Socks: The Art of Care and Repair - Celia Pym at NOW Gallery, Greenwich Peninsula, London

Celia Pym - John, Dad, Kent

 

Recently I went to see Celia Pym's "Socks: The Art of Care and Repair" at the NOW Gallery on Greenwich Peninsula in London.  This is Now gallery's 2024 Fashion Commission, focusing on sustainability through the act of mending and repair through darning.  I read online that over 21,000 million pairs of socks are made globally every year and also, globally, 92 million tonnes of textile waste goes to landfill.  Clothes are discarded on a whim, including socks perhaps with only a small hole which could easily be repaired.  Come to the NOW gallery and there are socks aplenty for you to have a go at mending, darning and stitching.  Learn a new skill or improve an old one and maybe that will inspire you to take "care" of your clothes and make your contribution to a more sustainable future.  Now Gallery certainly hope so!

Celia Pym - Family & Friends Mended Socks 2024

On display is a newly commissioned artwork, by Celia Pym, of socks from her friends and family that she has mended, visibly, in colours to suit their personality.  The patterns of wear thus stand out for us to see.  Celia's creative practice embraces damage and repair and the care that is involved in mending.  In fact Pym says "It is a small act of care to mend a hole in your sock, or the sock of someone you love. Mending is an action that changes the thing in front of you.  It doesn't erase the damage but makes the story of a sock, or any mended garment, more interesting. A spot of bright colour or a scar line that indicates an act of care."

Celia Pym -Family & Friends Mended Socks 2024 (detail)
Clockwise from top left - Hope, Mum, Kent (long); Bill, Friend, Gothenburg (blue); Karin, Friend, London (yellow); John, Dad, Kent; Takeshi, Friend, London (single sock); Jane, Friend, Derbyshire (navy); Agnes, Niece, Kent (grey) ; Jan Jan, Friend, London

Socks stitched by the Surrey Square Primary School Community

The exhibition doesn't just include Celia's sock mending.  What makes it even more interesting is that it includes 488 socks stitched by the Surrey Square Primary School Community in South East London using "warehouse waste" socks (socks with small imperfections that couldn't be sold). The socks came from J A Swift, a family run business in Hathern, Leicestershire established in 1895. Children, staff and families practised their sock darning and stitching in a series of 26 workshops that Pym organised between April and July 2024.  We are told that "The project encouraged resilience in being able to mend something; creativity to play with colour and yarn, and a feeling of care for yourself - for your clothes, the environment, and importantly, the clothes of other people."  

Yellow socks stitched by Year 2, green socks stitched by Year 3

I love this involvement of the community and passing on sewing skills to a new generation.  Many of the children didn't know what darning was, had never seen a needle and didn't know how to use one.  

Red socks stitched by Year 1, pink socks stitched by Reception, purple socks stitched by staff

The colours of the socks represent the year groups involved from the white of nursery children through to black of year 6 with the staff's purple socks distributed among them. 

White socks have been stitched by Nursery age children

There were pictures of beaming children proudly holding up their stitched socks and some of the artwork they had done for their stitched socks.  All the children and staff who had taken part were named.

Visitors' Mends

There were plenty of resources there to have a go at darning and stitching yourself and you could leave or take away your work.  I left mine.

My mend 

There are also a number of bookable events associated with the exhibition.  Take a look here. It's on until 9 March 2025, so you've got plenty of time to pop along!  It's a small but joyful exhibition. Do go if you can.

Greenwich - clockwise from top left:
Yinka Shonibare - Nelson's Ship in a Bottle outside the National Maritime Museum; the Royal Obervatory & Flamsteed House, Greenwich Park; Trinity Hospital Almshouses; the Old Royal Naval College

There isn't a cafe in the NOW Gallery but there are plenty nearby.  The nearest tube station is North Greenwich on the Jubilee line.  There's plenty to do in the vicinity.  There's an art trail round Greenwich Peninsula with over 17 pieces of art. After taking a look, we walked to Greenwich along the Thames footpath. Much of Greenwich is a UNESCO World Heritage Site with the Old Royal Naval College, the National Maritime Museum, the Royal Observatory and the ship - Cutty Sark to name a few significant sites.

