Pliable Fabric From Everyday Materials

Last weekend was my first session in my certificate of Fiber Arts course and I have been a little too excited about it to actually sit down and distill my thoughts into any coherent explanation about what is going on inside my brain.   The good and the bad thing about these classes is that they are held in 7 hour long chunks and so you get really, really, inspired and overwhelmed all at the same time.  We spent a good amount of the first day just talking and I am happy to say it wasn't boring talking.  It was interactive, thoughtful, and happy talking.  But then we have to go back and work alone in our studios until the class gets together again 3 weeks later.  3 weeks!  (It's because of the Husky home games.  Class is not scheduled on the same day as home games which sounds like a good idea to me.)

Our first homework is to make pliable fabric out of everyday materials using only one type of fastening per sample.  We have to make a couple of samples with mechanical fasteners and a couple of samples with adhesive fasteners and then 1 large piece of yardage using our preferred material.  It's making us get away from the "preciousness" of art materials as well as get our creative vibes moving.

My first sample is buttons connected with a mechanical fastener (waxed bookbinding linen).  This took a surprising amount of time. 

 

 Next I am going to try drilling these clam shells and see if I can connect them with either floral wire or jump rings.  I am thinking a sort of chain mail effect. 

It's fun to experiment!  I am also going to work with wine corks (we own a lot), cardboard boxes and packing tape (lots of this laying around since we are in the middle of packing), and coffee filters.  It's unfortunate I can't spend more time on this since we are in the middle of moving but at least in 3 weeks we will be moved and I can seriously focus on this work.