Thursday, November 4, 2010

Fragments/Fragmente

What is our life if not a bundle of fragments - material ones, like our scraps and collections of things; non-material, like our memories, visions and longings ...

Still, fragments do not only give testimony of earlier greatness - they can also indicate the idea of what could become splendid and meaningful if pursued and attented to.

After my divorce about six weeks ago I haven't had much power to do other creative work than a bit of knitting - but now I feel it's time to get back to 'textile investigations', as I think Sara would put it.

Do you remember the 'whatiffing-project' quite some time ago?

I enjoyed that sort of experimenting with fibers and techniques a lot and would like to continue it, just changing the size and not necessarily connecting it with the embellisher, but to keep it open for all sorts of - mostly textile, of course - try-outs that strike me: fragments.



If you'd like to join in, please feel free to do so - in a similar or in a different way, whatever suits you best - it would be just marvellous to have a bit of exchange of ideas and mutual inspiration!

My concept would be to keep the material involved quite simple: using scraps and stash material, recycling paper and cardboard for the mounting, experimenting freely with whatever comes my way - and to present it at least once a week.

I chose the format of approximately 9x13 cm (3,5x5") for the fabric, or background, as I thought it to be neither too big nor too small for a sample and allowing you to mount it on a plain A6 standard card if you like (or later on even using it as an AMC or greeting card).

I found some linen and canvas scraps, and as they were far too white, I dyed them with some teabags, a used coffee filter and a couple of walnut hulls from the garden. After rinsing and drying the fabrics, I was most satisfied with their worn and 'ancient' look :-).



This first card is a leaf, not printed, but lightly embellished (dry felted) with wool roving onto the linen scrap, then finished-up with a couple of small stitches with a thin metal thread. The backing is made out of recycled cardboard (cereal boxes have the right paper weight!).

(German summary: Nach längerer Pause habe ich mich entschlossen, ein etwas abgeändertes 'Whatiffing-Projekt' zu beginnen - Fragmente, eben - kleine textile Experimente aus einfachen und schon vorhandenen Materialien, Stoffgröße ca 9x13, mit Motiven und Techniken, die mich gerade interessieren - vielleicht möchte jemand mitmachen?)

4 comments:

Julie said...

Good to see that your creativity is coming back Annelis :) sorry but I have too much on at the moment to join in but I will be following your progress :) Have fun!

Anneli/Bockfilz said...

Thank you, dear Julie - and good to have you back commenting too :-)!

Sara lechner said...

super, daß du wieder da bist. die idee ist ganz nett und ich werde versuchen, mitzumachen...hoffentlich stehe ich mir nicht im wege! ich bin momentan aufs naßfilzen gekommen (hast DU meinen blog heute gesehen?)und probiere herum. ich habe sogar wolle von wollknoll heute bestellt! kannst du mich nicht von alicante mit dem auto abholen, wenn ich zurückfahre? wäre was für dich, oder?
das blatt ist ganz interessant, weil ich mich gefragt habe, welche technik das ist. ohne erklärung ist es nicht zu wissen, was ganz toll ist! und die feine fäden machen es noch feiner!

Anneli/Bockfilz said...

Danke, Sara, ich freu' mich, daß Du nicht gleich erkannt hast, welche Technik das ist - hast schon lange keinen Embellisher mehr gesehen, gell ;-)!
Und ich freu' mich auch sehr, daß Du mitmachst - super!

Bezüglich Alicante: Ich kann Dich mit dem Fahrrad abholen, und wir radeln zurück!