"Make do and Mend: Christmas on the home front", at the Royal Engineers Museum in Kent was the setting for the first outing of the LV21 "Making More" brooches, we have been developing over the last year.
I visited the 1940's Christmas event last year as part of my research for the LV21/Arts Council commission, so it was fitting I would return again this year as a finale to the first stage of the project.
The stand looked amazing and was staged over three tables, one selling the brooches made by the cohort, one showing demonstrations and offering the chance for visitors to make their own and the third showing a display of vintage haberdashery treasures, from books, to darning mushrooms, buttons and stocking threads.
We had lots of interest from visitors and it was great to hear feedback on what we had been working on so hard on over the last 12 months. It was also a chance to celebrate with the makers I have been working with and reflect on how far we had come as a group. It has been a real pleasure working with these ladies and seeing their making skills develop. Alongside that it's also been great to see them progress in their own creative work outside of the project.
Thank you Paivi, Sarah, Sue, Rebecca, Nicola and everyone else who has been involved in the project along the way.