The Stitched Jester [Unfinished)

 A few little threads to create the stitched jester

A fine needle through his cloth heart.

Stitch a Monster

At the art shop today, I decided to photocopy an embroidered monster I stitched for my friend's birthday card. I have named him The LeeUM Monster, he lives in a cupboard under the purple stairs of a fortune teller's cottage. His attributes of scaring include: leering, leeching and loathing. He is lactose intolerant (apparantly) and unfortanately he suffers from longing. Symptoms include a great absence of admiration and love. Cure: A companion of similar mind set.

I shall be turning this little monster into a sewing pack for kids in which they can stitch their own little critter! Neat, huh?





I shall also be sending my little monster to my friend Tina Bueno at her exhibition space in London Fields for the Here is my Heart exhibition it is on 16th 26th September (Private View 17th September, you get apple juice out of odd shaped glasses)- GO SEE!  http://www.pharmacyofstories.com/

Hop on there is room for two

I simply cannot decide on a quirky tag line for this bike made for two.

Sewfly cycle...

Stitch fast, cycle slow

A Cycle fit for two

and sew on..

Rotherham Zine Library

Rotherham Zine Library has an extraordinary collection of zines. Mindless Drawings and Stuff by my brother, Harry Deane and Threads and Letters were picked up from the Victoria Baths zine fair this May.
 Have a look at the reviews. 

                                             http://rotherhamzinelibrary.snaek.org/?paged=2

http://rotherhamzinelibrary.snaek.org/?paged=2

Pharmacy of Stories

Prescribe me  a story

Shelves of Curiosities

Make a Story Remedy

Thread and Letters and Embroidery

Luggage tag mouse

Ern the vege moster

   Bo-Bo

http://www.pharmacyofstories.com

I had been asked to send some work to be exhibited for a new space in The Old Boiler Room in London Fields.
The Pharmacy of Stories is a place of little installations, text,  and performance. The Pharmacy runs workshops by the artists included in the exhibition revolving around the theme of prescription storytelling. When entering the pharmacy through the back door of the Boiler Room, (See the door) you will be welcomed with vials of tangy apple juice and shelves of storytelling trinkets, oh and you will not miss the desk of prescriptions where you shall create your own story remedy. Threads and Letters embroidery and books dangled throughout the pharmacy's medicine cabinets, waiting to heal writer's block and thought dullness.
I shall be prescribing some stitch-telling workshops in the near future. It will involve clowns and a mouse tale. Do NOT Watch This space.

Victoria Baths Fanzine Fair 14th May 2011

   Angel of Purity (Unfinished)

On the 14th May 2011, Victoria Baths held a fanzine fair with arts organisation Future Everything.

I was asked to run a workshop combining fanzines and craft. So 2 weeks before the event I went along to the open day to gather some ideas. The Angel of Purity, who lives in "the best room in the house" defies maturity with her block glass wings and sullen smile. The bold lines and vibrant colours would be perfect for embroidering, I thought.

After coming back from Helsinki the night before I was a little tired, but my fingers were eager to stitch. Over my week long break I had stitched the angel's face and wings, I still have her legs and lily pad to do but she is getting there.

Porter's flat

Angel Steve

Black Jack Barnet and Threads and Letters

I made some simple designs for people to take ideas from. (Half an Angel wing)

Mindless Drawings and Stuff

 The fanzine fair was a glorious day of selling, swapping and chatting with fellow zinesters. My embroidery workshop took in the kitchen of where the porter would have lived with his family of athlete swimmers. It was here where the stitching of patches took place. The aim of my workshop was for particpants to use the colours and shapes of the stained glass windows to design and embroider their own angel. Some people stitched them into pre made zines, whilst others merly decorated a patch. Have a look and zeeeee

Shoestring workshop

I ran a workshop sometime ago and forgot to blog till  just now. How tardy of me. The workshop was with Shoestring magazine and held at the Soup Kitchen, Manchester which also stocks threadsandletters. I'm quite into how writing is structured by what it is actually written on so if you look at the pictures you can see I brought these luggage tags for the attendees of the workshop to write on. The exercise was to use words all on the theme of clocks! Yes clocks. Because you see when I went to the Clock makers musuem in London, (Which is very very small) I collected lots of lovely words to do with time. Here are a few... cyclodial cheeks, pendulum, horoligical, beat escapement. I then used these words to theme the workshop.

Some people drew pictures as well to go with their poems and some people drew around the outside of the luggage tags like one of Lewis Carroll's serpent poems!

...and I drew a silly picture of an elf and a fishing rod.

A Railway Journey

Craftivism : Craft and Activism, incorporating elements of craft to expose exploitation.

“I don’t get it, but I get it, if you know what I mean”

A passing father’s response to the stitch-in picnic at Piccadilly train station run, by the Craftivist collective on Sunday April 11^th.

Rebecca Aimée Lanyon Willmott (me) of Craftivism Manchester and Kelly Joseph of Didsbury Green Threads came together to plan the Manchester Crafting a Train of Bunting project. On April 11^th this event mirrored train stations across the country, where fellow craftivists stitched, sipped tea and picnicked in peaceful protest against the proposed 31% rise in train fares over the next 4 years. The bunting panels were then fashioned into a petition-train which was taken on a Fair Fare Railway Adventure on Saturday 16^th by direct action group, Climate Rush. Check out the video here: Craftivism Film April.  It was  hand delivered to Philip Hammond MP (Minister for Transport) by direct action group

On the Sunday Manchester Craftivists were armed with needles, threads, train biscuits and tea pots, cup and saucers borrowed from tea boutique Sugar Junction. With these tools they were ready to picnic at Piccadilly.

There were security issues to think of when throwing a picnic in the middle of the station, such overcrowding and protesting in a public space.  But the craftivists decided to throw their cheesecloth picnic blankets under Departures nevertheless. Security immediately gained an interest in the indoor picnic set-up and told the craftivists at first not to give out any flyers. They let us distribute after they were informed the event was in fact a peaceful protest.

“You’re just having a pretty picnic, you’re not harming anyone.” Remarked Duke of National Rail in response to our pop up picnic as he took a train shaped vegan cookie from the cake stand.

After laying out the picnic, Craftivism and Green Thread regulars popped up soon after as the stitch- in protesters enjoyed a warm afternoon, sipping tea and stitching under the departures. Members of the public were fascinated by the stitch-in and happily took a Fair fares Now card to voice their concerns over the rise in train fares.

Security even asked when the Craftivists would be returning for another Piccadilly picnic.