Realityarts - Inspiration, Art and Creativity: Celebrating Textiles

Celebrating Textiles

A couple of years ago I was asked by the previous curator of The Queens Park Gallery - Janice Whittle to take part in an exhibition - my first exhibiting some of my new textile work. She also mentioned Boro Shashiko which I was not familiar with at the time and gave me two challenges to explore Boro and to go much larger in size with my work than I had previously gone.

You can check out the video below of the exhibition

What is Boro?

Derived from the Japanese Boro, meaning something tattered or repaired, boro refers to the practice of reworking and repairing textiles (often clothes or bedding) through piecing, patching and stitching, in order to extend their use.

At first I couldn't imagine how I would tackle such a large piece and also learn a new technique and create a piece for an exhibition but Janice encouraged and I became excited at how I would execute the challenge.

It took me months to get started - just as well she had given me 10 months notice! I decided to create a series of small pieces, the size that I was used to and then join them all together.

This made the world of difference, I could just focus on that piece and then move on. I found the stitches to be also relaxing, Boro is also known as 'The Mending Stitch'

I gathered my jeans fabric and set about creating stitches on them

I also added elements such as painted fabric, laying and using alternative colors on the fabric.

This is the finished piece. The wood is Moringa and Cotton Tree wood harvested from my garden

Art by Amanda Trought - Wall Hanging

My challenge for this piece was to learn something new and go much bigger in size than I normally do. What have you challenged yourself with this month that has stretched you?

Stay blessed and be a Blessing

Amanda

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I am also taking part in the Ultimate Blog Challenge and you can check out all the posts HERE