Celia Pym on Mending, Meaning, and Friendship
Oh what a delight it is to be among friends. This time of year, with the evenings drawing in ever earlier, we feel the strong pull of the hearth. To sit with others and share and make is really all we want to do, and last month we got to do just that one Saturday evening at Loop with Celia Pym and Freddie Robins.
Celia and Freddie visited us to launch Celia’s book On Mending: Stories of Damage and Repair, a truly incredible book that tells the stories behind 10 of the garments Celia has mended over the past 15 years. Celia relates the intimate stories she has heard about the garments she has mended and how they form an integral part of the lives they’ve touched, and we’re so happy to have the book in the shop.
Celia has been an important part of the Loop community for years. Many of you will have seen her on visits to the shop, and if you’re lucky you might even have learned her incredible darning techniques in a workshop. She even darned the couch upstairs at Loop, which has seen and inspired so many creative moments.
The sofa upstairs at Loop is no exception.
Celia’s most recent visit to Loop was just like one of the stories from her book. Cosy, heart-warming, and imbued with the meaning of craft. We wish we could’ve had the whole Loop community around the table, but our snug space would have made it quite a tight fit! Fortunately, we have the next-best thing: a film of our time together that will make you feel like you were right there in the room, even if you couldn’t make it. In this video we hope to express to you, the textile community, just how much we love you. It features a wonderful conversation between friends, colleagues, and lovers of craft. We hope this film will give back even just a fraction of the joy and community you’ve given us.
Freddie, who is a textile artist in her own right, has an item featured in Celia’s book. Her “family rug”, which Celia mended, was a constant companion on childhood “motoring” trips with her parents. Over years of folding, cigarette burns, and the dreaded moth, the rug ended up a bit the worse for wear. Celia and Freddie’s conversation with publisher Katy Bevan was so organic and illuminating we just couldn’t wait to share it with you all.
Celia’s approach to mending is so wonderful to behold and we are so lucky she’s shared it with us at Loop through workshops, books, and events over the years. She writes, “Mending work builds on what is left behind. It’s not replacing, remaking, or cutting apart and putting back together, instead, it is slow work that makes things better. It conjures an unhurried recovery or change.”
We are so grateful to the filmmaker Richard Jung for making this video possible!
We are thrilled to have opened preorders for a spectacular issue of Selvedge Magazine. Hue has an uncanny ability to affect our mood and outlook on life. This issue of Selvedge celebrates that power and the people who keep the craft of colour alive all over the world and we are in awe of all of them. Especially ahead of Colour Friday next week!
Oh my goodness, what a wonderful kit. We’re headed straight back to the classroom thanks to Stitch School, whose gorgeous A-Z Linen Embroidery Kit will have you sharpening your pencils. With a new stitch to learn with every letter of the alphabet, this sampler kit will take you from novice to know-it-all in no time at all.
Every schtickle counts! We appreciate everyone who has bought a Schtickle for Charity item or mystery parcel over the past few months. Thanks to your purchases we were able to donate $831 to International Rescue Committee, and the cherry on top is that thanks to Giving Tuesday, our donation was doubled to £1,662! We’re always adding to our Schtickle for Charity section, and the proceeds always go to a worthy cause. Keep checking back!
Enjoy!
Amazing video. Thank you for sharing. Never understood visible mending, but now I do. ❤️