I have just lost a dear friend Marcia Macdonald to ovarian cancer. And today as I grieve for her I think of the wonderful gift she gave me, to find my creative self.
In memory of her I am posting a photo of the little mesh & enamel dresses I made last year while attending Penland’s spring concentration. These are not amazing pieces; they were created for the purpose of experimentation. The idea here was to compare the effects of layered enamels on steel mesh. There was, of course, a nod to the connection between me & my Great Grandmother, Emmy G., a master dress maker and I with my textile design degree. However, today these dresses have taken on a different significance for me. They reminded of a story I told Marcia several years ago about my 1st creative success as a child. In one of her very last postings on her Care bridge site she asked her friends to write about our earliest childhood successes. I wrote her this story that I will post here as well.
Candy’s Little Red Dress
My mother is a wonderful seamstress and as a very young child I’d sit at the foot of her sewing machine watching her every move. I dreamed of sewing like her and would create little hand stitched outfits for my dolls with the scraps from her creations. No matter how much I begged, Mom would always say that I was too young to use the sewing machine. One weekend, in my 7th year, Mom went on a women’s church retreat leaving my sister and me in the care of our father. Dad was content to let us do whatever we wanted and I wanted to sew….. I dove into the sewing chest and pulled out a lovely red calico fabric, a bit of lace, and a pattern for a doll dress. Just like I saw Mom do it, I laid out the fabric, pinned the pattern and cut it out. Then with all the confidence in the world I approach the sewing machine and away I went. When Mom came home the next evening she found the doll, wearing her fabulous new dress, sitting in the center of our dining room table. For Christmas that year Santa left me a fully operating “toy” sewing machine”, I was a happy girl.
These little dresses also represent the emptiness that I feel without a world with Marcia in it. I have only just started on this path that Marcia helped guide me toward and in all that I create there will always be a part of Marcia in it. Marcia, you were my teacher, a mentor and a wonderful friend. Sleep well….
