Baggage packed

  

Cultural Shifts

'just a little footnote to show how the mail order emotions are all packed and ready!!

Emotional Copes

Emotional Copes

 

   These are from the Forget Me Not project from 2020 and form the second half of the mail order emotion section, they are the Emotional Copes. I didn't know how I was coping during lockdown and so these are perhaps uncomfortably personal pieces and some of the oddest I have ever made !!!

 

   A cope is a cape like garment worn mostly but not exclusively by members of the Christian church. It is a flat semi circle with a fabric tab fastening at the front and on the back often has a panel or tab which has decoration symbolic to the wearer. In some cathedrals you can still find the large semicircular chests that they were kept in.

  In order of appearance here we have :

1. 'I'm Fine'. Gold organza, gold gallon ribbon, pins and red beads. (above)

2.' Pocket Full'. Silk  gold gallon ribbon, silk fortune teller and pockets of herbs. (embroidered braille along the top edge says "ring a ring of roses".

3. 'Im Sorry'. Silver Organza on silk, silver gallon ribbon, beads and embroidery.

  4. 'Shaky Hands'. Silver metal organza, silver gallon ribbon, embroidery and fabric printouts of a benefit letter. 

5. 'Sleep'. Gold metal fabric, gold gallon ribbon, beads, gold fringe and naturally shed cat fur (it was a hot summer and he was okay with it !)

 It was the play on words that appealed to me but I also liked the idea of the symbolic embroidery on the back. Each of mine has a simple 'forget-me-not' embroidery for both the project and for my name. These are of course at twelfth scale like the Cultural Shifts ( see previous posts).

SomeBody

 

   As a rule I don't generally put my medical work on this blog as I don't want to scare off the unwary! However it has been taking up a lot of headspace and so rather than neglect things over here I will share some technical details from my most recent piece for Imperial College, 'SomeBody'.

  The work here is from a medical model which is being performed for young people in an anti knife crime initiative.The basis for the visuals is as ever historical and contemporary textile techniques used as metaphors for the anatomy.

  Buttonholes become stab wounds, rouleaux loops become blood vessels, 18th century frills are muscles, silk purses become digestive organs and origami becomes heart and lungs.

  There is a series over on the Thread Management blog (linked in the side bar) featuring it in more detail.