book and if these intrigue you, be sure to look at the museum's website, where you can see views of every one of the 39 settings. 

The embroidery on the place cloth for 17th century astronomer Caroline Herschel is beautiful!  I especially love how delicate crochet was used to represent the three nebulae she discovered.  And as gorgeous as this looks in a photo, the actual piece is even much more so.

I've been intrigued with Eleanor Aquitaine's story ever since seeing A Lion in Winter as a young teenager.  Her place cloth is done mainly in perfect needlepoint. 

Hypatia's (a 4th century Roman mathematician) place cloth is a colorful and moving tapestry weaving.  The blended colors are wonderful!  This is a fiber art I've never tried, but have been thinking about getting into.

Even the corner holding pieces are done in fine needlework!

I can tell I'll be getting a lot of inspiration from reading the book and remembering my visit.

Happy Creating!  Deborah