Casey asked me how the presentation of my fabric book went at college, which prompted me to reflect on the comments that I got from the group. It is too easy to let these opportunities slip past without capturing the helpful comments that people make.
It was interesting that although I don’t value my needlework skills, I had a number of comments from people admiring my needlework. This surprised me until I realised I was comparing myself to some extremely accomplished needlewomen in my family.
The use of the thin gauze to partly obscure images was commented on, and I think people liked that effect and could relate it to the fuzziness of memories.
One gentleman was reminded of an actual childhood memory of his own involving dolls (and head-shaving of said doll, but we won’t go into that gruesome tale!)
Another gentleman sat me down afterwards to explain how someone once told him that each time we remember a memory, we change it slightly. So the ‘purest’ memories are those that we don’t remember for years, and then suddenly it comes back. But even in that first remembering, we start to alter it. I found this idea very intriguing indeed.
There was also some interest in the idea of drawing with needle and thread.
My textiles tutor suggested that there may be scope to make these books for people – memory books, celebration books, etc. for recording important events or remembering important people. I might also be interested in running workshops for people to make their own memory books.
That’s about as much as I can remember for now! But thank you, Casey, for the prompt to get it down in writing.
Here I am at the end of week two of college, and I’ve only just started painting again! This is the start of a large painting. I plan to do a series of these large ‘paint sketches’ in acrylic on card, and then decide whether to continue the series in oil on canvas.
