On Mending

Celia Pym has a BA in Visual and Environmental Studies, specialising in sculpture, from Harvard University, US and an MA in Constructed Textiles from the Royal College of Art, London.Her work has been exhibited most recently in Keep Being Amazing, Firstsite, Colchester, Essex (2022), Say Less, Herald Street, London, 2022 and Eternally Yours, Somerset House, London 2022. Waste Age, Design Museum, London (2021), and On Happiness: Joy + Tranquillity, Wellcome Collection, London (2021). Siblings, Trading Museum, CDG, Paris (2020), Sewing Box for the Future, V&A Dundee (2020-21) and Material Matters, Textilmuseum, St Gallen (2020). In 2017 she was shortlisted for the Woman’s Hour Craft Prize and the inaugural Loewe Craft Prize.She is an Associate Lecturer in Textiles at the Royal College of Art in London.

• IntroductionStoriesRoly’s SweaterElizabeth’s CardiganHope’s SweaterThe Norwegian SweaterBill’s SweaterThe Gold CapeLara and Lolu’s backpacksSiri’s SweaterVivien Leigh’s SuitFreddie’s Family Rugs

'Celia Pym sees touch as an act of tenderness, whether that’s mending clothes or caring for others. Mending clothes that once belonged to someone you loved can take on a different significance. “It used to sit on the skin of someone you loved, it’s like a diffused kind of touch,” says Celia. “Touch isn’t only through your hands – your skin is your biggest organ – and clothing will take on the shape and the smell of someone and become an evocative reminder of the owner.” In her book, Celia tells the story of ten special items she’s mended. One that really illustrates the connection of touch to memory: “I mended my mother’s childhood sweater that my brother also wore – it was so small I couldn’t imagine my mother ever wearing it, but I could picture struggling to hold my brother when he was one and I was three,” she recalls. “The tactility of the sweater really conjured up that memory.”' Katie Antoniou, The Simple Things; Pym has been exploring mending since 2007 and has extensive experience of repairing small holes at heels, elbows and inside pockets, as well as working on more dramatic damage, whether it be from water, animals or moths. For Pym, the greater the damage, the better. Pym studied sculpture at Harvard and has an MA in constructed textiles from the Royal College of Art. She was a finalist in the Woman's Hour Craft Prize (2017) and Loewe Craft Prize (2017). Her work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Nouveau Muse National de Monaco and the Textile Arts Centre, New York and the Curator's Cube in Tokyo.' Toast Magazine; 'Pym acknowledges that in the process of mending she is, in fact, mending more than just the garment. The process enables people to approach her for advice and also to talk candidly about the meaning implied in restoring a treasured piece of clothing. Sometimes, the garment will have been the property of a loved one who has died, so repairing it, she says, enables the relationship to continue. The act of mending artfully is a form of caring and memorialisation.' Janet McKenzie, Studio International