Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Inspiration: Sewing Trash

Check out this recent post over at iHanna's Creative Space. She's making her Daily Art Cards from her mother's sewing scraps. Fabric trash, she calls it. I love what she's doing with it!

There's something about digging through a bunch of small pieces of fabric that really focuses the brain on the many textures and colors and motifs. When you see a large piece of yardage, you tend to see all the whole, but in the small little bits and shards (as Scarlett and I call those itty bitty bits of fabric) you see the little parts. I think creatively sometimes I focus too much on the big picture and forget to get lost in the wonder of the parts. I need to work on this.

And there's something about changing the scale that makes the ugly into the divine, and vice versa. Sometimes the most hideous design is made up of the most beautiful parts. This is something else maybe I should start integrating into my creative perspective.

6 comments:

Janna said...

One of our cousins in Fayetteville gave me a large bag stuffed with fabric scraps. I dumped it on the floor last week. Last night I was picking it all up. There were lots of "shreds"...too small to sew anything with, except maybe a Barbie mitten. Some of them were so pretty with little bits of metallic thread weaving a pattern. I decided to save every last one of them, thinking maybe I'd cut them in uniform squares and use them on a scrapbook layout or something. I love your reasoning about how ugly parts can make a beautiful whole and vice versa. I agree. Sometimes we need to focus on the trees and not the whole forest, or maybe even focus just on one leaf here and there.

Denise Felton said...

Oh, I love what iHanna is doing! I'm so glad you found it. Except...now I won't be able to throw away even the tiny "shards." What if my house falls under the weight of my hoarding?

Hobocamp Crafts said...

this is so true. I remember reading a paasage in one of the many SARK books and she said to- paint something or draw etc. then rip it into little pieces and make something else... I have a huge bag of scraps I love going to for inspiration.

idyll hands said...

It was so great meeting you last night!

BTW - I tagged you... so you're it :)

Oh Mandie said...

oooh I have fabric scraps everywhere, what a great idea on how to use them! Thanks for sharing your inspiration!

btw, stop by my blog, I sorta included you in my last post!

Junque Rethunque said...

Cool! I had already decided I need to do this, but haven't started yet. Never a unique idea in the world. :)