Well, thanks to Sandy I have old blanket wadding - just what I needed. Thank you Sandy.

I’ve also printed six pieces of fabric as the layers in the work ... I knew those photos of surfaces I’ve walked on would come into their own one day!


And I found some very powerful Guardian interviews with people who are homeless and from these I’ve written 6 found poems. Small and emotional reminders of how lucky I, my family and friends are.  Quite how  I add these, and how to add stitch, well, I’m not sure yet but I’d like to use some of the tea bags I’ve collected, dried and made marks on. That would link with the request I had not long ago from a woman sitting outside a rail station for money for a cup of tea.  Needs thinking about. 

Meanwhile, on my studio floor the work so far ... somehow I’m tempted to have the blanket link the six pieces of fabric. Or I could make them into a folding book, or .... 
More news soon, I hope. 
Marilyn 

Some notes from Carol Wilkes - who was unable to attend in November:

"I recommend the Tate Britain exhibition, it has examples of Rachel Whiteread's work over the last 25 years and is very interesting and well presented.  Many of the pieces are very large (including casts of a room and a full size staircase) so the main exhibition is in one large open gallery which gives you room to step back and see the pieces as a whole. 

As well as the paying exhibition there are also smaller (free) displays elsewhere in the museum.  In the foyer of the main exhibition is a display of items from Whiteread's work space, notebooks, inspiration items and sample pieces along with a film of the making of 'House'; the cast she made of a terrace house in the 1990s.  The casts of the underside of 100 chairs ('100 spaces') is nearby and there was a least one other free display that I didn't have time to visit but hope to get back to before the exhibition closes. 

I made copious notes but in the end I decided that, for me, her work was about what was implied rather than present.  Hanging on the walls of  the main gallery were some recent casts of a shed made of papier mache, a much more accessible (and stitchable) material than concrete!"

Thank you for your thoughts Carol - I am particularly interested in your comment that her work was about 'what was implied rather than present'.

Jane