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LABOUR 04: DECOR

noun

the colour, style, arrangement of the objects in a room

Rozsika Parker (cited by Netshia 2017:56) states that in the 19th-century, embroidery was considered ‘natural’ to femininity, signifying respectability and obedience – a love for the home, and life without work outside the home. Typically, artefacts created using the acquired ‘feminine skills’ passed down through time, are metaphorical connectors, linking maternal generations together.

 

It may be argued that while certain practices of ‘homemaking’, which produce artefacts and traditions, may relate to cultural and religious practices, others might draw from colonial ideals of the home, or wider influences from trade, empire, economic and societal changes. This research argues that in the process, as practices become hybridised and creolised, home always speaks to that which is intimately present and simultaneously ‘away’, diasporic, or absent. These absences could be understood as ‘hauntings’ (Gordon 2008), always present yet often unacknowledged.

Tapestry

White paper serviettes, white cotton

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Image Title: Tablecloth map - Ritual

Serves 6 people

Father, mother and four children, taken into calculation that fathers and growing children will eat more than mothers and younger children.

 

Ingredients:

6 Standard Paper napkins 165mmx165mm

72 Square Acid white paper 100mmx100mm

1 Roll of white cotton

1 Sewing Machine

1 Box of straight pins

2 Tblsp Nescafe Instant Coffee

2 Joko Teabags

1 Electric Kettle

2 White Cups 250ml

1 Thick Paint Brush

1 Thin Paint Brush

 

Process:

  1. Fold 6 Napkins using folding method of

  2. Unfold Napkins

  3. Thread sewing machine with white cotton

  4. Replace existing bobbin with white cottoned bobbin

  5. Sew along fold lines on napkin to reinforce, make the napkin less flimsy

  6. Fold 72 Origami paper fortune tellers

  7. Sew Origami paper fortune tellers together into five strips – 20; 19; 19; 7; 7.

  8. Paint Origami strips with coffee and tea mixture. (see instructions below) Allow to dry for at least 60 minutes. Note: Do not use excessive amounts of liquid on paper as it might tear.

  9. Sew each piece together as in the diagram below

 

Coffee and tea mixture:

  1. Boil 500ml of water in electric kettle

  2. In cup with tea bags pour water

  3. Allow tea bags to steep for at least 10 minutes

  4. Pour half cup of tea into cup with coffee

  5. Remove, and recycle tea bags

Image Title: Folding a Kimono

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Image Title: Folding Concepts

Drawing adapted from a guidebook on how to fold napkins by popular South African serviette manufacturers Dinu

Tablecloth map - fragility

Tablecloth map - disruption

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