City and Guilds - Lines Final Piece (a)

The first module of my City and Guilds is almost at a close and I have been busy cutting and gluing as the final task is to produce a 'resolved piece' showing all the stages in the design. however, we are not allowed to actually sew or quilt anything although fabric can be used as a medium.

In this entry I am posting the series of crayon drawings I produced ( in a Travelodge room in BirminghM one night!) as inspiration for the final design. The design must be intended for a particular type of product - an table runner, a cushion etc. and I decided to design an art quilt in memory of a 25 year old Polish Jew called Salka Wildfeuer who was a victim of the Holcaust. I have recently become a 'Guardian of her Memory' in a programme run by Yad Vashem which involves you receiving details of a Shoah ( holocaust) victim and wearinga lapel badge and lighting a candle in memory of them once each year. Details can be obtained from guardianofthememory@yadvashem.org.uk if you are interested. You do not have to be Jewish ( I am not) just concerned that this - and indeed other atrocities like it - should not be forgotton. The hope is that each victim will be remembered by someone.

Anyway - back to quilts. I was playing with lines in the shape of fire as her name means wild fire, the symbol of remembrance is a flame and, whilst Salka died in 1942 in Maniowy, almost all her extended family died and were cremated in Auschwitz.

The commentary on these pages from my portfolio has not come out well, but basically I was playing with fire ( as it were)...


but wanted to get away from this fleeing image from flames of destruction....


Played with just blue lines... ( the Yad Vashem flame is portaryed as predominently blue with a tiny centre of white -yellow)

and eventually used straight blue lines to represent both continuity of lineage and memory and as a reference to the flag of Israel and Jewish prayer shawls. I also wanted the lines representing Salka to have more defiance.

I am now making a paper and fabric collage of this last design - which I hope has more direct reference to the Star of David in the flames- and will post a picture of that soon. Currently part of it is a fabric shape painted with PVC glue and drying over a frame made of chopsticks and grapes in my kitchen!