Urd’s Well
Back in 2023 I started my most important project yet. Not only was it my graduation work but also something that will be with me forever. For some reason I never decided to share it online but why not now.
Inspired by the old traditions of shroud making, where women would weave their own burial shrouds and later embroider them with details about their lives, I decided not to wait until I was old and instead started making the blanket of my life right now.
It started with a canvas of wool and then it was up to me to add the details that I deemed important. This shroud will be filled with details and stories about me and the life that I hopefully will live.
And no matter how empty or full it might be when I go, at least it will be finished.
The first step to making anything is preparation. One thing about me is that I love doing research, maybe I love it more than the actual end result of my project. For a piece of fabric the size of a person I had to make sure that I knew what I was doing. So for the better part of the final year of my Fine Art studies I spent researching different techniques, histories, and fabrics. The technique of felting wool had already taken over my life at that point so that is what I decided to use. Only this was on a bigger scale than I had ever done. So I needed to prepare.
In the end I decided to make my shroud in the shape of a circle, which is an uncommon shape for a burial shroud but I enjoyed the idea of a shape that had no beginning nor end. The wool choice was personal, as I took wool from sheep that lived in places that I loved, like Norway, Iceland and even my own flat little country. The embroidery would then be dry felted on top, the thread dyed with madder roots that would give it a red color that would symbolise the red thread of life.
After the design stage it was time to start for real. I wanted to put off the actual making of the shroud for so long because I never felt confident enough in my abilities to actually get the end result I wanted. But a part of the process of creating is to lose a little control (only a little) so it was now or never.
Down in the garage of my home (thank you parents), I started to lay the ground work. A project of this size could never be done by just one person, so I enlisted the help of my mom. Together we laid down tufts of wool for a couple days, creating the pattern. On the fourth day it was time for the real work. No turning back now. With everything wet, pressed, and soaped in , it was time to roll.
It felt like hours, just the two of us rolling one way and then the other. The entire garage was turned into a slip and slide and I may have fallen on my back one or twice. But after days of hunching over and getting our socks wet it was finally done.
All pictures from the group exhibition BuitenWesten #3
Urd’s Well was apart of the graduation show, The Future, Minerva Art Academy 2022.
As well as group exhibition BuitenWesten #3, Drawing Centre Diepenheim 2023.
Founded and curated by Hèléne Webers. Supported by Mondriaan Fonds, Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, en Madeleine Fonds.
