In my recent post (https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2023/03/22/lichen-textiles-my-goal-part-1-experimenting/) I made the statement….
‘Having admitted that I can’t do ‘loose’, I was born unquestionably inquisitive so my forté is experimenting. This seems to get around my inner critic & certainly fuels my more serious endeavours.’
In hindsight I should be more forthcoming and admit that I have an almost insatiable curiosity of the world around me – anyone who knows me will be nodding emphatically – as my curious child within has never stopped….’Why?’, ‘How?’, What happens if….?’, ‘Can I just ask?’ etc, etc.
The result – I’ve learned (sadly, age, now means I’m forgetting much of it!) and witnessed a lot, even wandering off in foreign lands (to the consternation of others, but fortunately to no harm!) and experiment endlessly….often tweaking the ‘rules’….🤪 no surprise!
So here I’ll show more of my lichen, Mottainai experimenting….
As I’ve said many times, I’m often to be found pondering….Mmmm, what happens if? Then of course I go down yet another rabbit hole….Is this a sign of a creative mind? – but I digress!….Playing with plastic milk bottles has been a typical example of not only disappearing into the rabbit hole (the point I was at in my last post!)….
….but of getting waylaid exploring it’s warren!
When I’m out and about I’m always stopping to take photos.
An aside – Six months ago I joined the ‘modern’ folk and got a replacement to my 12-year-old mobile phone (the salesman was almost hysterical with laughter as was I 🤣). It has been an exponential upward curve of learning (and still is)….BUT, having done my homework, it has given me a brilliant camera….yay…no more lugging a separate camera around!
Of the many genre of photos I take, Mother Nature always takes the biscuit! I see something, my mind races and then I’m off down another rabbit hole!
Many of my experiments are something I can do whilst TV chillin! The crochet rings above, whilst time consuming are effective & relatively easy. However not all experiments work well – crocheting over the commercial lace, another ‘what if?’, became a….’NEVER again’
Having now shown several of my experiments I can hear you shouting – ‘How are you going to use them?’
So in answer to that question, and before I send everyone to sleep, I’ll present one example of how I’ve pieced together a few of the 100s of elements to create a lichen inspired textile piece.
Creating this piece I re-purposed as much as I could including –
- a surplus to requirements, circular piece of felt – I love circles.
- some crocheted waste yarn that was left over after buying a commercial jumper from a charity shop for the sequin yarn that was fashionable a few years ago….it took me so long to unpick the jumper and separate the plain and sequined yarns! Next time I might just buy the expensive sequin yarn new!
- Manipulated plastic food bags and crisp packets – all cleaned of course!
- Viscose staple fibres from a community store (selling ‘waste’ products from industry)
- Oh yes, even some felted dog hair!
All combined with machine stitching, hand embroidery (incl – colonial knot, my favourite knot, bullion & sorbello stitch) and some beading.
And finally….framed (I’m delighted to say I won a 2nd prize for textile work in an area competion), using an Ikea Sannahed 35x35cm frame.
A post script to make you smile – when you are on your own, with have no extra hands to help unwind a hank of yarn….
