The Accumulation of Stories to Tell

Blogging is harder than I thought it would be.  (Wow, that sounds like such a cop out!)  But really:  I had forgotten how simply difficult it is to sit and write.  Especially about art (or fibers).  I care so much about presenting art and myself well that I am nervous whenever I sit down to post a new entry.  I'm also utterly surprised by how much I come across in my own to life that I find worthy of posting!  I had sort of been under the impression that I haven't been doing enough art since school; but even since my last blog I have accumulated so many activities to share that I'm daunted of posting.  (I have a feeling that my entries are going to be fairly long... sorry!)

With that vague reflection... STUFF THIS WEEK!

At the end of last week I officially finished my last Christmas present!  (Right on time, too...)  This year, I knew I had to man up.  The past couple of years  have begged off gift giving because of my rigorous school schedule.  (Finals AND presents?  Yeah right!  I had a hard enough time with finals and SLEEP!)  But with no academic projects in my way I really had no excuse.  So I made everyone a canvas tote bag out of recyled MICA dropcloths!  

I had started noticing the fabulousness of the dropcloths before I graduated in the spring.  And in some deep recess of my brain, I think I was trying to figure out how to get my hands on a couple throughout the whole year.  I ended up forgetting entirely, but on my very last visit to the Fibers Dept, I fortuitously ran into a friend who had had the same thought.  She had collected a pile of 6 or 7 dropcloths that were going to be thrown away anyway, and she was nice enough to let me have 2!  I lugged them the 10 blocks home, and up the 4 flights of un-air-conditioned stairs and immediately unfurled them.  They were amazing!!  The department only chooses to discard the most used and abused dropcloths, which only meant that they were even more covered with colored dye, splashes, and prints!  The images had no rhyme or reason.  Person after person had simply ignored the canvas as it was stretched underneath their blank fabric:  they printed on it without any thought or planning.  The range of images, even just on the two that I had, was wide and fabulous!

Notice on this sample the bodge-podge mix of images!  Anchor, life saver, squirrell... I loved using this canvas.  It was so nostalgic to see the ghostly remnants of images that I knew only from other students finished projects.  There were even some that I knew intimately:  they belonged to my friends or even myself.

Most of them were simple totes, but Adam wanted something that he could buckle around his body while riding his bike, so I impromptu-ly added an adjustable belt strap and reflector buckle!  As shown here.  (Although, he's kind of wearing it backwards.  He'll get it eventually.)

Ok, I actually have to go to work... but I have more stories to tell about this week!  So keep looking, the best is yet to come!  Happy Thursday!