The Hugging Project

What I found most inspiring in Endicott’s work was the idea of weaving healing wounds. I find that weaving something, specifically for another person, is a true act of love. I think her choice of using DMC’s 321 thread, a deep and powerful red was important. In my perspective, I don’t see the red spreading over the wounds as blood, I see it as love. With my vision of red being a visceral and potent symbol in our designs, I found the similarities between Endicott’s work and my groups intentions. In The Hugging Project, I felt there was a wound between Scarlett and Irad, something that kept causing them to fall apart. At the same time, I found that there was a connection, something that was always bringing them back to each other. The idea of being connected through thread, or an invisible string, woven between two figures that keep them circling back to each other was strong. The connection between Scarlett and Irad to me was love, though this love, this stained thread is what was also making them deteriorate in each other’s arms.

John Melhuish Strudwick, A Golden Thread (detail) (1885)