Mine was a top-notch seamstress for the International Ladies Garment Worker's Union for 50 (that's 5 decades!) years. With her "golden hands" she seamed the most detailed parts of ladie's shirts.: facings and collars. facings and collars. facings and collars. facings and collars. Over and over. For all those years. Sound a bit like drudgery? Think of how it was before the unions came into being. For fun, she used to make clothing for the family.
In those days real men had wives who didn't work. And that was what my grandfather believed. Only my grandmother thought they needed the extra cash in order to put food on the table so she went to work against his will. A big step for a woman from the shtetl in Russia.
TOWER OF INDUSTRY: GRANDMOTHER STITCHES
(flameworked glass, fabric, gold leaf, mixed media)
This sculpture has been juried into a Philadelphia Sculptors' exibition at West Chester University, PA. The images of my grandmother are from one of my oil paintings, the sewing machine and lace are glass that I flameworked, the bobbins and spool were my grandmother's. There is even a cloth replication of her ILGWU card which she proudly carried.
