The Keepers
Things made slowly, and lived with afterwards.
The Keepers are a growing family of hand-stitched projects that have emerged through my Listening Fields practice.
Each begins with cloth, thread and a simple way of making. Some are worn. Some are passed between people. Some hold something, while others may gather the marks of weather and place.
They are not designed around reproducing a finished example. The practical making gives each Keeper its form, but what happens across the cloth is allowed to develop through time, attention and repeated return.
Each handbook offers enough guidance to begin, while leaving room for your own cloth to become something particular to you.
The Keeper
A hand-stitched linen scarf.
A length of linen gradually filled with running stitches. The original Keeper is an invitation to begin with ordinary cloth and allow a stitched surface to grow without a pattern to follow, and become a scarf to wear.
The Returning Keeper
A thread letter between two people.
A piece of cloth stitched by one person, entrusted to another and eventually returned. Two hands leave their marks before the cloth becomes a small textile wrap for keeping something that matters.
The Field Keeper
A hand-stitched poncho.
Two panels of cloth become a growing landscape of running stitch before being joined into a simple garment. The stitching develops gradually across the cloth, and then the finished Keeper is worn.
A growing family
The Keepers continue to develop through my making. Each begins differently, but all leave room for time, attention and the marks of the person making them.
New Keepers will be added here as they emerge.