More new work

Oh dear it really is a long time since my last post. I have been working on a piece for South West Textiles Group to be submitted for an exhibition at Taunton Museum later this year. The exhibition called 'Imprints' uses items from the displays as initial inspiration.

I was fascinated by a pair of large shoes reputedly worn by Joseph Neal Sewell, the Lincolnshire Giant who is buried in Taunton. His story is fascinating but in short. 
Illegitimate and over seven feet tall , to make a living he exhibited himself around the country fairs. He died in 1829 suddenly and was brought to Taunton for burial. Some years before he died he lost his sight.

I have looked at the shoes which are on display and thought about the materials they were made from,the man himself and his story. it is the story i am concentrating on and the fact that he was blind so have been looking into Braille.

my son's old school shoes

i am using materials found in shoes, paper used for the stories and textile such as wool for the Braille dots.

sample of Braille worked on newsprint

Hello Kitty box of dots

 so today i have been cutting dots and going dotty in the process. i have an old leather punch for the fine tissue (from a shoe box),leather from my son's school shoes and textile. other papers can be cut with a mechanical hole punch. 

you can see other work from this project on South West Textiles Blog