Sewing and other attachments

bunting banner for 'in stitches' girls' group

We started a sewing group for teenage girls last week at work, called 'In Stitches'. This is the banner, made from an Ikea upholstery remnant and using iron-on vliesofix (?) for the applique of the letters. The individual flags are machine stitched onto wide blue bias binding, which is folded in half and pinned into place, enclosing the top of the flag. It almost forms a circle when the edges are drawn together, this was for the purpose of photographing the banner. I am very excited about this group!

felt collage: 'secure attachment'

felt collage: 'insecure ambivalent/resistant'

felt collage: 'insecure avoidant'

felt collage: 'disorganised/disorientated'

These four collages were created by me a few years ago, in response to reading 'Circles of attachment: Art therapy albums' by Joanna Clyde Findlay, Margarette Erasme Lathan and Noah Hass-Cohen, in Art therapy and clinical neuroscience edited by Noah Hass-Cohen and Richard Carr. Most of the book is heavy-going, but this chapter describes a delightful project in which art therapy students created fabric 'attachment journals' to illustrate the four main attachment styles, and to ultimately explore their understanding of their own attachment style.

Some of the trainee therapists found that their attachments became more secure, as a result of doing the project.

I had to make one as well, since it combined book-making, felting, fabric collage, machine embroidery and of course, Attachment Theory: Bowlby and Ainsworth's framework for understanding early infant-carer relationships. I can remember thinking at the time of making the collages, my attachment style was probably insecure, (either avoidant or ambivalent) although now I am not so sure.

And now I am reading about attachment again, in a prescribed reading for my Social Work Masters, starting next Monday. I found it interesting to learn that Bowlby, once a follower of Melanie Klein, was rejected by the Freudians for emphasising the real environment of the infant (i.e. the primary caregiver) rather than the 'psychic projections' or fantasies of the baby. This gave me some insight into why attachment theory was so unpopular when I was studying art therapy at Goldsmiths in the 1980's, as the theory was based on Klein and the 'object relations' school.

The reason this theory is in a book on neuroscience and art therapy, indicates (I think) that neuroscience is now proving that Bowlby and Ainsworth's attachment theory was right. Sorry Melanie!

I seem to be managing without my laptop, although am writing on a borrowed Mac, which is making this slightly harder than usual. And I know I am about to get much busier...

This is an interesting quiz from Tamsin's blog, which i mentioned recently: find your political compass. Relieved I was in the same quadrant to Gandhi, Dalai Lama and Mandela. Phew.

more later.

Women's Business?

Somebody's Luggage - inside and outside views

This remarkable piece of jewellery - is it a locket? - was a present from my father many years ago. It has some very old (Victorian?) photos in it, of person's unknown. So the title 'Somebody's Luggage', on the outside is very appropriate. I have been trying to get a good photo of it, so I can make a print to use as a journal cover (more on this below). I got this idea from my mother (she has the same creative bug) who has been experimenting with printing photos onto fabric (amongst other things), and she has been doing some amazing things with book covers - perhaps I can share photos of her work here sometime. 

Anyway, I liked the idea of a photo of a suitcase on the cover of a book. Apart from wondering about the people in the photos, it also makes me think about the idea of 'baggage', as opposed to luggage: what we choose to bring with us, and what we don't choose, and would rather get rid of.

organised earrings

On one level, this is relevant to my deck-clearing and decluttering campaign - yesterday I sorted out my earrings - on another it is about memories and behaviours and thoughts and feelings and all the stuff we call 'baggage' - in the psychological sense. Does clearing out the material clutter somehow give us the illusion that we can sweep our mind clear as well?

As a therapist, I understand I am acting as a symbolic 'container' for other people's difficult 'stuff', so its appropriate that my therapist father gave it to me. Was he perhaps unconsciously acknowledging that some of my own 'stuff' might be about him? (how could it not be?). Or did he want me to take on some of his difficult stuff? (how could I not?). All good food for thought.

My 15 year old is going on a 'youth leadership' camp next week, and one of the statements on the flyer was that it would teach them to 'master your mind and emotional states...eliminate fear and negative self-talk' - wow, big promise! It also promises to teach them how to play the stock market and get onto the property ladder in order 'to create your own financial destiny'. I could suggest that perhaps being motivated enough to get a part-time job at a fast food outlet is a more realistic goal at this stage, but hey, I guess there is no harm in aiming high. We (parents) suspect there is a deep-seated and ill-concealed capitalist agenda to this camp, but as my dear husband says, its good to know your enemy...

So why did I call this post 'Women's Business'? Another thing that matters to me is keeping tabs on my health, and I had a doctor's appointment yesterday. This was encouraging, in that I got feedback on my blood tests from last week - all good results, cholesterol is 5.5, could be lower but not too high - however no information was forth-coming on whether I am actually in the menopause yet (is this like in the zone? - perhaps not), despite having fairly rampant symptoms. And wasn't that the point of the blood tests?

I am bemused by the manner of most doctors. How do they make you feel ten years old again? I had just agreed that I had one of the many symptoms of menopause - poor memory - and then she asked me how long since I last had a mammogram! (How would I know? - I just go when I get a letter telling me to go). She also told me to return in a week - this seems to be common practice - without really discussing why I would need to be doing that.

One useful piece of information though - apparently the herbal remedy RCT  I have put myself on (Red Clover Tablets, called Promensil) have been proven to reduce menopause symptoms - but only if taken at double the recommended dose. So I have now adjusted my RCT (art therapist's joke, also refers to a Randomised Controlled Trial) accordingly. I told the doctor I wondered if my perceived improvement on these tablets was due to the placebo effect - she said if that was the case, it would wear off after 3 months.

One other thing - I have noticed that hot flushes, like blushing, seem to be triggered by thinking about them.

If only I had that thought control down pat...

Two quilted journal covers

Some other 'women's business' - no caps this time as its not, really - my artwork for the past two or three days has involved sewing, but is also book related. I had seen a website  about journal quilts, and since I also make visual journals and other hand made books, I was very excited! I don't know about making a weekly journal quilt - I have enough projects - but I did immediately start making some small quilts the size of A5 paper, so that they can be glued onto stiff card and made into books. The best part was the size, which makes them very quick to do and manageable.  

'Ladybird' book covers

I am using the crazy quilting method, which involves  machine-sewing random shapes of fabric directly onto the backing, which is an old mattress protector, cut into A5 rectangles. I am using mainly strips of retro prints which I had previously bought in a roll, and incorporating pieces of fabric from clothes I have cut up to customise, or other remnants. For the quilting, I am machine sewing into the seams ('ditch-stitching' - great term!). I also started hand embroidering the quilts once they are pieced together, to enhance the quilted effect. I like to use running stitch as if I were drawing on the fabric, to accentuate the design. The hardest part is glueing the fabric onto the book cover without messing up the corners.

I have an interview today to become an angel (I just misspelt that 'anger') - wish me luck...more later.