First, an issue that attacks all of us from time to time is a surplus of stuff...we don't just have fabric, we have yards and metres and piles of it, we don't have just a couple kinds of paints, we have textile, transparent, opaque, watercolour, silk, airbrush, a multitude of colours and varieties. We have an overabundance of threads, needles, books, mark making tools and much much more! And in our culture we often tend to run after the latest and greatest...we see something new at a workshop and instantly it becomes the "must have" item that we order online that very night!
Does all this help us to make more and better art?
Years ago I lived in England and would listen to BBC radio and a programme titled "Desert Island Disks", the premise was (and its still running, by the way: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qnmr ) that the guest would choose a number of discs (records) to take with them to a desert island. So this idea of "Desert Island Designs" has come about with ONLY a shoebox of supplies to take to our "virtual" desert island for a month.
Secondly, this ties in with my idea that that we often make excuses to not make art because we don't have a certain "essential" item, a particularly thread, a "perfect" fabric....and so on! So smack me on the head....just get on and make the art! No excuses, no what ifs, just get down and DO IT! With what I have NOW, not what I wish I had!
For the month of March, I'll be working out of what I manage to cram into my shoe box (ok similar to a shoe box....) to make ART. Not just samples, but art that I finish, ready to mount and hang!
Why not join in? If you can't manage a month, try it for a week, or work on it every Thursday, or whatever! We have a Facebook Group to join in as well!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/392488947773739/
PS. You don't have to be a textile person...why not an acrylic artist or a watercolourist?
So here's my box that's packed and ready to go.....
2 metres of PFD fabric and a few pieces of linen thats been hanging around in my bins for years...it was expensive linen when I bought it years ago....it's time to use it!
A small sketchook and some Khadi paper, I'm thinking I'll do mark making on the paper, ear it up and combine it with some of the other fabrics and add stitching.
I've put in a small bottle of India Ink and brushes, both for fabric and paper.
A Thermofax screen is essential - one designs used in many ways!
A Gelli plate, brayer and black Neopaque paint - a million options with these tools....
Lino cutting tools and my last, precious block of Mastercarve. I think it's the best product ever made, hands down, too bad it's discontinued! It's time to use the good stuff!
A selection of threads for hand stitching, instead of feeling that I have to bring every last thread to my Desert Island, the key is to limit the palette, look for variety in value and texture.
A Colour wheel, always an essential item! Some Inka Gold for highlights, a washout marker, needles and pins and a shaper tool for more marking.
A selection of little bits of fabrics, some fusible web and Misty Fuse.
Some fabrics I've marked and painted, mostly 10" or smaller, for cutting and stitching.
There's also some scissors in the pile somewhere!
Other artists have chosen to add wool felt, cotton fabric, indigo dyed fabrics, pencil crayons, grid paper, inktense blocks, procion dyes, soda ash, stamps, thread, needles, paint palette, fibres,beads, dippity do, cup, ruler, Angelina, water baste resist, pencils, basting glue,sponge, paint palette and a dusk mask....what would you bring?
