Hearts In Hands is a DIY-Kit to create your very own personal keepsake.

People affected by separation or loss are given the ability to create their own individual keepsake in the shape of the palm print of their loved one. It becomes a personal memory that you can hold or keep with you.

This project originated in a time when the pandemic reduced body contact and demanded our separation. Hearts In Hands serves to connect and comfort people as an analog keepsake that goes beyond visual memory, traditional photography, or video.

»Hearts in Hands« ist ein DIY- Kit, um ein ganz persönliches Andenken zu kreieren.

Es bietet Menschen, die von temporärer Trennung oder Verlust betroffen sind, ein individuelles Andenken in Form eines Handabdrucks eines geliebten Menschen. Ein ganz persönlicher Händedruck, an dem man sich festhalten, mit dem man spazieren gehen oder den man einfach nur bei sich tragen kann.

»Hearts in Hands« verbindet und tröstet Menschen auf neue und unerwartete Weise. Als analoges Andenken reicht es, im Gegensatz zu Fotos oder Videos, weit über die visuelle Erinnerung hinaus.

Holding hands had always been a way that primates cope with hardship together. It's reassuring. It's calming. It's what we do with those we trust to keep us safe and for those that we want to protect. It reminds us that we aren't alone. It unites us.

When our beloved or our parents die we lose, not only them, but the tactile sense of them. We lose all sensory reminders of their presence and encouragement. Yet, the sentiment of the extended hand is often left in our memories. But memories fade. That's why we love our photos videos, voice memos, the smell of his robe or the inside of her hat. All the things bring our loved ones back to our sense of them. The touch is as visceral a sensation as any and less explored in the acquisition of tokens of our departed to comfort us. A hand to hold onto, His/Her hand. Our dear one's hand to hold, whom we can't get to, physically, for whatever barrier, i.e.; death, geography, pandemic...

How nice to be able to hold the hands of the ones of us who have gone before us or who lead the way through the metaphorical darkness.

- Paige Thuey