The sewing box

 2021

“I find the sewing box in a vintage store on a back shelf that is full of old tin boxes. It contains spools of thread, mismatched buttons, buckles, smaller boxes of pins, wool samples, and rusty old nails. Looking closely, the owner had wrapped the saved ends of thread and rewrapped them back onto empty wooden spools, and sometimes multiple colours onto one. “

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“revealing stories and hidden memories”

  • I feel a sense of responsibility for this archive and towards the work of the owner’s perseverance and frugal saving.

    This work is about everyone’s sewing boxes or button collections, and collections in general; they provoke memories and stories. By moulding and casting discarded sewing paraphernalia in plaster and glass I feel as though I am preserving the objects and the memories that they hold.

    “I remember the time I spent sewing with my mother, of her tins of buttons, remembering the outfits they had once belonged to and the reasons for keeping the mismatched ones just in case they were needed later.”

    We all have boxes like this in our lives. They honour a place of domesticity and the careful work of mending, collecting, and saving. It is about objects and their links to domestic labour, memories, and forgotten items. It reveals the power of materiality in the retelling of familiar stories, and places value and importance on the minute details of domestic existence.

  • I create the pieces in this installation using moulds from found objects,. Some of the objects are first designed in 3D software and printed on a 3D printer (the large buttons). Most are cast directly into plaster, while others are made into kiln-cast glass. Much of the plaster work is coloured using layers of Procion dyes.

    My early memories of buttons revolve around sorting through collections and organizing them by colour; colour is an important component to the piece. This installation is specific to a window gallery setting and I engage the space from the outside looking in, and viewer has a closer look at details once they enter the gallery.

    The three separate pedestals set up small vignettes and attend to different uses of materials: glass, raw and dyed plaster, and rust. Individual pieces and small compositions hang in the window and offer differing interactions depending on where the viewer stands.

    Dimensions: This was installed in a space 12’ X 6’.

    Materials: Metal, found objects, kiln-cast glass, plaster, dyed-plaster, thread.

  • December, 2021-January, 2022. The Window Gallery. Craft Council of BC, Vancouver, BC

  • Phase Transition • The Discarded • My Mother’s Button Collection •

  • Link: The Sewing Box , Craft Council of BC.

    More details about the piece, the artist’s statement, and photos of the installation.