With very little to keep me rooted, anchored and calm during the Corona virus lockdown period, sewing has proved to be a valuable pastime. Over the last few months I have been working on a Travelling Book project for Skipton Embroiderers' Guild. The most recent theme was Inside my mind chosen by artist Haley Mills-Styles and this has provided a great opportunity to reflect on all of the conflicting emotions brought on by 12 weeks of social distancing and isolation.
I started, as I do with most projects, by making a map of anything that popped into my head: what made me happy or worried; what I missed and what I was happy to leave behind; how the elements connected or clashed. The page was peppered with doodles too. I remembered a previous piece of work that I'd done called 'Something on my mind' and wanted to do a smaller version. In a moment of pure serendipity, my friend Marjorie had also remembered this piece of work and sent me a couple of vintage handkerchiefs that she had acquired. What luck!
I stitched an edited version of the mind map onto one of the handkerchiefs, adding some extra colour with Inktense pencils and doodle stitching to connect the words. I like the idea of layers and conflicting emotions created as the fabric is folded which mirrors the turmoil inside my mind. Thank you Haley for a great project!
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