another bit done, but mostly thinking out loud

i've been leaving it a bit late to work out the precise details of the cover - i've sorted out the board (reclaimed) but deciding on what it would be covered with seemed to stump me - a couple of days ago i finalised the cover design;

on the book it looks right, but here it looks like something someone else did - it looks too neat and tidy to have been done by me

i think  it's because this piece has been about recording other people's work and the project as a whole - it's not about my stuff

but that doesn't mean i don't feel like it's mine ... i do, it's just that i am realising/acknowledging that it's less about me and my response to the archive materials than last year's pieces

i was just thinking that there is a neutral feel to it, i think i have avoided expressing me all over it - that sounds negative and as though i am trying to distance my self but actually i am quite happy with that - my aim was to record the participation of others, their involvement and their ownership of the group's body of work -  that sounds rather grand and arty-farty written down - i think that means that i will have done what i set out to do although i hadn't really defined it very clearly at the start

now i'm realising how much more process oriented i have become - i like that i can make without a fixed idea of what the outcome/product will be, it gives me more choices and less pressure

anyway, back to Signs of the Times - once i had the design sorted out the materials became more obvious - it had to be something which could bear handling as the book is meant to be picked up an d leafed through by real people (not respectful stitchers or archivists with gloves!), but i needed to be able to stitch through it and stick it to the boards - so it's  t shirt transfer print on fine cotton laminated onto paper i bought from the archive conservation studio, with and the wording picked out in stitch ... or it will be when i get the stitching done.