Textiles & Wellbeing: Lorina Bulwer

Activities exploring textile making and the samplers made by Lorina Bulwer. Lorina Bulwer was an inmate in Great Yarmouth Workhouse. During Lorina's time at the workhouse, around fifteen years, she created embroidered letters. The letters were made by creating a patchwork of fabric to stitch the text on to. We call them samplers because they are similar to the needlework samplers made to teach embroidery to young girls. On her samplers Lorina mainly stitched words, all in capital letters with no punctuation. They read as a constant stream of thought, sometimes angry, sometimes funny. They provide us with an insight into her mind as well as the world of the workhouse. Using some recreations of the real samplers we will explore textiles and wellbeing.