Making and Teaching

As you know I love making stuff but I also like helping other people make stuff too! As a community artist and artist educator I get to work all over London with all sorts of people from different communities, ages etc.

For the last three years I have been working on the Geffrye Museum's Asian Women's project to engage the women of Hackney in East London with the museum. So far there have have been two groups, the first are an over 50s group who have lost their husbands and their children have grown up, so meeting up is an important part of their social life. They are all very lovely and so creative. Most of the time I just give them materials and they instinctively know what to do with them!

The second group is a younger Asian Women's group who live in a local estate. They are mainly in their 20s and don't work, so while their children are at school, they meet up and do craft activities together.

This Spring I worked with both groups to create an installation in the museum inspired at the recent Maharaja: the Splendour of India's Royal Courts exhibition at the V&A with the concept of creating a modern day Moghul living room. The groups created soft furnishings using hand embroidery, applique, sewing and painting.

The pieces aren't stereotypically Asian looking, they have a very modern East/West twist to them, representing the women's own lifestyles.

We started with an embroidery project, using different stitches to create a group wall hanging displayed at the back and then the women worked on individual projects for their own homes.

The quality of the work was amazing, one lady claimed she'd never done embroidery before but had seen her sisters do it and came up with this remarkable floral design! Wow! For most of the women it was the first time they had done any embroidery in ages but old school memories of learning the skill came flooding back to them in no time.

The installation is still on display at the museum in the downstairs art rooms so pop in and see it if you can!

Crafty Elders

This week I started teaching two new classes, both for adults. On Wednesday mornings I am running sessions at The Geffrye Museum for the over 50s Asians Women's group - they are all amazing crafters already, in fact they could be teaching me rather than vice versa! One of the ladies has just become a grandma and she brought in an ultra sweet cardigan and booties that she had knitted, her best friend also knitted the same as a gift for the new arrival......and the most amazing part was that they didn't use patterns but the sizes are perfect. I can only dream that one day, my knitting will be just as good.

The course I am running is connected to the brilliant 'Eco Homes' exhibition currently on at the museum. If you think you've seen in all when it comes to recycling, you haven't! It's a really inspiring collection of recycled objects and information. There is a great section where they have jars of materials and I was amazed to discover the uses that coconut shells and fish scales have! Check it out if you don't believe me, the exhibition is free to get into.

My second class with a younger women's group on Thursday mornings and this week we did some hand embroidery. The night before I crammed lots of stitches - it was a bit like revision, I had mainly forgotten them so had a quick recap of the usual suspects. Luckily for me, most the participants have better memories than me and as soon as their fabric was in a hoop they were of! Results to be shown here soon if I can get my camera to work : (

If you're an older person (i.e. over 50) or know someone who is who fancies getting crafty on Saturday, tell them to come along this Saturday 30th January to a fabulous craft day being held in Northwood, (i've never been there but it's on the London Underground Met Line!), that's my brooches on the right. All info on flier, should be a terrific day : )