16 July 2010

My mother's Sylko cotton reels

I have lots of things kept from my childhood like this. Not worth money but priceless. They are wooden and feel kind to hold. And they just dont compare to reels of now. They are from a different time, a different world in a way. I suppose they are loaded with meaning too. I have so few memories of her and so few things that belonged to her.Knowing she has used these, touched them, sewn with them as I too have threaded my needle and sewn with the same thread too - its a very powerful feeling of life's continuum and the connection we have even though it feels like we havent. Its such a simple little object yet in other ways its anything but that.
I bet there are hundreds of thousands of little objects around the world like this... kept in tins and tucked away in the loft. Little momentos of friends and family and lovers. And would I swap them for "pieces" that are worth anything? not in a billion years.


8 July 2010

Poetry word shadow



This little papercut was made for a friend's birthday - a poet called Richard Brown. He writes beautiful poems and I knew that he would like this little cut. Before it was all framed up in a Perspex block, I stole some moments in the sunshine to make some shadows.

5 July 2010

Wolverhampton Second World War Memorial

This the War Memorial in the heart of Wolverhampton just in the gardens near St. Peter's Collegiate Church. Wherever I go I always look for war memorials and graveyards. I find them so moving and I like to think of those people who lived and loved so long ago. I am not old enough to remember the war at all, not old enough to remember Kennedy either but when looking at a war memorial it makes me think about the utter bitter sweetness of life. And this one is moving too. The design is very simple and streamlined, very much of its time... but its the carved words of love, honour, courage etc that are fading that really grab at my heart.