Mollie Grove
Mollie Grove | |
|---|---|
 1951 factory opening by PM Menzies at Dandenong - watched by Catherine Hardress and Mollie Grove | |
| Born | Edith Mary Grove 14 September 1909 |
| Died | 23 February 1996 |
| Education | Methodist Ladies College, Kew, Victoria |
| Known for | Weaving |
Edith Mary "Mollie" Grove (14 September 1909 - 23 February 1996) was an Australian weaver, textile designer, and business owner.[1]
Life
[edit]Grove was born in 1909 in Hamilton, Victoria to Methodist minister John William Grove, and Daisy Blanche (nee Galloway).[1] The fourth of six children and the only girl, the family lived in Tasmania and Western Australia before settling in Victoria.[1] Grove attended the Methodist Ladies' College (MLC) in Kew, where her father served as its second Principal.[1]
She first met Catherine Hardress while studying an Applied Art course at Swinburne Technical College where Hardress was Head of the Fine Art Department.[2] Grove was first studying to become a concert pianist before taking up art, teaching art and crafts at the Elsternwick campus of MLC.[1] She travelled overseas at the behest of MLC to gather ideas to start up an art department at the school.[2] Arriving in England in 1935, she enrolled at the London School of Arts and Crafts.[3]
It was in England that she was reunited with Hardress who had arrived a few years earlier and was doing costume design for the Tunbridge Repertory Theatre in Kent.[3] They ended up sharing a studio, and it was here after being snowed in for three weeks that they planned a trip to the countryside.[4] It was at this Northampton cottage where Grove was first persuaded to try the loom and fell in love with weaving.[5] Upon returning to London she left the School of Arts and Crafts and enrolled instead with the Kensington Weavers.[2]
The three-month course allowed Grove to develop her skills by undertaking projects in carding, spinning, weaving, inlaying, and rug-making.[2] The craft of weaving was for her the perfect blend of artistic creativity, and the technical precision and skill that made her such a good pianist.[6] Under the tutelage of Frau Jorgens, a talented German weaver, Grove did an apprenticeship learning advanced weaving techniques.[2] She furthered her research by working with a chemist to study how yarn was affected by various dyes.[6]
Before returning to Australia in 1939, Hardress and Grove spent six months travelling Scandinavia and Russia gathering inspiration for their craft.[7] Grove was particularly interested in the industrial development of weaving in Finland and Sweden.[8] They arrived in Melbourne on 14 August 1939 on board the Dutch ship Arendskerk,[9] which less than a year later was sunk by a German submarine.[10] The women quickly found an ideal location for a new studio in the basement of the Royal Exchange Assurance Building on Queen Street, with a loom for Mollie and a theatre replica for Catherine.[11]
Their first shop was at the start of World War II displaying fabrics on urns in the store window of Batavia House.[5] The Australian government sent their tweeds to the United States in 1940 as part of a display for the New York World's Fair.[12] In March of 1940 an exhibition of their hand-woven fabrics at Hotel Australia was opened by then-Prime Minister Robert Menzies.[13] Their displays appeared the Royal Show in Melbourne as part of the Australian Wool Board's Wool Court, with their creation being chosen by Governor Sir Winston Dugan to present as a gift to the Premier.[14] Grove and Hardress are not only credited with the creation of beautiful fabrics but the advancement of the wool manufacturing industry in Australia.[14]
"This exhibition will, I am sure, open up a new vision of beauty to the people who see it. We are the greatest wool-producing country, and we boast that we produce the finest wool in the world. Here we will see things entirely made and designed by two women."
Robert Menzies, The Argus, 4 March 1940
With that, the weaving business eclarté was born, and Grove began by teaching the technical side of producing handwoven woollens.[15] The influence of the war made imported fashion hard to come by[15] and the growth in practice of the tradition of weaving gave rise to their early business success.[2] For the 21st birthday of Princess Elizabeth she handpicked one of their tweed blankets made from royal violet wool.[16] Offering tailored suits at half the price of comparable imported products and achieving an exclusivity deal with David Jones, eclarté became known as one of the best cloths in Australia.[17]
After working out of their Melbourne studio throughout the war years, the eclarté mills in Dandenong were opened by Robert Menzies on 18 December 1951.[18] While many considered weaving a traditionally feminine practice, two-thirds of their factory staff were men.[19] Grove and Hardress worked hard to make their company a joyful and nice place to work. Rather than just employing workers, the eclarte philosophy was "A man who works with his hands is a labourer, a man who works with his hands and his brain is a craftsman, but a man who works with his hands and his brain and his heart is an artist."[20] They trained their community of artisans in all aspects of the work so they could perform a variety of tasks and not be bored.[2]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e McPhee, John, "Edith Mary (Mollie) Grove (1909–1996)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 2024-08-04
- ^ a b c d e f g Williamson, Liz (2000). Studio-weaving Australia : Robert Maltus & eclarte. Melbourne: Frances Burke Textile Resource Centre. ISBN 0864590539.
- ^ a b Grove, Mollie (Spring 1985). "Hand-woven fabrics from eclarté". Craft Australia. 15 (3): 57–61.
- ^ Leyser, Joan (February 1995). "eclarté - an Australian vision". Australian Home Beautiful. 34 (2): 37–39.
- ^ a b Arndt, Jessie Ash (23 September 1959). "Australian artists run weaving firm". Christian Science Monitor. Boston.
- ^ a b Hunt, Jo-Ann (1973). Eclarté (Thesis thesis). Melbourne Teacher's College.
- ^ "NEW EDUCATION IN SOVIET RUSSIA". Sun News-Pictorial. 1939-08-15. Retrieved 2024-08-04.
- ^ "ARTISTS ON WAY HOME - The Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954) - 12 Aug 1939". Trove. Retrieved 2024-08-04.
- ^ "Tapestries Weave Their Spell - The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957) - 15 Aug 1939". Trove. Retrieved 2024-08-04.
- ^ "DUTCH LINER SUNK". Sydney Morning Herald. 1940-01-17. Retrieved 2024-08-04.
- ^ "FURNISHING ARTISTIC STUDIO IN BASEMENT". Argus. 1939-09-05. Retrieved 2024-08-04.
- ^ "Fabrics Sent To New York Fair". Age. 1940-09-17. Retrieved 2024-08-04.
- ^ "Three Exhibitions Mark Opening Of Art Season - The Herald (Melbourne, Vic. : 1861 - 1954) - 4 Mar 1940". Trove. Retrieved 2024-08-04.
- ^ a b "Interesting New Fabrics on Display at R.A.S. - The Sun News-Pictorial (Melbourne, Vic. : 1922 - 1954; 1956) - 28 Sep 1940". Trove. Retrieved 2024-08-05.
- ^ a b "Two Australian Women Design HIGH GRADE WOOLLENS for the FASHION WORLD". Sydney Morning Herald. 1940-11-12. Retrieved 2024-08-05.
- ^ "LENGTH OF TWEED FOR PRINCESS". Sydney Morning Herald. 1947-06-17. Retrieved 2024-08-05.
- ^ "Advertising". Sydney Morning Herald. 1948-02-18. Retrieved 2024-08-05.
- ^ "PRIME MINISTER OPENS NEW ECLARTE FACTORY". Dandenong Journal. 1951-12-19. Retrieved 2024-08-07.
- ^ "Weaving mill fulfills dream". Herald. 1951-12-11. Retrieved 2024-08-07.
- ^ "Women's art has outlet in textile industry". Weekly Times. 1951-12-19. Retrieved 2024-08-07.
