The Coat Hanger Dolls

Textiles MA Final Show by Helen Westhrop

The Coat Hanger Dolls wear beautiful hand stitched and knitted clothes and are the subject of short animation films created by Helen Westhrop during her MA and filmed at the Rising Sun Arts Centre.

Due to the lock down restrictions, students studying on the MA at the School of Crafts & Design, Farnham, had to study on-line and find alternative materials and tools to use from home. Helen used experimental materials, found and other waste items, and from these the Coat Hanger Dolls were born. While this proved to be challenging, they did bring life to difficult and times of seemingly isolation. Before long, the Coat Hanger Dolls begged to be animated, although this seemed to bring lots of technical challenges it did allow Helen to consider creative ways to show her work digitally and potentially a wider audience.

You can find out more about Helen’s processes and journey during this troubled yet creative time, on her website. However, and more importantly Helen is looking forward to sharing her collection of wayward coat hanger dolls with a real audience.

www.nelabligh.com