BOSTIN NEWS: Crafting Dudley
What do get when you bring together the Dudley Peoples Archive, the wonderful Growing Up In Dudley project, a stack of linen squares, an ambitious, creative community facilitator and a welcoming space at CoLab Dudley? You get a beautiful, unique, 40-piece community quilt and a very happy group of participants who continue to stitch, chatter and laugh to this very day.
Crafting Dudley was a wonderfully unique project that effortlessly wove together (pun intended) archive photographs, craft, local stories and a heartwarming chain of connection. Led by David O’Coy and facilitated by Jan Norton the team were excited to reach out to local people via Facebook pages, personal networks and emails asking for folks to share photographs and stories of Dudley that meant something to them.
A group came together every week to submit their own images and collectively discuss and choose images from the archive that they all felt told a meaningful story of community and place. These images, when printed onto the linen squares, were distributed between members of the group to be embroidered, crafted and decorated. Some of the squares were also sent to local care homes along with packs of embroidery kits where residents were encouraged to sew, paint and decorate the squares using any technique that they felt drawn to.
The group of participants who met regularly in person (post lockdown), who now go by the name A Stitch In Time, would gather weekly at CoLab Dudley, an experimental lab space on Dudley High Street. Artist Jan would facilitate these sessions where the attendees would chatter, connect and create squares for the quilt using a variety of techniques. Jan felt it was important to have a very open, artistic approach rather than just utilising traditional embroidery so that what was being made could be inclusive to people’s skill, vision and dexterity levels. She recalls that “there was absolutely no pressure to do anything in a particular way”. During these sessions, Jan herself felt that her creative confidence grew by exploring a way of expression that she hadn’t revisited for decades and she has since gone on to study for a BA in Fine Art at Wolverhampton University.
The group was a lifeline for some members; many of whom were navigating loss, grief, loneliness and health issues. A sense of purpose, altruism and pride in their home bought much joy and relief. One participant recalls
“It was just so nice to actually come together after such a horrible time, to come together and actually meet with like-minded people and to start up a purposeful project. I mean, it’s done us all the world of good mentally; it’s put us all in a better place.”
Another adds
“I felt like I was part of a new group of people. And whilst in one aspect, making for other people feels nice and good, what we were getting as well were stories of the Black Country, and some people knew the backstory of the photo or could reminisce about the type of things we did when we were younger. It was like a web of connection. It was the fun and just the pleasure of sitting together making, we built on that.”
David comments on how collaborative, democratic and socially aware the whole process was and how relaxing and inviting the sessions at CoLab Dudley were. His favourite memory of the project was finally seeing the finished piece, assembled by Jan and another participant, displayed for the first time and being in awe of the actual size of the assembled quilt. He adds that he spent a lot of time chatting with some of the many visitors to the exhibition about the wonderful memories this special quilt evoked for so many people.
The quilt continues to be exhibited both digitally online and physically in local spaces and the Stitch In Time group are currently working on self-initiated projects adding to the rich tapestry of craft and culture in Dudley.
dudleypeoplesarchive.com
Written by Laura Dicken