In On Mending, the artist Celia Pym looks at the evidence of damage: how repair draws attention to the places where garments and cloth wear down and grow thin. Her personal stories trace what everyday use does to clothing, and its parallels with wear and tear on the body.
Celia Pym has been exploring damage and repair in textiles since 2007, working with garments belonging to individuals and with pieces in museum archives. Since it sold out on publication in 2022, the book has been reprinted twice. Paperback, 96 pages, 170 x 240 mm.
“Darning is small acts of care,” she says, “and paying close attention.” Start here, then read SOCKS, her account of teaching a whole school to darn.
In On Mending, the artist Celia Pym looks at the evidence of damage: how repair draws attention to the places where garments and cloth wear down and grow thin. Her personal stories trace what everyday use does to clothing, and its parallels with wear and tear on the body.
Celia Pym has been exploring damage and repair in textiles since 2007, working with garments belonging to individuals and with pieces in museum archives. Since it sold out on publication in 2022, the book has been reprinted twice. Paperback, 96 pages, 170 x 240 mm.
“Darning is small acts of care,” she says, “and paying close attention.” Start here, then read SOCKS, her account of teaching a whole school to darn.

Katy Bevan publishes books about making from Stroud: on darning and mending, rag rugs, stitched social history and an artist blacksmith who changed his craft. Every title is printed in the UK in a small run, on recycled or FSC-certified paper, with no plastic on the cover.