It's
like an online dating service for long lost gloves. No,
that's not a typo.
A Texas native who experienced her first snowflakes in
Pittsburgh last year was miffed by the lost gloves she
spotted all over the city last winter. Whom did they belong
to? Wouldn't they want them back? Why were people just
walking past them?
So Jennifer Gooch, who is pursuing her master of fine arts
degree at Carnegie Mellon University, started
onecoldhand.com in an effort to reunite dropped gloves with
their mates — and in the process spread some goodwill.
One of her first ones was a moist, lambskin glove that
someone had propped up on a ledge on campus. She was worried
about taking it at first. What if the owner came back to
claim it?
In its place, she left a small rectangular sticker. A
drawing of a black glove is scrawled on it and says,
"Missing a glove? onecoldhand.com."
Gooch displays the gloves on the wall in her basement art
studio at the university. There are 21 so far, each tacked
up with push pins. Small yellow Post-it notes and slips of
scrap paper hang there, too, chronicling where each was
found.
One reads, "Found by Shaun Tuesday, Nov. 20 Penn Ave.
between 29th & 28th." Below it, the finder drew two gloves —
one outlined in a solid line, its mate outlined with a
broken line.
Some
appear to be expensive, others not so much. On the wall
hangs a beige, left-handed woman's glove, with a dangling,
sparkling rhinestone charm.
"That's a great glove," Gooch, 29, beamed Friday. "It's
leather. It's got bling, but it's so useless now."
Gooch, originally from Dallas, photographs each glove and
puts the picture and information on her Web site, where
people can report found gloves and request stickers. She
hasn't made any glove connections in the two weeks the site
has been live, but it's OK if that never happens, she said.
"It's kind of whimsical and bittersweet," Gooch said. "It
makes you feel there's this opportunity for benevolence."
Gooch would love to see One Cold Hand projects sprout up in
other cities. She's working with two women in New York to
start a similar effort there. They hope to have
onecoldhand-nyc.com up and running soon.
Gooch is even talking with local businesses about creating
glove dropboxes all over the city where people can leave
their fabric finds.
Like socks that disappear in the dryer or plastic grocery
bags that fly away and get in trees, Gooch believes there's
something about gloves that is universal.
"If I have one person find their glove, then the entire
thing is totally worth it," she said.
Check it out at:
http://www.onecoldhand.com/
