Joyful Links with Comfy Club Collective

. . . Joyfully capture happy moments, personal comforts and favourite items on strips of paper

. . . Bring in something I find ‘comfy’ -item or photograph .. .something that I associate with happiness, comfortableness and joy.

I always look forward to the monthly Contemporary Elders session, never knowing quite what to expect and relishing the challenge presented. So WHAT do I find “comfy”? On a dark, gloomy November evening I find a great deal of comfort in my hot water bottle, tucked behind me as I sit on my easy chair. But a hot water bottle does not really bring me happiness and joy. Now I do have a happy space. Ever since I was a desperately homesick student at university four days train travel from my family, I have sought comfort in fabric and yarn shops. Wandering around surrounded by colours, patterns and textures my mind is so busy imagining possibilities and visualising projects that my spirits are uplifted. Not that I can capture that to take with me to the session. Mmm! My most treasured possession is my sewing machine. I have had my own sewing machine since I inherited the one belonging to my Gran when she died when I was ten. No, that is too heavy to lug to the Focal Point Gallery. And anyway, it doesn’t exactly give me joy as such, it is more of a favourite item.
Out shopping I bumped into Rowena and we chatted about what item/s we might take. She commented on my purple coat and remarked on how I always wore colourful outfits. That’s It: COLOUR. It is colour that gives me joy, makes me happy and is so important to me. In particular deep pink, along with reds and purples.
Our workshop was led by three Fine Art graduates, Annie, Heather and Jasmine who wore matching yellow sweatshirts which brightened up the dull November day. After a brief introduction Annie sat with the seven of us at my table and encouraged us to show the items we had brought. K bravely went first, producing a silver dragonfly brooch and explaining her love for dragonflies. She also had a picture of a cat which reminded her of her own cat Jasper.
Then L showed us the book she had brought and told us about her love of reading. Reading is even more important to her now because problems with her eyes meant that she had been unable to read for ten years.
J had brought a pair of fair-isle wrist warmers knitted for her by a friend and whose familiarity bring her comfort when working outdoors or even indoors on a cold evening. Then she produced a French portrait of a black cat dated 1917 and told us about this amazing cat art museum in Amsterdam called Kattenkabinet. And J had also brought her phone, her source of information and books as well as contacts.
G almost apologetically admitted her love for dolls – something that many adults think that we should grow out of. Not me, all my doll-house dolls all have names and characters. G had made her jointed wooden doll on a lathe. Her second doll was created from a sock.
B showed us her sketch of herself hugging a tree and talked about the comfort gathered, the texture of the bark and her feeling of being grounded.
F brought ‘creativity’. I was in in awe of her knitted waistcoat but her object was a smooth wood sculpture that was very tactile and comforting and fitted into the palm of her hand.
Finally Annie produced her objects. An embroidered picture of dinosaurs that she had started but then had been finished by someone very special to her. In her hand she held a cute little figure based on a slice of Battenberg Cake which, though simple, meant a lot to her. Lastly she held up her grandfather’s tie which was decorated with a pearl tie- pin belonging to her other grandfather – items that bring back happy memories.
Now came the challenge. We were asked to decorate paper strips to represent our items. These would be linked together together to create a collaborative chain. For a moment I was stymied. How could I best represent those feelings of comfort and joy triggered by wandering around a fabric or yarn store surrounded by a wealth of colours and textures? The happiness I feel as I carefully co-ordinate my outfits and accessorise with deep pinks or reds? I cut a couple of plain paper strips and sat staring at them, aware of the bustle of activity. Others gathered what they needed, pieces of card, magazine pages, shiny laminated paper, or pieces of wallpaper. Then it hit me: stitching and writing. All my life they both have brought me joy. So I decorated one strip with running stitches and the second strip I covered with handwriting patterns.
Sadly there was not time to make more strips – in maroon, deep pink and purple. We did have enough time to join our work into one long chain and reflect on everything that brought us comfort, happiness and joy and on the diversity of our links.

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