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| Turtledoves amidst the straw! |
I have been super busy these last few weeks, and on St Valentine's Day I actually had visitors staying with me. I had a post all ready composed, but needed to take photos, so what with one thing and another, nothing got done. Still, better late than never!
I am rather fond of my Jeux de Paille scarves - yes, I have more than one. Two are in silk & cashmere, a relatively rare type of scarf material. I only like the older silk & cashmeres, since they are thicker and warmer and less likely to pill than the newer ones, and there is little choice out there, so most of my cashmere & silks are duplicates. I think it is interesting to see how the pattern looks so different in the cashmere & silks than in the silk-only scarves. The colours are much richer and more glowing in the all-silk scarves.
When I grew up I spent a certain amount of time in haylofts and stables, so playing in dried grasses was a significant part of my childhood. Especially haylofts were great, you could build caves and little sleeping hollows in there. I guess nowadays children are probably forbidden to enter haylofts, health & safety being what it is, but in my days we had such fun in there! And the smell was so wonderful ....
Of course usually when people think about playing around in straw and hay they have amorous games in mind, which is reflected in the imagery of these scarves. Jeux de Paille means Joys of/in Straw, and the turtledoves depicted point unambiguously towards pleasures of the unchaste kind.
However, when you examine the other aspects of the scarves you will see that Jeux de Paille also refers to basket weaving, and all the other items one can fashion out of straw by dint of dexterous fingerplay and practical imagination.
I feel this scarf design, which is so charming in its evocation of times past, both innocent and artisanal, ought to feature higher in the estimation of the scarf-fancying community than is currently the case.
Happy post-St Valentine's Day!!!
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| Silk |
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| ditto |
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| as well |
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| yet again |
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| and another |
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| additionally |
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| artist's name |
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| Copyright symbol |
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| Title |
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| Cashmere & Silk version in red |
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| ditto |
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| and in blue |
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| as well |
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| and finally! |
