Here’s some work I’ve been playing with in between my projects. I’m always a bit wistful in winter as I gradually find lost gloves around the place – the height of the ‘lost glove season’ is usually February – being the coldest I suppose. I come across the odd stray glove on the pavement usually but better is when they’ve been picked up and left hanging (almost waving) on a fence, wall or gate post , waiting to be reunited with their other half, so they can be of use and comfort again. Both gloves are ‘lost’ and there’s only the faintest chance of them being used again. I love the way a leather glove has its own memory of its wearer creased in its skin – a textile DNA almost and the gloves will never really fit a new wearer as their hands (even if the same size) dont have the same lines, curves and wrinkles. Stories of recent lost gloves would be nice.
Lost Glove
March 18, 2007 by mamajules

I don’t have a lost glove story as such (although I have plenty of lost gloves), but I do have a pair of red leather gloves with a beige knitted lining (slightly too small so the fabric sits above the natural webbing at the bottom of the fingers, and each time I wear them I think they just need a little bit more stretching to fit properly). I bought them from a posh department store (can’t remember the name but House of Fraser ish) in Lancaster in late 1985 early 1986, when I was working up there with a dance company. I didn’t have any gloves, and the Lancashire winter was harsh so I set out to find some. I recall they were expensive (around £10 I think, which back then was a lot and I wasn’t earning much) but as soon as I put them on I felt they gave me a ‘grown-up’ possibly even sophisticated air (I was 21). I still have them today, even though they still don’t fit properly, and I lose them somewhere in the house every winter, so I never have them when I first want them, but they always turn up. I’ve hung on to them (or have they hung on to me) through 8 house moves, one husband and three children, and countless handbags. They haven’t felt like just gloves for a long time, and when I find them each new winter I inwardly greet them as old friends re-discovered. I have bought other gloves since (ones that fit me, and I then lose one of), but I somehow can’t part with them (although I’ve thrown away clothes that had far more signifigance in my life). Perhaps when I’m an old lady, and i’ve shrunk the customary few inches, they’ll fit me then.
I love how you you interpret memories into art.
We don’t have lost gloves just ones waiting for their partners to return.Having 4 girls we always have a basket full of lonely gloves.
Last year when it was very snowing we did find a flat as a pancake frozen glove.It was red and knitted if I remember right.We left it where is was to be covered in snow again. It caused much discussion about someone with one cold hand!Everyday for a few days it was seen still lying there and then it was gone.
i linked the story about the gloves on my blog. hope you don’t mind. love the idea of lonely gloves. good comments on this post, too.
maggie
portland maine
usa
My daughter and I collected lost gloves all winter. I washed them and added button eyes, handspun yarn hair and stuffed them until they found their “legs”. We call them the gLove Story dolls and each one has a name. I was amazed how many lost gloves we found, we found a lot of pairs.
Julia,
I had no idea. This is the first time I’ve had a chace to see your art, I’m with out words. You are inspired. Please reply, I’d love to collaborate with you.
Betsy
I wondered whether you’d been cutting up my lost leather glove because i think I lost it quite close to your house. It was a day at the end of a cold spell when I thought it was colder than it was. I strapped the baby on, put the coat over us both and went out. She went to sleep and I got quite warm. Hat off first, into pocket. Then gloves. Made the mistake of trying to put both gloves in one pocket. Got home – one glove gone… Re-walked the same walk three or four times in the next few days hoping someone had put it on a wall or hung it over a fence post. No luck. It was green leather. It had a lovely furry fleece lining and a split in the top like someone had taken a stanley knife to it. I had been meaning to mend that split. Now its partner is in baby’s toybox. Can’t quite give up hope of finding it again…