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Highlights in this issue

Owen Jones and the V&A Collections

The sparsity of serious historical attention given to Jones is surprising, considering his role in the history of the decorative arts, design education, and the development of the South Kensington Museum, the continuing success of some of his designs, and continuing sales of 'The Grammar of Ornament'.

Keepsakes of Identity - Michele Walker 'Memoriam'

Quilt making fulfils a number of roles for the maker and society: the process of making may represent an act of remembrance, a rite of passage (say a wedding or a birth) or provide a forum for overt political or social commentary.

The film work of stage designer Oliver Messel

Oliver Messel was the leading British stage designer of the mid-20th century. He won international acclaim for his exquisite taste and mastery of period style in revues, plays, films, interiors, buildings, musicals, operas and ballets, becoming one of the most sought-after and highly-paid scenery and costume designers of his era.

Doing Time: Patchwork as a tool of social rehabilitiation in British prisons

There is a longstanding affiliation between confinement and creativity. While restricting the movement of the human form, prisons, workhouses, internment camps, hospitals and asylums have long been the site of great imagination and industry.