Learning a Lot

Today we have the Royal School of Needlework Stitch Bank! There are HUNDREDS of stitch types in the RSN Stitch Bank.

And more added regularly, let’s look at a recent addition

I picked the first one in the 25 recently added Elizabethan stitches, the Elizabethan French Stitch

The stitch bank provides written and photo tutorials as well as a video option to learn to do it yourself. There are examples of the stitch in use, resources, references, everything but a needle and thread!

If anyone who has enjoyed this resource has the means, I encourage you to adopt or sponsor a stitch to help keep this free to access. I know not everyone has the means to (fair, been there) but if you can, check out their sponsor options

And one other resource I have shared before, The Lady's Magazine. Embroidery patterns from 1770-1819. In case anyone wants some historic ideas for using all these new embroidery stitches

They see the extensive, carefully crafted world and history of Middle Earth that is meant to feel almost as real as our own, and then they hold Narnia to the same standard and find it wanting.

I almost wonder if people think the two are supposed to be compared because they were written by two Christian authors who were friends.

But Narnia isn't meant to be like Middle Earth. It's not meant to be high fantasy that almost feels like history or real-word mythology.

Narnia, I'd argue, is a fairy tale first and foremost, and then a fantasy story second.

label and date everything

dont use adhesives on important stuff they degrade really quickly and can damage things

some paper is much more acidic than others and will degrade and damage things touching it. newspaper and construction paper are the worst and will mess up other papers theyre next to

printed photographs have chemicals that can react really badly to temperatures and dampness and you should keep them separate from other materials

soft and thin plastics also degrade really quickly (unless theyre archival grade) and are the worst to deal with

keep a copy of digital files in at least one separate location (flash drive or hard drive)

some inks will fade over time or bleed onto whatever theyre on. archival ink is a thing but there are also just some inks that are more stable

rubber bands break within a few years, paper clips and staples will rust and damage the paper if theyre not made of the right material

exposing photos or any material with colors to light for a while will obviously degrade them over time and theres not much you can to do restore them at that point

you lowkey should print out digital correspondence or materials if you want to keep them long term and be able to find them regardless of what happens to that email domain, website etc. its not uncommon to have printed out email threads in archival collections

these seem to have been more common in the 70s-90s but those photo albums with thin plastic and slight adhesive pages are terrible and will damage your photos and make them stuck forever

this is what acidic paper does to anything its touching after a few decades so watch out

if you actually want to archive something that (possibly) relies on specific software to run, for example an interactive installation or some generative art program or even web-art or plug-ins made for a specific browser, you have to archive an entire (hardware) computer with the OS and the programs installed on the hard drive that can run it!

There is very little guarantee that you can get all the necessary drivers and old versions of the software running on new hardware even if you can still find the installers and files 20 years later. Almost nothing is made with backwards compatibility in mind.