[:en]In the theme of finding the usefulness in broken as well as old clothing and objects, Jenni Dutton’s project ‘nature of mending’ is about finding forgotten objects from the museum attic and giving them a chance to shine. Through-out the artists project she investigates the theme of discovery, revealing and unwrapping alongside the other underlining theme of reveal, research, remake, review and replace. Two broken dolls with similar breakage on their legs inspired the artist’s work and raised a number of questions surrounding disability, pity, beauty and many others. Alongside mending and darning the dolls clothing the artist also investigated how best to mend the dolls legs. As one doll was made from wax she began experimenting with bee’s wax, creating casts using wire for structure and dipping it in the wax. As well as sawing legs from mannequins, Jenni Dutton, also collected dolls legs from car boot sales and charity shops giving a variation in proportion within her work. The small collected legs have been gathered and will be used to mend, where possible, for the original dolls at a later date. Through the manipulation of these dolls the idea of a ‘botch job’ has surfaced within this artist thoughts, explaining that there is great mileage and even a great energy produced from ‘botching’. I thought this was interesting as with artwork there is never a right or wrong answer.

What I found interesting is the way this artist has documented her findings. Writing everything down in her notebook as she sees and thinks of things is a great way to communicate her thoughts to her audience. Once written down and transferred to her blog she can then use the space to record her findings, look back and reflect on her journey, bettering herself on her mistakes and taking findings further. I will be using this tool when I get started on my knitting experimentations.[:]