POCKETS OF BELONGING
Pockets of Belonging is a digital activity pack developed by Craft Forward in collaboration with The National Trust, as part of 575 Wandsworth Road’s event series Common Threads.
Pockets are little spaces we use to carry things we hold dear, much like home is where we keep our most cherished memories and possessions. In this downloadable activity pack, you’ll get the instructions to make a felt pocket that will be contributing to our Common Threads Community Quilt, to be assembled in February 2025.
How to send your pocket
Please send your finished pockets to:
National Trust
575 Wandsworth Road
London
SW8 3JD
Our deadline for receiving the pockets is February 9th 2025.
If you are a Lambeth or Wandsworth resident, you can also contribute to the community quilt by attending our series of in-person workshops. The workshops will be facilitated in collaboration with artists Fee Uhssi, Ksenia Kazintseva and Roopa S Basu.
about common threads
Common Threads is a year-long community arts programme inspired by the rich and diverse textile collection at 575 Wandsworth Road. The programme showcases cultural narratives woven into fabrics from around the world and emphasises the historical and contemporary significance of these textiles.
By engaging local communities and artists, the programme celebrates the creativity, techniques, and stories embedded within the textile collection. Part of a broader outreach initiative (575 Ways to Create and Connect), Common Threads aims to extend the creative spirit of Khadambi Asalache into the local community, fostering connections and inspiring creativity through free workshops and collaborative activities.
about 575 wandsworth road
575 Wandsworth Road was acquired by the National Trust in 2010, because of the rich and striking interiors created by Khadambi Asalache (1935-2006), a Kenyan-born poet, novelist, philosopher of mathematics and British civil servant. He bought the house in 1981 while working at the Treasury, and over a period of 20 years (from 1986) turned his home into a work of art.
Prompted by the need to disguise persistent damp in the basement dining room, he initially fixed pine floorboards to the damp wall. He went on to embellish almost every wall, ceiling and door in the house with exquisite fretwork patterns and motifs, which he hand-carved from reclaimed pine doors and floorboards found in skips.
The house stands as he left it, with his painted decoration on walls, doors and floors and with rooms furnished with his handmade fretwork furniture and carefully arranged collections of beautiful and functional objects, including pressed-glass inkwells, pink and copper lustreware postcards and his typewriter.