Greenwich Peninsula - clockwise from top left:
Damien Hirst - Demon with Bowl; IFS Cloud Cable Car; Richard Wilson - Slice of Reality; Uber Boat ride.

Later we got a Uber Boat by Thames Clippers back and took the IFS Cloud Cable Car across the river.  It made a great day out.

Revive Your Wardrobe

Wearing a dress dyed navy & stitched

(Dyed with Dylon Machine Dye)

We all have clothes in our wardrobe that we quite like but somehow they don't get the wear they deserve or we might be trying out Second Hand September, promoted by Oxfam, in a bid to take a more sustainable approach to our wardrobe.  By buying second hand, we can take a stand against fast fashion and reduce our carbon footprint. And if you have bought something second hand from a charity shop or one of the increasing number of online resale sites (e.g. Vinted, eBay, Thrift+) it may turn out to be not quite what you'd hoped for. So, do you donate the currently unsuccessful garment to your favourite charity shop, or sell it again on a resale site? 

Perhaps try a different approach...

Dress stitched to cover marks

Dress & stitching then dyed navy

If you don't like the colour but the item is otherwise great - think about dyeing it. There are a number of important things to bear in mind here. Firstly, think of colour mixing rules. If the garment is red and you dye it blue it will end up purple. If it's yellow to start with, it will turn a shade of green and so on. If the fabric is patterned you will probably still be able to see the pattern after you dye the garment...

Check pattern is still visible when overdyed with navy

If it has top stitching, this may not dye as the thread is often synthetic. Will the colour you are dyeing the garment look good if the topstitching stays the undyed colour? Also, it is quite hard to get a true black.  Garments dyed black will often come out a dark grey. Will you mind? 

And very importantly, are you using the right dye? Cotton, linen and viscose turn out very well when dyed in the washing machine with Dylon machine dyes and you don't need to add anything else. It won't cover bleach, and stains and faded areas may still remain. You can dye the above fabrics and silk, ramie, wool and cashmere using RIT All-Purpose dye which is an alternative dye product. If you are dyeing synthetic garments you would need Rit DyeMore for Synthetic Fibres. Dyeing a garment, or even better several at a time, has a number of more sustainable advantages over buying new ones through waste reduction, increasing garment longevity and reduced environmental impact and water use.

Two tops dyed black (dark grey result) & shortened

I have used Dylon in the machine many times very successfully. Usually I save up a few things that I want a particular colour so that I get the best use out of a dye pod. I have dyed trousers, tops and dresses which I have gone on to wear much more than if I'd left them the colour they were. You can use RIT in the machine too but it's more of a palaver than Dylon. I have used RIT very successfully in a tub to dye wool and cashmere and been pleased with the outcome.

Cashmere cardi dyed from bright orange to khaki using RIT All Purpose Dye

It may not be the colour of a garment that's the problem, it may be something to do with the fit. I often find things are too long as I'm quite short and have successfully shortened several tops and trousers so they are a length I am more comfortable with. I have even done this with jumpers where I have cut off the bottom, picked up the stitches and knitted a new edging at a better length. This is more complicated than just stitching something up but if you are a knitter or know one who could help, this might be an option for you... 

Jumper - Bottom and sleeves cut off & re-knitted to be shorter

Maybe it's something cosmetic about a garment. Perhaps you just don't like the buttons. These can easily be changed. In fact you might already have some suitable buttons in your button tin, or might find some in your local charity shop or haberdashers.

