Stitched by Refugees
Transformation, belonging, and collective healing
For many of us from Belarus and Ukraine, the absence of grandfathers is a silent yet profound legacy of WWII. Our mothers grew up without ever knowing their fathers, and our grandmothers raised children alone—managing homes and farms, ensuring survival, and keeping the warmth of the hearth alive.
How many children today grow up without fathers? What do we hold onto?
How do We fill Emptiness?
Over time, fashion has faded into shades of grey. Roses of Ties seeks to bring color back to our wardrobes and to our lives. It inspires kindness, warmth, hope, joy, and offers a reason to share love. A symbol of patriarchal authority is reimagined through acts of feminist care, embodied memory, and shared ritual. with feminism through the symbolic transformation of ties. Once a symbol of masculinity, ties are now reimagined as tributes to the women who carried on -fragile yet strong, like roses.
Swedish Women’s Stories
Swedish women donate ties left behind by their fathers, husbands, and partners. The only thing they ask in return is a Rose of Tie to wear close to the heart. This act of remembrance is sacred and deeply emotional. Through the delicate process of shaping ties into roses, Ukrainian women transform personal trauma and loss, connecting with other women through the invisible threads of craft and forging a profound global sisterhood. The resulting collection of crafts and nets stands as a legacy of war, resonating far beyond individual lives. Academic research and film documentaries trace the hands of Ukrainian women, revealing how unstoppable they are in transforming grief into shared strength. Read more.
Integration & Crafts
The integration of Ukrainian families into Swedish society unfolds through the shared language of craft. Ukrainian women create one Rose of Tie each day – a quiet ritual that has become their way of counting time and loss. The tie becomes a material of transformation: turned into a rose and pinned close to the heart, the brooch gives every moment of crafting together and every day in life a sense of meaning. It fills the emptiness left by war and trauma.
But do we really need so many flowers?
Roses of Ties Presentation at the Army Museum in Stockholm
Book Workshop
Turn your old tie into a rose at Artten Gallery.
🔹 No sewing skills needed
🔹 350 SEK /person
Made in Solidarity
Do you have a tie with a story? A memory woven into its fabric? Together with women from around the world, we are building a MUSEUM OF TIES – a place for healing, remembering, and safety, something for our children to hold onto in the future.
E-mail us your story or send a tie to:
Ludmila Christeseva
Artten Gallery
Artillerigatan 10
11451 Stockholm, Sweden.
Photograph: Sebastian von Wachenfeldt
