In case this July rain doesn’t go away myself and the Coat team have made a 5 metre mac for Godiva this week. Its a copy of the coat pattern with a smaller seam allowance and made out of shiny new transparent PVC! I am hoping that as I have now made this it wont actually rain on the day! Fingers crossed.
The days to Godiva Awakes are going so quickly now and each one is filled with the final preparations to complete her coat. For information on the weekend activities do checkout http://www.imagineerproductions.co.uk – the coat will be presented and dressed by myself and the rest of the tailors on Sunday 29th July at 12 noon in Broadgate, Coventry – no tickets are required for this part of the performances – its just be early to get in! Find out more at http://www.imagineerproductions.co.uk
Below are some pics that track the Godiva coats progress from the early days until now…I can’t wait to reveal the whole coat in August. (If you subscribe to the Embroiderers Guild ‘Embroidery’ Magazine we are featured in the July 2012 copy.
The Coat team are all fab individual artists and you can find out more about them on their own sites:
Maggie Dunne – Maggie has researched the glove making industry from Worcester and has been responsible for the collar, cuffs and buttons on the coat.
Rachel Grant – Rachel has researched the pottery heritage in Stoke and her personal connections to it. She has worked on 2 of the coat’s 5 metre panels.
Adam Hussain – Adam is making Godiva’s cufflinks and researched Smethwick and Stourbridge glass making.
Julie Joannides– Julie has had access to the archives from Blitz Games and the Oliver Twins who are early game designers. She has embellished 2 of the coat panels.
Debbie Squires – Debbie has focussed her research on the Black Country chainmaking and nail forging industries and has also embellished 2 of the panels.
As well as designing the coat, I have focussed my artwork on the lining of the coat. I have stitched over 7000 tailors tacks and used white screenprinted images from my research of the artists and makers working on the whole Godiva Awakes project. The tacks signify the number of participants and artists on the project.
Images by Andrew Moore
Great day on site – the build is beginning to take shape now and what was just a myriad of concreted areas are now resembling rooms, walls and open spaces. As well as taking photos I also took a mini sewing kit with me and decided to set a rule and find bits on site to stitch…I was in a space and looked on the floor and saw all these painted flakes that had come off a temporary roofing panel…so I sat quietly for a few minutes and stitched through a flake – it was so delicate to stitch through as it disintegrated really easily. I also found a little blue baby bow in my sewing kit – it is a really tiny bow that I got from my Nannar’s sewing ephemera when she passed away and I’ve always kept it with me thinking I will use it on some work…well I decided that the site could do with a little ‘softening’ up so went bow-bombing! The colours and textures on site are amazing so it was great to offset the bow on some of the works. I toyed with the idea of leaving the bow onsite as a little treasure but I actually couldn’t part with it so it came back home with me in the tin – packed away ready for its next guerilla bow bombing mission. 
Been neglecting my blog so chance to catch up and post a lot of photos (evidence of busy-ness). My current commissions for Godiva Awakes and ECB are really hotting up now hence the absence from my blog. Been busy meeting other members of the huge team of makers and engineers for Godiva including Nick and Frank and the fabulous people at Artem who are charged with making the huge 6 metre Godiva marionette – it was a real privilege spending time with them in their studios and workrooms – traditional crafts and new technologies working side by side and lovely people to boot.
I have now screen printed all 36 mtrs of the top coat (silk dupion) with prints that feature images and text from the West Midlands industries both past and present – we had 17 screens in total and then I repeated the process in other colours for the lining fabric which I will be specifically working on – I actually just can’t wait to get sewing, BUT I have decided to be cautious and make a full size toile of the coat so will begin to cut the pattern and sew up the calico toile in next week or so. At the end of July we get chance to try the toile on Godiva – can’t wait (best take my bodger tool kit just in case of mishaps!)
Thanks to Coat Team for help and inspiration: Rachel Grant, Julie Johannides, Debbie Squires, Maggie Dunne and Adam Hussain.
ECB is my other commission – the new and fabulous Engineering and Computing Building for Coventry University – as well as attending the topping out ceremony in May, I have been sampling in my studio and now preparing to spend a few days back on site filming and collecting sounds – weather be good!
Other bits in between:
Couple of months back I did fab workshop on Handsworth High Street – ‘Curious about Craft’ with Craftspace and their mobile craft studio – it was a glorious sunny day and the people who came and stitched with me were truly wonderful.
Saw retrospectives of Susan Hiller (LOVE her work) at Tate Britain in April, Annie Albers at the Mead, Warwick Arts Centre and then the wonderful collection of Ben Nicholson and Alfred Wallis paintings in June at Compton Verney.
I also squeezed in a talk for the WI ladies from Harrow Barrow and Metherell in Cornwall – what a nice night that was – great chance to talk about my practice and they paid me in buttons and lace – the best currency in my eyes.
July sees another night of intrigue and infamy with the brilliant Pecha Kucha in Coventry. http://www.pkncoventry.posterous.com/
A chance for artists/designers/general peeps to talk about the curiosities of life in 20 slides no more. If you’re near Coventry, UK on the 26th July its at Taylor Johns and well worth a look. (For those in London – Cov is now accessible via Virgin Trains in under 56 mins)
Julia O'Connell 