Odd Bodkin Renaissance Shop

06/02/2024

Ok I'm late to the game but I finally watched the trailer for the new series, "Ren Faire" on HBO. Hilarious! I'm looking forward to seeing the drama.

09/05/2022

02/17/2022

Sanditon
The wait is almost over! I’ll be binging the series to get ready.

Why are the men in Jane Austen’s stories so surly?

Sanditon Season 2 returns on Sundays starting March 20, 2022 on PBS.

Pictured is Sanditon’s Miss Georgiana Lambe played by Crystal Clarke

02/12/2022

"The Black Tudors" By Dr. Miranda Kaufmann highlights 10 black people living, working and loving in the Tudor and Elizabethan Period. It's on my wishlist!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ika69UqZRvQ&feature=youtu.be

Published in October 2017 from Oneworld PublicationsA black porter publicly whips a white Englishman in a Gloucestershire manor house. A heavily pregnant Afr...

02/10/2022

Bridgerton Season 2 comes out in just over a month (March 25, 2022). If you haven’t seen Season 1 yet, you still have time to catch up, or to rewatch all the fun!

What do you think will happen this season? Be careful with spoilers!

Pictured is my favorite character, Lady Danbury, played by Adjoa Andoh.

02/10/2022

This Regency style gown is created using African wax print fabrics. Perfectly styled as an art installation and short film by Yinka Shonibare MBE.

Shonibare’s interdisciplinary practice uses citations of Western art history and literature to question the validity of contemporary cultural and national identities within the context of globalization. He has an incredible array of art featuring this textile and it is well worth a look!

[http://yinkashonibare.com](http://yinkashonibare.com/biography/)

02/09/2022

Facing fierce competition, dressmaker Sarah Boone had to find a way for her dresses to catch the eye of customers. By the early 1890s, she hit on something that was tailor-made for the corsets that were popular in the era.

To that point, dressmakers were primarily ironing their clothes on a wooden plank placed across two chairs, a method that was fine for a wide skirt but ill-suited for the contours of tight, fitted material. Boone's solution was to create a narrower, curved board that could slip into sleeves and allow for a garment to be shifted without getting wrinkled. Her creation also was padded, to eliminate the impressions produced by a wooden board, and collapsible for easy storage.

Learn more about Sarah Boone:
https://www.biography.com/inventor/sarah-boone

Sarah Boone was a 19th century African American dressmaker who was awarded a patent for her improved ironing board.

02/08/2022

"With Washington in the titular role, and Frances McDormand portraying his persuasive wife, the film diverts from the traditional interpretation of the text — that the Macbeths are young, hungry and teeming with potential — to focus on a maturing couple and their last opportunity to establish a legacy. Even as they seize their destiny and conspire to kill the king, time seems to be working against them."
MacBeth is on Apple TV + and stars Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand.
Read More: https://www.slashfilm.com/757242/why-a-colorblind-view-on-the-tragedy-of-macbeth-misses-its-most-interesting-subtext/?utm_campaign=clip

Denzel Washington has said The Tragedy of Macbeth's diverse casting 'shouldn't even be mentioned' — but the added subtext actually enhances the story.

02/07/2022

A fantastic story about sewing machines and "woke capitalism". Sometimes it's important to know where your dollars are going and whether they are benefitting or taking from the causes you support.

http://facebook.com/sewcreativelounge is a business to support during Black History Month. Check them out and join their lounge to meet other seamsters!

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-50673541.amp

A device that changed women's lives was originally intended to make one man rich.

02/06/2022

Onyeka Nubia's original research shows that Tudors from many walks of life regularly interacted with people of African descent, both at home and abroad, revealing a genuine pragmatism towards race and acceptance of difference. Nubia also rejects the influence of the 'Curse of Ham' myth on Tudor thinking, persuasively arguing that many of the ideas associated with modern racism are in fact relatively recent developments.

https://www.amazon.com/Englands-Other-Country-Men-Blackness/dp/1786994216

England’s Other Countrymen: Black Tudor Society (Blackness in Britain)

02/04/2022

Anne Boleyn

Have you been watching this new show on the final days of Anne’s life? What did you think?

Stars Jodie Turner-Smith as Anne and Mark Stanley as Henry VIII.

02/02/2022

# Zelda Wynn Valdez

Among her many accomplishments, she is known for dying dance tights to match the skin tone of the dancer and for being involved in the design and manufacture of the iconic Pl***oy Bunny uniform.

Designing clothes started as a passion for a young girl named Zelda. Born in 1905 in Chambersburg, PA, she excelled at piano and making her family look beautiful in the clothes she made them. She moved on to work as a seamstress in a boutique and honed her skills. She was known for being able to sew her very fitted and ornate creations by studying a picture when she was unable to take measurements.

Zelda opened her own boutique on Broadway in 1948 - the first black woman to do so - and later had a shop adjacent to Carnegie Hall. As a result of her incredible skill and attention to detail, her clientele list was filled with celebrities of stage and screen. Her designs were worn by Marian Anderson, Dorothy Dandridge, Josephine Baker, Eartha Kitt, Ruby Dee, Diahann Carroll, Mae West and Marlene Dietrich, and even the wedding of Nat King Cole and Maria Ellington.

In her 70’s, she became a costume designer for the Dance Theater of Harlem. She passed in 2001.

For more information on Zelda Wynn Valdez, see this article in the NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/obituaries/zelda-wynn-valdes-overlooked.html

An important reminder to support businesses owned by black women. See: https://www.buyfromablackwoman.org for more details

01/15/2022

So accurate!

11/11/2021

11/02/2021

This wins Halloween for me!

08/03/2021

Found elseweb and loved this!

07/12/2021

https://news.stlpublicradio.org/culture-history/2021-07-09/missouri-inmates-sew-custom-quilts-for-foster-children-it-kind-of-breaks-your-heart

A small group of men incarcerated at a prison in southern Missouri is working toward a common goal: creating personalized quilts for every child in the Texas County foster care system.

06/07/2021

Found elsewhere on the web. Seemed appropriate.