Hi all,
Yes, needles again – I think I may have threatened that in a previous article! So much more to say about these little guys but I'll try to keep it reasonably short. They're actually quite amazing and they've helped change history.
I often wonder how someone first thought to put some kind of thread through some kind of needle and sew some pieces of something together. Maybe they watched how vines can cling together or spider webs pull foliage together and took it from there. I envisage that someone was cold because their hide wrap was too small so they pushed something threadlike, animal sinew or vines or similar, through a hole in it and a hole in another piece, using a stick or a little piece of bone to help. And, from there, sewing became a thing!
Can you imagine the competition between those first sewers as they discovered what would work and, being human or a similar species, how pretty they could make it!
The oldest human-made needle we know of dates back to around 60,000 years ago. It was found in South Africa and made of bone, probably bird. These first needles would have probably been made by using a flint tool, cutting and trimming splinters of bone roughly into a pointed shape. Needles made of bone and ivory have been discovered in Slovenia, Liaoning, China, and Russia, dating back to between 45,000 and 30,000 years ago.
L tto R: From Sibudu Cave, South Africa -probably the earliest needle known at about 61,000 years old (historyofinformation.com); Ancient Greek needles (commons.wikimedia.org); Early bronze needle from early Neolithic (10,000-4,500BCE) (By Jeromeyuchien - from Jerome Yuchien PhD, commons.wikimedia.org)
The needle then became the distinctive tool of the Upper Paleolithic period that began about 40,000 years ago. Earlier Paleolithic needles had grooves rather than eyes to hold sinew or fibre; however, needles with an eye can be dated as far back as the Gravettian period, around 25,000 years ago. The ability to produce warmer clothing by stitching hides together helped make possible the extension of human settlement into cooler regions after the last ice age, which lasted until roughly 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. They also were used for fashioning fishing nets and carrying bags, allowing for the necessary mobility to enable migration. There is also evidence that, by the Gravettian period, needles were used not only to stitch hides together for warmth but also for sewing and decorating textiles, becoming part of the development of humanity's conceptual skills and expressions. Fashion in and of itself as a driver of social development may have been a later notion but I would guess there was competition around style and decoration.
A few fun facts:
8,600-year-old Neolithic needle bones were discovered at Ekşi Höyük in present-day Denizli Province, western Anatolia. Copper sewing needles have been found at Naqada, Egypt, ranging from 4400 BC to 3000 BC. Ancient Egyptians made ceramic double-pointed needles with an eye at each end. Six bone needles were found at Troy, most of them notched but one with an eye opposite the point. Roman needles were made of bronze and iron, with the eye on top. The medical texts of the Vedas (ancient and sacred Hindu texts initially written about 3,500 years ago) prescribe straight and curved high-quality steel needles with today's familiar oval eyes and call attention to their care. Chinese blacksmiths started to make sharp, thin steel needles about 200BCE, about 100 years after Indian metal-workers began to make steel.
L to R: Ancient sewing needles, varied materials (Google images); Bronze needles for sailmaking 400-300BCE, found in Roman ship wrecks (researchgate.net); Viking bronze needle, National Historical Museum of Sweden (photo from flickr.com)
Spain inherited the secrets of Islamic steel needle making and refugees brought these skills to England during medieval times. Needles were among a household's valuables, protected in special cases that women attached to their belts.
From the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, British and French needlemakers made much progress in their craft, sadly mostly undocumented.. Needles were supplied for many trades outside of fashion and medicine, including clock making and goldsmithing. To avoid guild restrictions on machinery in the seventeenth century, many needlemakers relocated to Redditch, England, in the Midlands, where the industry has remained ever since, with ample water power and proximity to both metalworkers and crafts using needles.
Eighteenth-century needlemakers developed a system of production that is still the basis of today's automated factories. (Interestingly, surgical needles are still made by hand.) Steel was heated, shaped into a cylinder, and drawn through a number of dies to achieve the proper gauge, then cut into needle lengths. The end was hammered flat, the wire heated, and an eye punched and often grooved for easier threading. Next, the eye was filed smooth and the other end sharpened by filing. The needles were hardened by heating and cooling, then tempered for strength and straightened with a hammer and anvil. Polishing followed with up to 15,000 needles placed in a bag with emery dust and olive oil. The bags were moved back and forth between planks under a heavy weight for up to two days, after which they were washed with hot water and soap. They were dried in a bran-filled box, then sorted and repointed manually with an emery stone. The water-powered scouring mills of Redditch produced such an excellent and sought after finish that the town attracted most of England's needlemakers.
Lto R: Varied needles including draper, dressmaker, milner, seamstress and upholstery (theswanseabay.co.uk); Tibetan needle case (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/sewingneedle); various packets of sewing needles (fromsajou.fr)
At its peak in the late nineteenth century, the Redditch needle industry was producing fully 90 percent of the world's needs. This was challenged as German needlemakers built technological leadership as early as 1850, when the Schumag company of Aachen introduced a machine that stamped and eyed needles in one operation. German manufacturers continue to dominate sewing machine-needle production while, over generations, the Redditch industry has consolidated into a handful of firms producing premium hand-sewing needles for the world market.
This is a little ramble of potted information gathered from several trips down fascinating rabbit holes all over the internet, without getting into the many books on needles and their history. Heavy industrial sewing is a whole other story!
I find it wonderful that our craftwork is so ancient and so modern. Stripped to the absolute basics, some kind of needle, some kind of thread and some kind of fabric, there is minimal difference between the ancients and us. Like now, I'm guessing some saw sewing as a tedious but necessary chore and some loved the making and saw pleasure and creativity in doing so. We can only guess that then, the feel of needle and thread, and fabric through the fingers was as comforting, as healing and as joyful as it can be now.
Have a good Tuesday!
L to R: Australian Dreaming, this example a bit faded but an effective design and very popular; AAD Stripes, a play with scraps; AAD Circles, flows beautifully, a quilt by Chris Timmons; AAD Diamonds, a lovely, sparkly design from a Michelle Marvig pattern called Left and Right; AAD Stepping Stones, a kit but would also be good to use up scraps, also designed by Chris T.
