Led by Nicci Wonnacott. A unique textile banner making project by Dreadnought South West.

Nicci is a multimedia artist/activist bringing together life, art and politics.

Louise Bourgeois: “The act of sewing is a process of emotional repair.”

An act of love.  A gentle act of love.  With each stitch we are mending and healing and creating art.  Mending and healing ourselves and each other.

Something gentle.  Something mindful. 

Finding stitching healing on a really deep level. I didn’t realise it would be so profoundly healing.

A space in my head I cannot usually find.  To subconsciously deal with the stuff that is too difficult to deal with.

Gently occupies your body, whilst creating this opportunity in your mind to let go of stuff.

The subversive stitch.

A stitch is also about repetition and rhythm which also allows that sense of meditation. The movement of the body is limited.

“Wasn’t necessary to learn to sew in the time I was born, so it felt like jobs for jobs sake, to impede me for joining in the world, so I resented it.  I was taught it with a sense of right and wrong and I wanted to rebel against that.  And so needlework gave me a sense of imprisonment, but it wasn’t until I worked with Nicci on sewing for peace that it became an opportunity for expression and building solidarity.  It became about the process rather than the results and that became very freeing.”

The depth of this, the element of the company, its deep, its like ahhh. 

There’s something about, we are taught in our world that effort is  – if you put the effort in front of you and you end up bouncing off that, but if the effort is about something else it lets you move forward and flow in a different way.

It slows down time.  Allowing yourself a slow action in today’s day and age.

Feels like being part of something really good.

You are a piece of the whole.

No one is inspecting you.

It is unspoken but it is a safe space.

We could sit in this space without a word being said and it would be just as nurturing.

We are actually sewing love into this.  Something that is going to be paraded to support other women to be empowered.  We are stronger together and that is our love and you can see it in the sewing and the images.

When I leave here I feel so supported.

Life and work and stuff stops us and we become parallel and disconnected.  Here we connect and dwell in another level and this is what it is to be human.

Stitching can help heal the physical trauma on the body as well as the mental as it is so gentle on the body.

Thank you to Nicci Wonnacott for leading on this project and for all her dedicated, detailed work and artistic flair.  Thank you to all the women involved who shared stories with one another, and took each session one stitch at a time to make this beautiful, beautiful work. 

The above words are theirs.

This project has been funded by Awards for All Big Lottery funding, and is part of the Rebellious Sounds Archive Heritage Lottery Funded project by Dreadnought South West.  A massive thank you to Players of the National Lottery.