Depression is a liar

Every now and again I veer away from art, textiles and travel and wander into serious stuff. Today is one of those days. 

Depression is a liar.  It tells you that you’re not good enough.  It makes you withdraw into yourself.  It makes you withdraw from family and friends.  It tells you that you are not loved because you’re unloveable.  It isolates you.

Why have veered into serious stuff?

Last week someone I knew took his own life. It came as a great shock to his family and friends. It was his 40th birthday earlier this year and he had at least another 40 years ahead of him.

As I've read the tributes written by his friends on his Facebook page, I've seen how loved he was and how much people are going to miss him.   He was funny, he was kind.  He was a nurse and his colleagues loved him because he was so supportive.  I'm sure his patients thought he was great too.

He loved my work and had two of my pieces on his wall.

I've no doubt his friends and family are asking themselves whether they could have done more.  I don't know.  And that's part of the problem.

Depression is a liar.  It heaps shame on you.  Shame on the person with depression.  Shame on the people left behind if it gets to the point of suicide.

It's essential to talk.  But depression says your friends have so much going on in their lives they don't have time for your troubles.  When you 'count your blessings' depression says you should be ashamed to feel so low when you have all these things going for you.

In case you are wondering what right I have to write about this, you are welcome to read other blog posts of mine:  Time to Talk and the follow-up More Talk.  There's also this one: Mental Health Awareness.

One of the things we can do is tell our frineds and family how much we appreciate them.  Honour them.  And why keep it just for friends and family - show appreciation to those you meet fleetingly that help you.

If you or someone you know is suffering from depression get help.  I know that's not easy.  It's easy for me to write but it's not an easy thing to do.  It takes courage.

I'll leave you this from The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse.

(c) Charlie Mackesy/Ebury Press

and this

And the story behind the song.

More silk pages

After my last post I continued to set up the fabric collages on the silk noil 'pages'.

I started stitching the collages using threads supplied in the Inspiration Pack. I've used extended fly stitch, running stitch, whipped running stitch, seed stitch and cross stitch.

I'm showing you the pages laid out but when I assemble the book these will be folded in half.

I'm not keen on the collages on the right of the next two pages.  I think it's because I like things to be quite geometric - as in square or rectangular - whilst these two have curves.

I like these next two.

All of these are still works in progress.  I may put more stitches.  Possibly beads.  Or maybe some text.

I think I'll work on all the remaining pages first and then see what is needed before assembling the book.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

Silk book

I bought an Inspiration Pack from Clare Bullock. You know that I have more than enough fabric but I couldn't resist.  I want to use the contents to make a fabric book.

I decided I would use some silk noil that I had for the 'pages'.  I tore it up into 21x10cm pieces.  I used the fabrics from the pack to put together little collages.

Then I realised the silk noil was too thin and needed backing.  I ironed a Vilene interfacing on which I had found in the cupboard.  It's a stabiliser more than a stiffener.  To iron the interfacing I had to remove all the little collages.

Looking at the fabrics I decided it was lacking in texture, and whilst I can add texture through stitch, I thought I would have a rummage through my bits box.

I had tried using little bits of Mistyfuse to bond the collage pieces.  Although it worked it made things a bit flat so I was going to pin everything.  However in the end I used a glue stick!  These collages are not necessarily how they were before I took them off the silk noil.

These pages will fold in half so the finished size of the book will be approximately 10cms square

I plan to stitch on top of thes collages and add other bits of fabric and ephemera as I go along.

So far I've only put together half ot the 'pages'.  I like to have thinking time away from my work.  I shall go back to these and check they are what I want before working on the next 5 pages.

I'll let you know how I get on.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice