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Flatwear

In the development of a new ‘collection’, and through the making and display of these new

objects, Alice Chandler has become increasingly interested in the layered histories,

etymologies, narratives, myths, and meanings around certain objects and materials.

Considering what happens when you put them in dialogue, how they begin to juxtapose,

interconnect or form relationships. Alice Chandler’s practice is concerned with the crossover

between art, craft and design; referencing mass production, the handmade, the value of an

object, and functionality. Chandler’s work alludes to retail in its display and borrows tropes

from jewellery discourse relating to preciousness in materials. Work is available to purchase.

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Glossary

1. Amethyst

A precious stone consisting of a violet or purple variety of quartz. From

Greek amethustos meaning ‘not drunken’ (because the stone was believed to prevent

intoxication). Amethyst was considered to be a strong antidote against drunkenness which is

why wine goblets were often carved from it. In his poem "L'Amethyste, ou les Amours de

Bacchus et d'Amethyste" the French poet Remy Belleau invented a myth in which Bacchus,

the god of intoxication, of wine, and grapes was pursuing a maiden named Amethyste, who

refused his affections. Amethyste prayed to the gods to remain chaste, a prayer which the

chaste goddess Diana answered, transforming her into a white stone. Humbled by

Amethyste's desire to remain chaste, Bacchus poured wine over the stone as an offering,

dyeing the crystals purple.

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2. Drunkards Path

The Drunkard's Path quilt block tends to look like a staggering drunk due to the arrangement

of the curved pieces. It is often suggested that the pattern first originated with the Women’s

Temperance Movement in the early 20th Century.

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3. Patchwork Quilt

A patchwork quilt is a quilt in which the top layer may consist of pieces of fabric sewn

together to form a design. Quilt making as a craft is often passed down through the

generations. Chandler’s grandmother was an avid quilter and her mother still is.

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4. Brooch

Ornamental clasp consisting of a pin and a covering shield, early 13c., from Old French

broche "long needle". Middle English: variant of broach, a noun originally meaning ‘skewer,

bodkin’, based on Latin brocchus, ‘projecting’. Can be at once functional and decorative. Sits

separately to the skin, within textile.

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5. Wheat

A symbol of abundance, life, and fertility. Greek Goddess Demeter and her priestesses wore

sacred wheat ears in their hair. Cartier created a number of wheat-ear ornaments and

aigrettes from approx. 1901. Wheat-ear tiaras consisted either of ears of wheat tied in

bundles at their centre, or else husks of wheat which followed the movement of the tiara

band. The British Museum archive contains a wheat ear spray brooch dating from 1825.

Each wheat-ear can be removed and slotted into a tiara.

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6. Warburtons

Warburtons is a British baking firm founded by Thomas Warburton in 1876. Each loaf of

Warburton’s bread is contained in a plastic bag decorated with wheat.

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7. Weetabix

Weetabix is a whole grain wheat breakfast cereal produced by Weetabix Limited in the

United Kingdom. It comes in the form of palm-sized, rounded, rectangle-shaped biscuits.

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8. Flatware

Relatively flat tableware. Predominantly eating and serving utensils (such as knives,

forks, and spoons)

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9. Shell

The Greek and Latin words for the term "spoon" are derived from the word 'cochlea'.

This term means snail and testifies to the use of snail shells as spoons. A sugar spoon

is a piece of cutlery used for serving granulated sugar. This type of spoon resembles a

teaspoon, except that the bowl is deeper and often molded in the shape of a sea shell,

giving it the name sugar shell. Sugar spoons are sometimes called "sugar shovels"

because of their rectangular shape and deep bowl.

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10. Bar (Chocolate & Gold)

The first chocolate bar was made in Britain by Joseph Fry and his son, who pressed a paste

made of cocoa powder and sugar into a bar shape. Subsequently, his chocolate factory,

Fry's of Bristol, England, began mass-producing chocolate bars and they became very

popular. The custom of receiving a chocolate on your hotel room pillow started in the 1950’s

when Cary Grant was staying at The Roberts Mayfair in St. Louis. A guest at the hotel, he

would leave a trail of chocolates from the living room to the bed to woo a lady of affection.

The hotel was so impressed by Grants attention to detail that they began

putting chocolates on each of the guest’s pillows. The trend spread quickly among higher

end hotels. A gold bar, also called gold bullion or a gold ingot, is a quantity of refined metallic

gold of any shape that is made by a bar producer meeting standard conditions of

manufacture, labelling, and record keeping. A gold brick is a bar of gilded cheap metal that

only appears to be genuine gold; a fraudulent, worthless substitute.

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11. Milk Glass

Semi-translucent glass, whitened by the addition of various ingredients. Milk Glass is

typically coloured white, blue, black, or pink and is slightly opaque with a smooth and silky

surface. Milk Glass is not made from milk or milk bottles.

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12. Jewellery

Precious, personal ornaments. Jewellery is a universal form of adornment. Jewellery made

from shells, stone and bones survives from prehistoric times. To hold, to contemplate, to

cherish.

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13. Uniform

Remaining the same in all cases and at all times; unchanging in form or character.

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14. Collection

Action of collecting, practice of gathering together.