plate techtonics - the hidden layer
i forgot to mention what finally nudged me into stitching my plate ......
after my Takotsubo episode i wanted to do a stitched piece about it - inspired is the wrong word, but the right one won't pop up - i've toyed with a few ideas, but nothing stuck
earlier this year, after a radio programme about Takotsubo, i found a Facebook support group which has been a revelation - i have found out so much more about the condition and read lots of other people's stories - someone posted a picture of a japanese ceramic bowl repaired with gold, a technique called Kintsugi - the idea of a repair making something more beautiful or valued really jumped out at me ..... that was what i wanted to do with my plate ...... but it was also what had happened to my heart, repeatedly through living and loving as well as following my Takotsubo
....another japanese way of responding to life which encapsulates so much so succinctly
i could not repair my plate with gold (but i might still find a way round that!) but i could translate it into textile and stitch - and, as it turned out, the process was very soothing and therapeutic at a time when i needed it
then, this week someone else posted the same Kintsugi bowl picture (it clearly speaks to many of us) and someone else posted a poem she had written - poetry isn't my thing but these words fitted me and my kintsugi process
thank you Alison Ashwell - without you this would have remained unspoken
after my Takotsubo episode i wanted to do a stitched piece about it - inspired is the wrong word, but the right one won't pop up - i've toyed with a few ideas, but nothing stuck
earlier this year, after a radio programme about Takotsubo, i found a Facebook support group which has been a revelation - i have found out so much more about the condition and read lots of other people's stories - someone posted a picture of a japanese ceramic bowl repaired with gold, a technique called Kintsugi - the idea of a repair making something more beautiful or valued really jumped out at me ..... that was what i wanted to do with my plate ...... but it was also what had happened to my heart, repeatedly through living and loving as well as following my Takotsubo
....another japanese way of responding to life which encapsulates so much so succinctly
i could not repair my plate with gold (but i might still find a way round that!) but i could translate it into textile and stitch - and, as it turned out, the process was very soothing and therapeutic at a time when i needed it
then, this week someone else posted the same Kintsugi bowl picture (it clearly speaks to many of us) and someone else posted a poem she had written - poetry isn't my thing but these words fitted me and my kintsugi process
thank you Alison Ashwell - without you this would have remained unspoken
In
the ashes, all I could see were the shards of my heart
Shearing
through flesh
And bone
Slipping through the cracks in my
shattered life.
My soul screamed.
I was
The walking
dead
Empty but for soul ache
And pockets filled with bleeding
fragments
And a tiny crumb
Of hope.
the memory of a word
l'd read long before, a lifeline to the future.
I would
Kintsugi my heart, my life, my soul
creating something
exquisite
From the splinters of bones
Battered and
scarred but rebuilt
with seams of gold
Stronger; more
precious and beautiful
than before
Alison Ashwell
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