Friday 7 May 2010

Feeling blue

Patched futon cover, indigo cotton with kasuri fragments, and sashiko stitching, c1910-1930

I'm featuring this Japanese textile piece from Selvedge's Utility Issue (05) as it seems an appropriate metaphor for the day.  It accompanies an article by Stephen Szczepanek:

"In general, the process of deconstructing, re-constructing, layering, stitching, reinforcing and casting-off was a continuous and ongoing process.  Recycling grew to become a kind of domestic tradition, and the lifetime of a single garment from its inception to its final incarnation.....could span generations."

From that I am trying to take strength as we move into a new political era.  We're about to get a patchwork government and I can't help thinking that the country would be a better place if that quilt were stitched by women.  Instead I feel Cameron is hogging the blanket and we're not going to have a great end result, but as evidenced in this piece of Japanese textile art, the most beautiful things can happen by working and re-working. 

That's what I'm going to tell myself.

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