Giant Cauliflower Harvest part of the 2024 Harley Open
Voting for the People’s Prize will take place throughout the exhibition, with the winner announced at the end of the show. The People’s Prize is £750 sponsored by the Welbeck Estates Company.
The award-winning Domestic Duster Project, established by Vanessa Marr in 2014, uses the power of stitch to give women a voice in domestic contexts where they are otherwise silenced, unheard, or ignored.
The project invites women to embroider their domestic experiences, complaints, and celebrations as words or images onto a yellow duster. This exhibition showcases a selection of dusters that have been embroidered by women from across the world, challenging the legacy of so-called women’s work.
Join Vanessa, as she shares the personal stories behind some of the dusters.
“Each duster is unique and hand-stitched, transforming it from cleaning cloth to craftivist act. Whilst conversations often begin around cleaning, this is not the focus, rather it is a route to discussing women’s lived experiences and expectations of care, the mental load, and the sharing (or not) of home-based responsibilities. The experience of embroidering a duster for exhibition also addresses the benefits of stitching for health and wellbeing and the solidarity of group participation and common experience. The ever-growing collection includes hundreds of dusters that have been exhibited and presented widely in community, creative and academic contexts across the UK, mainland Europe, and Florida, USA. ” – Duster project.
Each piece tells a different story
Duster in the project
This is an on-going project. Anyone, of any ability and from any part of the world can take part.
Filmed at the Knitting & Stitching Show, London 2023.
For a more inspiration, please browse the ‘Meet the Artist’ collection on my YouTube Channel.
Each giclée is printed with Epson ultrachrome pigmented light-fast inks on Fotospeed platinum etching 285gsm, 100% acid free, cotton & wood pulp mix. This combination produces a print with a lifespan in excess of 100 years.
Each print is accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity signed by myself.
