Evaluation Blanket
I knew that the evaluation could not interfere
with the flow of the lab. A light touch was needed where something
different might encourage people to write down a short statement,
feeling or thought each day. Because the lab was about textiles
I brought along an ancient Harris tweed blanket. I had bought
the labels before hand and taken them to Shetland. Each day
the participants were invited to fill out a label reflecting
their thoughts and impressions of that day. I wove these into
the blanket.
Hazel and I had spent an interesting time
together at Burrastow looking and talking about the blanket.
She made
an expert analysis
on the colour combinations and structure. Her keen eye comes
from years spent translating Fair Isle swatches into the
programme language of industrial knitting machines.
On reflection
this woven textile with the texts superimposed or woven into
the foreground is an analogy for the lab experience/creative
process. When seen from a distance the blanket has muted
indistinguishable tones. Closer up the rich variety of
individual yarns can be
seen, closer still, the very vivid colours of individual
threads in the different yarns. The analogy of scale and
visual distance
can be likened to our engagement and involvement. As makers
and lab participants we worked at these different levels
simultaneously. In the lab some of our thoughts were woven
together - distinctive
individual threads constructing specific ideas and these
ideas make the whole lab experience. The labels are like
glimpses,
they are fleeting thoughts or feelings on that one day.
These messages were threaded into the blanket (and were easily
removed). The blanket like the experience of the lab remains
as a tangible
thing while our daily thoughts and ideas flow on, new ones
replacing old ones.
Heather Delday
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