This week’s Material Musings has been full of fabric, thread, slow stitching, beads, eco dyeing and plenty of experimenting.
I’ve been working with Seth Apter’s One Layer Away fabrics and Aurifil threads, creating everything from small fabric clusters to a stitched landscape filled with flowers, a little house, prickly pear and wisteria.
I’ve also started another piece using the patterned fabrics to create a face, experimenting with translucent paint over the fabric before adding more stitching, words and beads.
And, of course, there has been more eco and solar dyeing, that I will be using in future creative projects.
I used Avocado, neem leaves, annatto seeds and aloe vera, which have all produced their own colors which I am really excited to work with.
We can learn so much about how our fabrics will respond when we take time to play around with them and the rest of our supplies. We can ask ourselves the question 'What if' and do something totally different to your work, sometimes you will like the results and sometimes not.
What happens when you fray the edges of the fabric, or combine fabrics with beads, stitching or a discarded piece of jewelry? Sometimes you have to step out of your comfort zone try it to find out.
Here is something that you can try: Choose three scraps from your fabric collection and spend a few minutes layering them together, don’t think about making a finished piece, and just ask yourself 'What could this become?' and you might be surprised where it will lead. I have shared three creative activities inspired by this episode over on Patreon, including a small fabric storytelling exercise, a fabric cluster activity and a simple 'What If…?' experiment.
Head over to my Patreon post after watching the video and choose one of the activities to try. And most importantly give yourself permission to play.
Stay blessed and be a blessing!