Shirt dyed from cream to black (dark grey result) with Dylon. Original plastic buttons replaced by mother of pearl buttons from my stash

Finally it might be that a mend that is needed. Your garments might have a hole or be wearing thin. This too can be easily remedied with a patch, a darn or some reinforcing stitching. Or perhaps you need to cover up a stain, or some marks which you could again do with some decorative stitching or add some patches. You might want to consider whether you want to go down the route of visible mending or the more traditional route.

Stitching on trousers backed on the inside with fabric where trouser fabric is wearing thin

Apron with patches & stitching, Boro style, to cover a stitched design I didn't like

If things are a little big you might be able to take them in or use one of the alteration services that many towns and cities have.

I often combine several of these techniques and you could too and give your wardrobe a whole new lease of life without having to buy anything new!

And if you want to read about one of my visible mending projects, click here.

Sheila Hicks at The Hepworth, Wakefield

Sheila Hicks - Grandes Boules

 

Whether you like the small or the monumental, colour or neutrals, Sheila Hicks has it covered.  Her exhibition - "Off Grid" - at The Hepworth, Wakefield is extraordinary in its range.  

On the way up to Off Grid you are greated by some wall mounted Grandes Boules on the stairs...

Sheila Hicks - Wall-mounted Grandes Boules

and her Kotani fan...

Éventail Kotani (Linen) - Sheila Hicks

Éventail Kotani (detail) - Sheila Hicks

Hicks was born in Hastings, Nebraska in 1934 and studied painting at Yale under Josef Albers where he instilled the Bauhaus cross-disciplinary approach integrating art, design, craft and architecture.  This was very influential for Hicks.  She learned colour theory and composition from Albers, a love of the built environment from architect, Louis Kahn, and Latin American textile traditions from art historian George Kubler.

In 1960 Hicks moved to Mexico and learned Kilim weaving.  These are flatweave pile free rugs where the horizontal weft threads are more densely packed than the vertical warp threads. This one shows slitweaves which typically exist where there are colour changes but can be anywhere where the weft threads return at a particular vertical warp rather than carrying across the whole width.

Sheila Hicks - Amarillo

Beginning in the 1950s on trips to Latin America Hicks made many minimes - small sample weavings acting almost like a sketch book of ideas and inspiration.  She continued this practice on her travels throughout her career. Hicks felt these helped her to build connections between art, design  architecture, decorative arts and craft.  I loved these.  They are like mini masterpieces.  This series spans the mid 1970s to 2011...

Sheila Hicks - Minimes (weavings)

Here is a photo of Hicks weaving on a portable loom - the warp threads are attached to a bar which is held round the weaver's waist.  The other ends are attached to a fixed object e.g. a tree.

Sheila Hicks - Weaving

This oil on canvas abstract landscape of Mexico illustrates her approach to colour and composition...

Sheila Hicks - Taxco-Iguala

In the late 1960s Hicks started making these Lianes named after lianas (flexible climbing stems, rooted in the ground but long and dangling, typical of tropical rainforests).  Lengths of undyed linen are wrapped at intervals with colourful threads to form cascading hangings...
.

Sheila Hickes - Lianes Nantaises

In the 1960s the Commonwealth Trust invited her to Kerala, India to design handwoven textiles for commercial and domestic use.  Here she got inspiration for her Palghat hangings with their threads spilling from the centre...

Sheila Hicks - Palghat Tapestry

Sheila Hicks - Palghat Tapestry (detail)

The torn strips in her work "Wow Bush/Turmoil in Full Bloom" were originally 3000 white nurses blouses which in 1977 were fashioned into a piece for the Lausanne Tapestry Biennale and later reformed into a sculpture at a community centre in Montreuil, Paris.  The emotional reaction of her audience, due to their hospital experiences evoked by the nurses blouses made her want to produce more work in this vein.  Later still the blouses were shredded into ribbons, dyed in Hick's washing machine, then grouped into bundles that can be rearranged every time they are displayed...

