Making momentoes with Julie Arkell

Just before Christmas I was lucky enough to take part in a workshop with Julie Arkell. If you haven’t heard of her, where have you been! She’s a London-based contemporary artist who is well known for her papier mache dolls and I was really excited to find she was running a workshop at Sally Bourne Interiors.

I spent all day with Julie and a group of like-minded women and it was fantastic. I don’t think I’ve ever spent a whole day sewing but it was amazing, lovely to sit around a table, sew and chat. Julie’s recent work reflects vintage style brooches and we all made a Second World War inspired brooch. In the afternoon we were allowed to choose a couple of projects to make, based on Julie’s work.

I love her work, as you can see she makes the prettiest flower brooches, fabric watches and bracelets and dolls. All of the pictures show her work (mine need some more work!).

Julie mentioned a textile exhibition at the Foundling Museum which I was lucky enough to visit yesterday. It’s called Threads of Feeling and showcases the fabric tokens which were left with babies by their mothers in the Eighteenth century. The fabrics were often cut from the mothers’ clothes and kept with the registration forms as a way of identifying the child if the mother was ever able to reclaim them (less than 1% were).

There was an amazing range of textiles, embroideries, ribbons, pieces of clothing and tokens and it was really poignant to see them attached to the original entry form. I would recommend the exhibition if you have an hour to spare in London.