Lost Childhood Object

 There is something sacred about being entrusted with the recreation of someone’s lost item. For that thing was valued and deemed as precious to the heart of a child long before the world even got at say in that little person’s mid. It takes a sort of vulnerability that causes even grown adults to smile bashfully as they give you what is still very precious to them deep down inside. 

Julia’s precious item was a purple baby blanket that was worn from much love and use. She described how there were part of her blanket that were thinner than the rest from places where milk and cereal had spilt on it and dried, and the random patch that was in the corner but lacked an inscription but looked as it it were intended to have one. 

The Process 

Many of the Materials available to me failed to match the image Julia had painted with her words. For one thing, I only had one purple cloth and did not have access to the lilac satin material that she said bordered the flat fluffy blanket.  

Therefore I acquired a white satin looking drapery, soaked it in diluted acrylic paint and waited for it to dry. Once it had, I made use of an old sowing machine and learned to use for the purpose of bringing my two materials together. 

Finally I took cotton-like material and combined that with purple acrylic paint to create the fuzzy yet flat effect that Julia described and glued it to the blanket. 

Unfortunately for my sleep schedule before I knew it I had exhausted nine hours on this attempted recreation. 

This whole process, interestingly enough caused me to feel attached to a blanket I had never even seen. However, dedicating so much time to creating a likeness and the unique conversations it invoked made me feel a deeper connection to my friend. 

The things lost in childhood which are seldom discussed yet not forgotten prove how valuable they are and to share that with someone is truly a rare experience 

The Receiving End 

It made me smile to receive someone else’s representation of my lost toy. The effort that everyone put into recreating something special that they themselves had never seen before was really admirable. It almost gave a new dimension to the way I think about my childhood item having now seen it through someone else’s eyes and crafted with limited material. It was less of an identical representation and more of an addition to the memory of the object, which made it all the more enjoyable.