Tea at Trianon: Leather Lady

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Saturday, May 11, 2019

Leather Lady

From The Taos News:

For nearly 40 years Torre Strong has concentrated her substantial creativity on working with leather. She also paints and does beadwork, but fabricating with leather has been her focus since she was 16. At that point, she felt she needed to choose from the various artistic skills she had learned while growing up in an alternative community in the Northwest.

Strong traveled the world for six years as a young adult, noticing everywhere she went the way leather had been worked in different cultures and in different times. This broad exposure has been an abiding influence. Strong has been a resident of Questa for more than 25 years; her earlier work here was influenced by Spanish and Native American leather-working designs. Now she incorporates more Tibetan, Mongolian and Scythian themes. She considers herself largely self-taught and says, "With simple tools I can do a lot."

Indeed, in her compact and well-organized studio, a table with an anvil is prominent as well as two vintage sewing machines, one of which is around 100 years old. She also has a table for painting on leather, for she now is combining her two favorite mediums of expression, leatherwork and painting.

Asked about leather design, Strong emphasizes a perhaps often glossed-over aspect of leathercraft, its roots in functionality. "Everyone in the world seems to have a pretty deep history with the creating of utilitarian, everyday items with leather, and often to the effect of being ornate, beautiful, expressive."

For Strong, design always starts with function. It is, she says, "need-motivated." The function dictates "what kind of leather you choose." Whether she is crafting a cellphone case, a leather shirt or a book cover will determine what part of a hide is needed, whether it is thin or thick, soft or rigid. Once that is determined and a pattern is made for the item, the leather is then cut out. The next part of the process is gluing and then stitching by hand or machine.

"I prefer wild leather," she says, "bison, elk, deer, antelope. I've used the finest kangaroo hide to the heaviest water buffalo and Tibetan yak." She adds that "I have used bison primarily." Many have criticized her use of leather over synthetics. Strong believes, however, that leather is a more sustainable and less polluting material than its imitations. That said, Strong acknowledges that "I never forget for a minute that this is somebody's skin. It's the duality of life and death right there in your hand." She sees her work as a transformative process, "creating beauty out of pain." (Read more.)