And cleaning? I only do that about once every 10-14 days. Because I'm a minimalist, organized, and clear up clutter regularly, most people are fooled into believing that I'm much cleaner than I am. I'm not dirty but I'm certainly no Ms. Clean. I have a tolerance level and when that's reached - or company is coming - I dust, vacuum, and clean the bathrooms. Several times a year I give every box, basket, cupboard, and container the once over and good and enough. I'd much rather be in the studio - LOL - like yesterday.
In January, I started on three purses. For the details of the one above, you might want to check the archives. It started with a napkin that my son brought back from Guatemala that was dyed, painted, cut up, fused to a background fabric, stitched in place, overlayed with organza, stitched again, and so on. The flap is made from the napkin fringes. The purse was finished in January before the whole buying and selling, possible cancer and surgery debates began. The other two sat until yesterday.
The starting point for the lime purse was a textile art piece that didn't quite portray the look I was going for at that time so it sat in the Bits & Pieces of Potential box for a few years until February when it was "pursed".
The front has one luscious fuchsia button and a lot of hand stitched glass beads. Using black pearl cotton to stitch them in place gave the brighter color more depth while a black netting overlay toned down the lime of the front flap. The binding is my favourite lime dotted black batik. I'm running out of it... again... unfortunately.
The back is black dupioni with fused and thread stitched squares of the batik and square beads of a different green stitched in-between. The lime line is the flap attached at the back and pleated to fold to the front. Below is a detail of the background thread work and beading.
There's one more purse waiting to be finished. It's unusual for me to have three unfinished projects in the studio. I typically work on a project from start to completion before moving on and if I do take a break, my normal process is to finish the second project and then go back and finish the first one before starting a third piece. Through personal experience - and through teaching - I've found that most projects are abandoned when we don't know what to do, we don't know how to do what we want to do, or the step we are on is boring. Pushing through will advance your creativity and that's normally what I do only - sometimes - life gets in the way.
In the case of the lime purse, the edges were all finished and the lining was sewn together ready to be inserted and stitched around the top. It refused to co-operate. After I'd tried this and that and the other thing, finishing required going back seven steps and doing some annoying little stepping back repairs before moving forward again. Things still stuttered. When that happens we need to do something - anything - just to get moving again. I turned the lining around which gave me another problem to deal with and that moved me forward.
Turning the curve to the back meant that there wasn't enough lining to cover the inside. On the front, there was too much. The bit that was cut off was inserted in the back and top stitched in place. Why that worked when the right way around wouldn't, I have no idea but it did, and it moved the project along to adding the binding, attaching the strap, and completing the project. Works for me.
Details of the Guatemala purse are in January or February's postings along with details of the Lime purse. All this one needed was the frame glued in place and a "chain" of some kind. I couldn't find a glue that worked and had already wrecked the top of the bag once and had to cut it down and re-stitch it. While at Michael's a few weeks ago, there was a product called Gorilla Glue in the discount basket by the front door. You wet the surface to be glued, spread a thin layer, attach the pieces, clamp and let set for an hour during which time the glue will expand 2-3 times in size. That meant I should be able to put a really thin layer along the top, insert the bag in the frame without oozing, clamp them together, and the glue would expand to fill in the grove. I tried it. It worked. Moving on.
The "chain" was more difficult. Not making it - attaching it to the small holes on the frame. In the end, I zigzag stitched over cording with three colors of rayon thread and then folded and stitched the cording to a lobster clasp with jean thread ending by wrapping the thread around the join to cover the edges. It's not rocket science but it works. Done.
One of the things that Diane talked about in the workshop was making pieces - such as a series of collars or fronts - as opposed to completing projects. Knowing that I'm a start to finish kind of person, I've been giving that concept a lot of thought - to incorporate that type of thinking in a way that will work for me without a "what's the point" thought flashing through my head as it's prone to do.
Mentioning the Bits & Pieces of Potential box lets you know that I do have art pieces that never made it to completion and are waiting to become something else. That's a similar concept. From that experience, I know that the benefit of focusing on one topic - like collars - for a period of time is that the study gets you to a point outside the box and beyond the obvious which is always a great place to be. I've done similar work in textile art by creating 5" x 7" and 8" x 10" pieces as opposed to wall size ones only they were small finished pieces as opposed to finished parts.
You may have noticed that Millicent is wearing the unfinished skirt from the workshop. I know that my work is about to go in a completely different direction. I can feel it. I also know that if I don't finish the purses before going there, it is entirely possible that they would never be finished or that my artist will have developed in such a different way that completing them from their near finished state would become increasingly difficult. That's not how I work plus completing them is giving me time to process and that's okay. There is one more to finish and then I'm ready to explore new frontiers - which is good - since I'm not home alone until Saturday. I'm cruising until then.
Thinking about making parts, I've decided that the approach that could work for me is to combine making parts with finished projects. I'm used to auditioning ideas in textile art pieces. I can become used to auditioning ideas in wearable art pieces. For instance, if I'm sewing a blouse instead of using the collar that comes with the pattern, I'll explore different collar possibilities and if the first collar or the second collar or the third collar idea doesn't work, they can go into the Bits & Pieces of Potential box and be incorporated into or become the starting point of a future garment. It's a less intense beginning and perhaps "safe" but it mixes the parts and finished projects concept in a way that I think will work while still pushing my creativity in new directions and if it doesn't, I'll change again.
In Robert Genn's art newsletter this morning was a quote from Clayton Christensen's book The Innovator's Dilemma about disruptive innovation. He wrote: Breaking an old model is always going to require leaders to follow their instincts. There will always be persuasive reasons not to take a risk. But if you only do what worked in the past, you will wake up one day and find that you've been passed by.
The purses? They're for sale at $275 Canadian each including regular postage in North America or negotiated postage to other areas. Selling my pieces is a new concept for the blog. Offers will be intermittent and low key so don't worry that me becoming a high pressure salesman although I would appreciate your thoughts on this change. When I'm working regularly in the studio, I create far more than I can keep and need different outlets for moving the work along. This is one way but I would hate for it to become offensive. If you're interested in a purse, please substitute the appropriate @ and . signs and email me at myrna at myrnagiesbrecht dot com. Thanks.
Talk soon - Myrna
Grateful - the excitement of exploring new options
Your purses have turned out beautiful. Each is a piece of art; beautiful art.
ReplyDeleteLove your bags Myrna! Oh and your "organizing and cleaning methods" etc. sound so much like me that in fact you could be talking about me instead -- how scary! ha ha (I read it to Dave and he definitely confirmed that) lol!
ReplyDeleteYour bags are so creative and beautiful! It's nice you have them to work on before setting out in a new direction.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing Diane's idea of making pieces. That's a good way of working outside the box, for sure. Great for stretching creative muscles. I tend to work on only one garment at a time, but this could be a fun diversion for my innovative brain.