Sheila Hicks - Wow Bush/Turmoil in Full Bloom 

Sheila Hicks - Wow Bush/Turmoil in Full Bloom (detail)

Drawing parallels between writing and weaving Hicks sees creating interlocking threads to form a woven image being akin to joining letters to form words and sentences.  This "wild calligraphy" forms symbols in space (with the added benefit of reflections on the wall behind)...

Sheila Hicks - Caligraphy Sauvages

Sheila Hicks - Caligraphy Sauvages (detail)

Much of Hicks' work involves experimentation with scale and materials...

Sheila Hicks - Cordes Sauvage/Hidden Blue

Sheila Hicks - Cordes Sauvage/Hidden Blue (detail)

Darned linen socks, worn inside wooden clogs, given to Hicks by Carmelite nuns when they learned of her interest in thread writing (now an excellent example of visible mending)...

Sheila Hicks - Footprints

21st century experiments and repurposing of materials... 

Sheila Hicks - Joie de Vivre

Sheila Hicks - Ninety Colours

Sheila Hicks - More Wandering

"Nowhere to go" is the largest exhibit - made up of netted bundles of coloured acrylic fibre, piled up in a monumental fashion in a corner of the gallery...

Sheila Hicks - Nowhere to go

Sheila Hicks - Nowhere to go (detail)

A number of very large, colourful, wrapped linen panels are also on show...

Sheila Hicks - Wrapped Linen

Apart from the Minimes, I think the Grandes Boules were my favourite pieces.  These items, also referred to as "soft stones" or "meteors", form large, colourful, pebble shaped sculptures of a many-layered core that has been thread-wrapped.  They looked the perfect shape and size to sit on but that wasn't an option, unfortunately.  Again, this exhibit has the capacity to be changed every time it is shown.  I would have loved some of these of have been available in the garden to sit on.  There were some family drop in workshops where you could make your own version in miniature which looked like fun! (And there are a number of adult textile workshops coming up in June and July which look interesting - especially Felt, Bind & Stitch with Helen Riddle on Sat 30 July & Sun 31 July 2022.)

Sheila Hicks - Grandes Boules

This forms a brief skip through the exhibition showing some of the pieces that caught my attention.  "Off Grid" is on until 25 September 2022 - well worth a visit!

Just for info - The Hepworth has a lovely cafe & shop and there is a pay and display carpark nearby.

Tom of Holland at Hope & Elvis

  
It's always a joy to go to Hope & Elvis.  Before your workshop begins there are so many interesting things to look at...

Beautiful boats

Captivating cardi

...and then you get to learn something new.  This workshop was taken by Tom of Holland, (though currently living in Brighton), who is a staunch advocate of visible mending.  Tom provides mending inspiration and skills to help curb the trend towards throwaway fashion.  Tom wants you to keep your favourite garment and enhance it with visible mends, wearing them like a "badge of honour".
 

Tom of Holland

Our workshop concentrated on repairing woven materials but the day before they were working on woollen items. It was great to see some of those examples too...

These would brighten up a boring jumper

Repairing all those holes has added a new dimension to this jumper

Moving onto the woven fabrics, Tom had some beautifully repaired tea towels...

Beautifully patched tea towels

There were some interesting books and equipment to browse through too...

Weevezy

Lots of "Make do & Mend" ideas

Advice from the 1950s - I've often found I'm fearful of that visitor that might find me not neatly put together!

And then we were ready to go...

I choose to do my stitching in orange so it was easy to see the good & the bad!

Tips for neatness when oversewing - fold those edges together

So what did we attempt?  Napery hem, fell stitch or running hem, slip stitch, herringbone, flannel patch, a hemmed patch & a hand stitched buttonhole

Finished samples, stitching in orange, basting in pink

I rather like the coloured stitching - even the basting, which I haven't taken out so I know where it goes for future reference!

I was happy with my first attempts though I shall need to practise those buttonholes!  Thanks, Tom!