Yesterday I spent the day in London. I met up with a friend at The British Library where we saw an exhibition of Illuminated Books that have been owned by royalty.........it was beautiful.
After that we went to The Foundling Museum to see an exhibition of paintings by Quentin Blake, great fun and quirky................but I have to say that the thing that stays with me from the day was something I saw in The Foundling Museum itself.
These postcards show scraps of fabric..........many of the children left at the Foundling Hospital had these scraps of fabric attached to their clothing by their mothers in the hope that they would stay with the children so that if they could ever retrurn to collect them they could identify their children.
There were also display cases of other tokens that had been left with the children...........from coins and medals to tiny twists of wire to little strings of beads to scraps of sewn fabric, whatever the mothers could afford to leave with the children they could not look after..............I have to say the heart shaped pieces were the most poignnant especially when we read that the tokens etc were not kept with the children so even if they did return the mothers couldn't identify their children...............it was heart wrenching.
So, today, unable to get it out of my head I decided to make a journal page to remind me of the day...........this is my tribute to all those mothers who could not look after their children and had to give them up.
The children were given numbers..............foundling, a girl 11868, b.1759
The background to my page started out as squares of paper ( my shopping from Anthropologie was wrapped in it......love that shop!) glued to the page so the edges were not stuck down completely.......I like the way it came out, will use the idea again!
18 comments:
Such beautiful work. I, too find it heart wrenching to read such stories but to keep these memories alive is so very important. It demonstrates just how far we have come and how often we should be reminded of how lucky we are today.
Definitely heart wrenching and your pages are a fabulous representation. Love the use of fabric and tokens to represent those token pieces the mothers gave to the children. Love the squares in the background too. What did you buy from the shop? Tracy x
What a very moving piece of art you have created, and such a tragic story behind it!
Aw, am crying here, Sue - how heartbreaking! Lovely work, though - just goes to show how emotions affect all our lives x
Wow, a beautiful page about a very sad subject. You handled it so well :-)
ugh, brings a lump to your throat doesn't it Sue? wonderful representation of how the day made you feel.
I have no words.
This was a wonderful piece of work you did, Sue.
I really can't wrap my head around this. Very soul stirring.
Kathy
So emotive, so very sad and you have captured it fully, perfectly, in your art.
Jo x
Heart wrenchingly wonderful.
Thank you for such a thought provoking emotive piece of work.
what beautiful pages. love the bits. And what a touching story...
Kinda hard to comment when you have tears in your eyes. Very, very touching. I love the look and feel of what you've done - it really conveys the sorrow of parting.
Wow Sue your pages rock again.
Stunning details and textures.
Amazing work. Love it.
That is beautiful...
Beautiful work of such a sad story!
heart touching story, but your homage is really great!
thats an evocative page with such a sad sad story behind it . . x
Absolutely gorgeous spread.
The foundlings museum sounds amazing. I loved those stories of the fabric scraps. I will research this more.
Your pages were wonderful and worn looking. perfect. A great way to remember the day and the children. xo
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