The Mending Project 5

June was a busy month for me and it's been a long time since I went to the museum to mend as part of the big performance art "Mending Project."  (Read about it here.)  When I went back a week ago I was hoping that the word was starting to get out and there would have been lots of action in my absence.  But not to be.  Only five garments had been worked on in the more than three weeks since I was there.

And nobody brought anything in during my shift.  I spent fifteen minutes untangling the threads that run from the spools on the wall to the mended garments.  From reading our artist log, everybody seems to start their shift the same way.  Apparently when the mending station is untended, elves come in and mess things up.  This is not totally malicious, because it does give the volunteers something useful to do.

I did cajole some people into letting me embroider onto their garments (or camera bag).

I'm getting a little dubious about this project.  If the whole point is for an artist to sit there and chat with people as their garments are mended, then it's not accomplishing much if 90 percent of the garments are left off by museum staffers who are too busy museum staffing to sit there and chat.

I'm going to have another couple of weeks hiatus while I do some vacationing.  I'll sign up for a shift as soon as I come back, and then reevaluate my participation.   And keep you posted, of course.