Threads

Some changes made to the website, probably a few more tweaks to do…

www.elenathomas.co.uk

Let me know if I’ve made any spelling mistakes!

http://www.elenathomas.co.uk/

I’m going to make some changes soon to my website. I’m not happy with it any more… If you get a chance please pay a visit before and after and tell me what you think. I’d be very grateful!

Right, well, I’m forcing myself to settle down to read, and when I do, it’s all fine, and I’m absorbed (Helene Cixous on language… fascinating).

But what I really want to do is sew. Tiny tiny stitches, following my handwriting so slowly it becomes nonsensical, I get no sense of the words by doing this, just faithfully following a scrawled piece of writing. I like the way that some words become abstracted somehow by this process. I’m following the line blindly, trusting what the pen line did the day before. Stitching before it disappears. What I do find though, is that it is repetitive, mantra-like, meditative. I don’t think about the text, but I do think. This is when I do most of my thinking, when I’m immersed in a task that is easy, yet totally engrossing, mindless, yet mindful.

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Ha Ha Ha! I’ve now turned on the little switch that allows for “Blogger Stupidity” and the comments section is now enabled! Thank you Jane for pointing this out to me!

The strap line for this blog includes “text”, and I haven’t really mentioned it much.

I feel I should, as the whole point of doing this was to get feedback, a critique, some discussion at least.

I only started writing at the end of last year. The work I have been doing about children and parents, I felt, needed a soundtrack, so I started looking for a lullaby. I couldn’t find one that said the right things. So I wrote my own. With the help of Dan Whitehouse ( www.dan-whitehouse.com ), it now has a melody, thanks to a process that included much tinkering and emailing of mp3 files backwards and forwards… talk about steep learning curve! I’m hoping that we will be able to record it properly later in the summer. Then I might reveal it to you in all it’s glory!

But meanwhile, I’ve opened the floodgates it seems… I’ve written quite a lot of stuff – some I’m quite happy with, some rubbish. But i do feel I should expose some of this writing here. So I’ve chosen the piece I wrote about and then stitched onto, the petticoat… there’s a mention and photo of it in an earlier post.

I’m new to this writing lark, so would welcome helpful criticism:

Parts of me, and my life are worn out, torn, threadbare.

In need of repair.

Some bits you can see through

Some bits you don’t dare.

Holes have been abandoned.

Unloved homes of old.

Some holes have been darned, embroidered, are bold.

Blatant rips in the fabric, rules disobeyed.

Rebellions displayed.

Some tears are pulled together by me,

Stitched up to hope they go unnoticed.

Some pinned together by my friends, embarrassed

My life as ancient petticoat

Covered by a respectable layer,

Only shown to a few,

Those who love me whatever.

Yellowed with age, spotted and stained

With mishaps, accidents and deliberate attacks

Parts of me and my petticoat are unwearable,

Unforgiveable, unlovable.

So I cover them up.

But I’m told those are the best bits,

The Greatest Hits

The bits you love me for.