Reclamation

Lately I have been thinking it was about time I reclaimed my neglected blog. Especially after a good friend recently left a (pointed?) comment on my last post, which admittedly was written just over a year ago...

And coincidentally, 'Reclaimed' is the theme of a group exhibition I will be taking part in in the summer. Although I already use reclaimed materials in my work wherever possible, not wanting to repeat myself I was struggling to come up with a direction for new pieces that I was satisfied with. Until, I came across a job lot of damaged vintage linen on ebay, a bundle of pieces not fit for anything else; some stained, some fraying and some quite simply falling apart.

At first I thought I would disassemble the linens and combine individual motifs with the reclaimed picture frame glass I like to use for my glass work.  But while the samples I made were pretty things in themselves they still didn't feel quite right.

So I decided to turn the concept around and try to 'mend' the damaged linens with my reclaimed glass. I'm much happier with this idea, with the strange mismatch of the materials, the idea of trying to effect a repair with something intrinsically fragile, and the way the glass magnifies the damage to the linen while at the same time covering it up.

Here are the first couple of pieces:

If anyone happens to have any tatty table linen they'd like to get rid of, do let me know.  And as you can see from the first piece above, the tattier the better!