Now that Resting Place has received funding from Arts Council England for the first 3 live events the work to develop the touring project has now begun in earnest. The website is being built and will be launched very soon, along with a new blog to include the thoughts of all the collaborators.
In the meantime the work on the pillowcases begins again. Following the very sad closure of London Printworks Trust at the end of January, I have been spending time adapting my own studio, selling unused equipment to buy other types, buying a larger printer and getting used to all the new ‘toys’. I now have my own heat press and screen exposure unit which will enable me to complete the fabric etching of the unfinished pillowcases and then spend the winter months embroidering in readiness for the first event in March 2014.
One of the most moving aspects of this project has been the willingness of people to get involved and I am now very thrilled to have a helper with the embroidery. This person came to one of my talks and at the end asked to get involved. She felt that the project was so thought-provoking and sensitive that she wanted to be a part of it. This complete stranger has taken so much time and effort to show me her own embroidery to assure me of her skills and has visited my studio twice now to collect pillowcases and bring a completed one.
Pillowcase: Nov 15th 1915
The embroidery on each pillowcase is now becoming a record of others memories, time and involvement in the project. Each design is taken from my memory of the embroidery on actual pillowcases that I collected last year. This memory, transferred and shared with another who then uses it to produce the embroidery. Each stitch, each decision, each change of tone, each threading of the needle and knotting of thread; all a record, an archive containing moments in time.