We spent a fantastic weekend at D&D15 at the gorgeous Grand Hall at Battersea Arts Centre, London.
My sessions:
‘Help me to put dreams and a heart into my dolls and draw your own doll, I will sew it for you.’
‘Make your full moon necklace made by all full moons you have lived so far, including the one happening today.’
Our makers were: Davinia, Bonnie, Sibylla, Katie, Joannekke, Sanni, Rachel, Nick, Claire, Anna, Suzanne, Natalie, Karri, Nirobi, Kei, Lloyd, Isobel, Anne, Cindy, Fiona, Olivia and Pav.
We made 18 dolls + 4 dolls’ drawings.
We also worked on 4 necklaces. The youngest maker completed hers with 315 full moons. I’ll meet the other makers to complete theirs – 676, 449 and 514 full moons. We will thread all of them with a golden thread to remind us the sun.
The full moon necklace is a ongoing project that I introduced at D&D in 2014, that also happened at BAC, and I brought it back this weekend to celebrate our full moon on Sunday.
‘I really enjoyed being able to have a conversation with Regina that went beyond small talk, while my hands were occupied with the repetitive but therapeutic and productive task of making the doll- the process felt grounding. I’m pleased to be able to be a small part of this lovely project.’
‘Enlightening experience, thank you.’
‘An hour of crafting, bringing people together, a moment of peace in the biggest sense of the word.’
‘What a lovely time, wonderful!’
‘Very calming, loving thing to do.’
‘It feels really special to create something that is part of a bigger whole. A little gesture that will join all the others that were here before.’
‘Lovely to be part of this project and to imagine my doll living in the world. It fostered a sense of camaraderie. Lovely to swap stories with people. After a bad experience I am nervous about closing my eyes in public, but I felt supported to do so by the group.’
‘This session was such delightful refuge. Regina is a wonderful host holding space and facilitating restorative crafts.’
‘I resisted play and making a doll for two days! I feel bad. I need to listen to my heart more and trust.’
‘This practice made me feel like I had permission to slow down, to just be present with myself and people around me. No pressure.’
‘Thank you for helping me put dreams into something, wether it’s a doll, a sentence or just to feel my pulse.’
‘I did my meditation by the BAC beating heart. I will give some more dreams to Regina to use. I found that my doll had a thread ‘vein’ which matched my vein.’
‘Thank you again for providing an oasis of love, calm, heart and dreams at the transformational time of the full moon.’
‘It is a privilege to create another doll.’
‘My deep thanks to Regina for her Dreams and a Heart project – which, for what seems like many years, has created space and time at D&D for reflection and contemplation. A truly special project.’
Thank you for all amazing makers who came to join us, we had a wonderful time together, with lots of joy and friendship.
Thank you so much Olivia, Ben, Sarah, Jeremy, Phelim, Lee, Nick and ALL volunteers who took great care of us so everybody felt really included in the group.
BAC beating heart is full of joy to have received us in its home this weekend. Somehow I feel that it is missing us already…
Thank you SO much everyone!
