Throughout this project I thought about what I feel makes us human, and conveyed my ideas through patchwork – a skill that I had never attempted before and learned for this project. I also spent this project researching an object from the GSA Archives – a 17th century sampler – and thinking about how this object related to my theme. My idea of ‘being human’ revolves largely around memories, small moments and sentimentality, and how they all come together in our lives to form something of a legacy. I am more interested in the small, ‘mundane’ moments in our lives than by the large ones, as I believe these hold far more importance than they are usually given credit for. To me, patchwork was the obvious technique to use, as the individual patches joining together to form the whole textile seemed like a perfect representation of my idea. I also found that the sampler tied in with my theme: it is, as far as we know, all that remains of theirs – their legacy. I looked at the various techniques, symbols and histories involved in the creation of the sampler, and incorporated them as much as I saw fit into my own work.
Lily Mechan 
Being Human
IMAGE: Learning patchwork
IMAGE: Collected objects
IMAGE: Collected objects
IMAGE: Exploring everyday moments - wee objects collected over the years
IMAGE: Exploring everyday moments - an unmade bed
IMAGE: Exploring everyday moments - a shared dish of food
IMAGE: Exploring everyday moments - a full hairbrush
IMAGE: Patching together monoprints of the everyday moments previously explored
IMAGE: Patching together monoprints of the everyday moments previously explored
IMAGE: Patching together monoprints of the everyday moments previously explored