‘Made in Market Harborough’.
This 'tape measure' is 13 cm wide and 45 meters long (that's there and back in the swimming pool in the morning!). It is inspired by many things, but perhaps by 'songs in red and grey' most of all.
As a child I grew up in a house with a sewing machine in the
living room. A great big brute of
an industrial sewing machine. My father was a factory manager and brought boxes
of outwork home every evening, which my mother then sewed together the
following morning. The Symingtons lingerie factory in Peterborough was an
almost mythical place where countless items were manufactured, visits there exposed
me to the magnificence of plenty, of multiples and the patterns that piles of
anything can create. We really didn’t have much money, not that we ever went
without food or love, and the importance of working hard and respecting your
family were the values that I was brought up to believe were important. Stories
involving both branches of the extended family were fascinating, accompanied as
they were by countless photographs of strange and familiar faces.
My childhood memories are built around this archive of
images and are filled with the tactile appreciation for cloth and materials. In
particular the rolls of bias binding and the coiled steel boning that were part
of mother’s work provided endless hours of fun to play with. I always remember
there being tape measures in the house, all types and colours, even one glued
along the sewing machine stand, but those with press studs to keep them in a
tight spiral were the best.
http://sylvaindeleu.com/
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