Heritage by Susan Hol

About "Heritage"

by Susan Hol

About the artwork

You see here a picture of my hand-made tapestry. It was exhibited among all kinds of paintings, drawings, photographs and sculptures in Veenendaal (NL) in May 2025. You can see that I used all kinds of ribbons, bows, ties and buttons. This tapestry is not called 'Heritage' for nothing, because almost every item was given to me by my mother-in-law and mother. For years, my mother-in-law in particular very frugally saved all those shiny bows and ribbons she got her hands on via parcels, flower arrangements and other gifts. In turn, my mother had an enormously rich box of buttons. Of course, I had some of my own, which I then used. On a few pieces of ribbon I embroidered a tulip with my mother's embroidery thread.
The original work is 65 x 65 cm long, and fitted with a hanging system. The background is an embroidery patch. The back is finished with a spring green linen patch, cut from an old pair of trousers belonging to my friend Janne, and attached to the embroidery patch by hand with small stitches. Everything on the tapestry I attached with small and larger stitches.
It is a beautiful and cheerful 'portrait' of older women's thriftiness. Spread over several months, I always sewed the next ribbon on the tapestry by feel, first all the horizontal ones and later the vertical ones for contrast. The pink cord circling over the tapestry and the shapes with the buttons were created by doing: looking, choosing, placing, waiting and putting away, repeat.