Taking messaging back to a labour-intensive medium, where the beauty of the object created is as much the point as the words used. We invited library users across Wiltshire to embroider handkerchiefs with a text message and as much or little decoration as you like around it. There were sessions to learn how and hear about the project, making a start over a cup of tea, but people could pick up a handkerchief to embroider from the information desk any time. Many of the completed handkerchiefs were included in the exhibition before being returned to their creators.

We put a few special items into the library’s collection. You can still find them by searching the library catalogue for Dusty Feet. They’re not books, but they still have something to tell. You can take them home like any other library item, and during the exhibition there were opportunities to respond when borrowers opened the boxes!

In July and August, there was our Dusty Feet exhibition in the Young Gallery and around Salisbury Library. In addition to the things people have made for the exhibition, and items from Wiltshire’s museums and archives around ideas about signs and meaning, there were opportunities for visitors to leave their marks, too – and lots of them obliged! We had cards, blackboards, and a special door, all providing different kinds of opportunities for leaving marks and messages.

Working with local children, we designed some stamps for bread loaves, and gave away bread marked with the stamps in the library in return for stories. The logos designed by children for marking bread linked to their family or birthplace through the use of iconic images.