1,568 Sawdust Hearts
In 2018 I was made aware of a project asking people to decorate a sawdust heart. Having never heard of one I decided to find out a little more and to my surprise found there was quite a history attached to the making of these, mostly as a therapy for convalescing soldiers.
As a patchwork and quilting teacher I began asking if others would be interested in joining the project too. I ordered 20 blank hearts – essentially a heart made out of a calico fabric and stuffed with…..yes you’ve guessed it sawdust!
The artist who had devised the project is called Helen Birmingham and she is based in the seaside town of Scarborough. Helen provided excellent videos explaining the various ways we could decorate the hearts. Once completed, we returned them back to Helen.
In November 2018 a small group of us decided to visit Scarborough and the exhibition. Well, what can I say, what an incredible sight greeted us when we visited the exhibition. Over one and a half thousand hearts hung there in all their glory. Given that they had all been completed individually over all parts of the UK they had all come back together to form the most incredible sight.
We were lucky enough to talk to Helen and my memory of her from that first meeting was how absolutely exhausted she looked. She had devoted almost two years of her life to getting the exhibition up and running.
Once the exhibition had ended all the hearts were returned to their makers and late last year I had the idea of trying to find a space to show the twenty hearts somewhere locally and continue the incredible story of them.
Our hearts are on display currently at the museum and Helen agreed very kindly to visit and give a talk to the museum society. This went ahead on Monday 9th March 2020……
And you will all know what happened next!! The hearts sit quietly in the museum but of course no one can currently see them. I had hoped to run a community project ‘Postcards from the Heart’ which did in fact get started but I was due to run a creative session this Saturday to mark VE Day and to encourage people to make a fabric postcard which would then have been displayed alongside the hearts. This of course will not now take place….
….but how strange that we now found ourselves in a place which, for some may feel very overwhelming and maybe some people take a lot of comfort doing something creative. I do hope so. I have always believed that creative activities reduce stress levels and calm the mind. I would urge you to visit Helen’s website at www.untangledthreads.co.uk I believe there is still a virtual tour of the 2019 exhibition along with much more on the history of the sawdust hearts. I thank Saffron Walden Museum for allowing our hearts to be on display and I very much hope you will all get to see them when the time is right.
In 2018 I was made aware of a project asking people to decorate a sawdust heart. Having never heard of one I decided to find out a little more and to my surprise found there was quite a history attached to the making of these, mostly as a therapy for convalescing soldiers.
As a patchwork and quilting teacher I began asking if others would be interested in joining the project too. I ordered 20 blank hearts – essentially a heart made out of a calico fabric and stuffed with…..yes you’ve guessed it sawdust!
The artist who had devised the project is called Helen Birmingham and she is based in the seaside town of Scarborough. Helen provided excellent videos explaining the various ways we could decorate the hearts. Once completed, we returned them back to Helen.
In November 2018 a small group of us decided to visit Scarborough and the exhibition. Well, what can I say, what an incredible sight greeted us when we visited the exhibition. Over one and a half thousand hearts hung there in all their glory. Given that they had all been completed individually over all parts of the UK they had all come back together to form the most incredible sight.
We were lucky enough to talk to Helen and my memory of her from that first meeting was how absolutely exhausted she looked. She had devoted almost two years of her life to getting the exhibition up and running.
Once the exhibition had ended all the hearts were returned to their makers and late last year I had the idea of trying to find a space to show the twenty hearts somewhere locally and continue the incredible story of them.
Our hearts are on display currently at the museum and Helen agreed very kindly to visit and give a talk to the museum society. This went ahead on Monday 9th March 2020……
And you will all know what happened next!! The hearts sit quietly in the museum but of course no one can currently see them. I had hoped to run a community project ‘Postcards from the Heart’ which did in fact get started but I was due to run a creative session this Saturday to mark VE Day and to encourage people to make a fabric postcard which would then have been displayed alongside the hearts. This of course will not now take place….
….but how strange that we now found ourselves in a place which, for some may feel very overwhelming and maybe some people take a lot of comfort doing something creative. I do hope so. I have always believed that creative activities reduce stress levels and calm the mind. I would urge you to visit Helen’s website at www.untangledthreads.co.uk I believe there is still a virtual tour of the 2019 exhibition along with much more on the history of the sawdust hearts. I thank Saffron Walden Museum for allowing our hearts to be on display and I very much hope you will all get to see them when the time is right.
By Tracey Fernandes 2020
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