Progress has been a little bit more productive these last couple of weeks. One year after the first lock down and again on my birthday, I managed to work up to the first letter that I will be embroidering in Red thread, which is the last letter in the legend – Covid 19 – UK ie the “K”. This feels like a huge step although I still have a long way to go. I have blocked out the letters properly with French chalk so that the black and red stitches continue to pattern of the work. I have also realised that I will need to leave a small area along the base of the work to embroider my initials and the date on which I complete the work.
As you will see in some areas of the completed work there are areas where the stitching is slightly different in length just slightly altering the rigidity of the pattern as an acknowledgement of the diversity of all our British communities in terms of ethnicity, age, etc that have been affected but also encompassing them within the wider national community of the whole of the UK. When you look at the stitches that I have done I have calculated there to be approximately only 20,000 – so only another 100,000+ to go – but you can begin to get some comprehension of the greatness of the loss that has been sustained and this just within the UK during one 12 month period not taking into account those who died before 23/03/20 and those who will unfortunately lose their lives to Covid 19 after 23/03/21. On the anniversary many landmarks throughout the country were lit up in yellow as a symbol of respect whilst I spent the time on my own tribute to those who have died. On the anniversary this totaled 126,700 deaths in the UK which means that I now have my target although people are still being taken ill and dying from the Corona Virus and will continue to do so for some considerable time yet.
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I haven’t written my blog for a while as there has been only limited progress on the work due to me investigating means of promoting, exhibiting etc the finished work. I had a very productive zoom meeting with the Enterprise Team from University which has given me some idea of how to progress and will make time to produce a Business Model Canvas as they have suggested.
The work itself is coming along slowly but I have had numerous other domestic issues to deal with (including going for my own Covid Vaccination) and I haven’t dedicated as much time to it as I would have liked. However, when I look at the work to date, I find it quite sobering that I am not yet ¼ of the way through but that there are so many lost lives represented on the canvas already. I have rolled the work onto two lengths of dowel so that like a scroll I can open a clear area without the already worked area being exposed. I am still excited about this project and mean to spend a lot more time during these coming weeks to really make some headway. |
AuthorI am a Textile Artist based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. ArchivesCategories |