Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Rolling beads


A while back I weathered and rusted a dictionary over a year as part of the erosion bundle project. I did not know what to do with the pages until I read about Rachel Chiesley aka 'Lady Grange' while on residency at the Caselberg House (I can't believe it, she has a Facebook page,http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lady-Grange/135930719772460?sk=info ).  During her seven years of imprisonment on St Kilda Island, Scotland she tried to get messages to the mainland - a common way of the Islanders was to tie a note around a cork and throw it off to sea. Rachel successfully smuggled a note out hidden in a spool of wool, unfortunately it did not reach the intended recipient for two years, a little too late. By rolling the words of the dictionary into beads I am changing there meaning and loosing many words, effectively making the dictionary useless. However it is poignant when words like SAIL and WISH are revealed. The rusting makes the beads appear a little like corks (or cigarette filters unfortunately). To mimic her idea I have wound them onto a bobbin sourced from the Alliance Textiles Woolen Mill - maybe this will be a way to display them, I am undecided yet. 365 beads are wound already, my ideal is to roll a bead for every day of her exile...only 6 years to go - better get busy!

3 comments:

  1. oh my good ness you are too clever!!! I am sitting here with a feeling of awe and can see all the years of hard work and and layers that are are you..somehow this says it all lynn..seriously wee tears in my eyes

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  2. I like your individuality, great art and life you are living.

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