My friend Vera died in 2014, in a vehicle accident, at twenty-nine. This is the banner I made for her: VERA, 1985 to 2014, in big serif letters on a cream ground, ringed with fabric leaves.
She loved kicking through fallen leaves, so I asked the people who knew her to send me a leaf each, cut from fabric, and I sewed them all into a border around her name. Reds and browns and golds, dozens of them, one from everyone who wanted to be in it. Here it is laid out on the studio floor, and held up between two people so you can see the whole thing. A soft, autumn-coloured thing to carry a hard year.
Part of the Remembering Vera case study.