Letter written by Trude Owen, embroidery artist, Cardiff, 3 December 1980

Description

In this letter, written on 3 December 1980, Trude Owen, who was an embroidery artist and member of the Cardiff Reform Synagogue, describes the major events in her life that influenced her embroidered works, before and after coming to Wales from Czechoslovakia in 1939 at the onset of the Second World War.

Machine embroidery was a family business that went back to her grandfather when he started a factory in Brno, Czechoslovakia in 1905. Trude's parents began to work with him and this led Trude to grow up around the paraphernalia of the business that she, her older sister and brother in law would take over many years later in Wales following her parents' deaths.

Trude describes her mother's passion for hand embroidery and how it used to confuse her. She was perplexed at how her mother could sit down to do yet more embroidery after a busy day at the factory. It was not until the early 1970s that Trude discovered the joys of hand embroidery for herself. She partook in a course at the Royal School of Needlework that taught gold ceremonial embroidery. She describes enjoying the satisfying process of hand embroidery: coming up with a design, planning it out, embroidering it and finally ending up with a new finished piece.

Her first official commission was in 1972: a Torah curtain for the Cardiff New (later Reform) Synagogue at the request of Rabbi Graf. She describes her business growing: she received commissions from many synagogues although she kept making more personable pieces for family and friends such as baby blankets for her grandchildren. She ends the letter by emphasising her husband Sidney's influence on her work. Although he worked as a pharmacist, he was a skilled photographer and Trude valued his artistic opinion to the extent that she would show him works in progress for his opinion.

Trude died in 2003.

Depository: Glamorgan Archives.

• https://cardiffReformsynagogue.uk/new/ (link opens in new window)