What I Really Need

Part 2 of my creative jaunt into the Nostalgia Realm for First Fold Records' 'Premier Pli' publication.

You always need a plan ... The paper template and the original Jawa cloak.

The brief for 'Premier Pli 2' is to fill four pages with words and/ or pictures based on the theme of 'Nostalgia'.

My idea for my second object was to make an exact replica of the cloak worn by an original Kenner Jawa action figure using gold fabric and gold thread. The concept is to create a fools-gold version of the original object that appears to be more 'attractive' and 'valuable' than the authentic item. This is to illustrate how our memory tricks us and gilds the past with adornments and wonder.

I have had the Jawa action figure since I was a little boy and it has survived numerous house moves and hoarding culls. As mentioned in my previous post "... whenever I have the urge to clear out cupboards or drawers it is the big stuff that goes, the small stuff tends to survive ..."

My original attempt failed as I didn't stitch the hems first.

Another reason for using the Jawa cloak as a starting point is that it reminds me of traditional robes that fill endless glass cabinets in museums up and down the country that point directly to an otherworldly past and so does, to my mind, clutch at nostalgia.

Most male adults of a similar age (I am thirty seven at the time of writing this) will have fond memories of the original Star Wars film (released in 1977). I think I saw the film on its release as I would have been three and that seems an unlikely age for a cinema visit or to even remember a visit if it had happened. Having said that, I have been taking my son to the flicks since he was two so it is possible (just for the record, we saw 'Monsters vs Aliens').

The original film is not great by any stretch ('Empire' wins hands down and remains one of my all time favourite movies) so my love of the first Star Wars has been (to a degree) fabricated by my brain and tainted by endless re-releases and tinkering by George Lucas. This constant re-visiting by Lucas (I see a 3D version of 'Phantom Menace' (terrible film anyway) is soon to be released) also feeds into my golden Jawa cloak, the adding of false adornments and making 'corrections' to something that should have been left well alone.

Another of my reasons for creating a replica of the Jawa cloak is that one of the only scenes I fondly remember from the film is the one where Uncle Owen and Luke go to the Jawas to buy some droids (ending up with C3P0 and R2D2). I know the dialogue very well indeed and I have no idea why. Hence the title 'What I Really Need' which is Uncle Owen's first line to a Jawa.

Tiny hems.

As my hands are quite big and not really suited to making tiny trinkets, it was incredibly fiddly making this tiny little cloak (it stands just 6.1cm in height). But I think it worked and although stitching those tiny hems hurt my eyes and three hours were used in stitching the final (the second!) version it was well worth it.

I will post the final image when 'Premier Pli 2' is published.

Next ... 'Blade Runner' and an eleven year old's letter to Mr. Spielberg.