52 Weeks of Play: Weeks 1-4

Week 1: Water Soluable Fabric

I have always been curious about water soluable fabric after seeing the work of Amanda McCavour. Amanda creates environments with her thread painted installations that are breathtaking and all encompassing. See her work here.  I have tried the technique in the past with no success but I decided to give it another try! By experimenting, I learned some tricks and was happy with the results! I think I will come back to this again in the future!

Week 2: Freestyle Embroidery

Since I was working on a piece for a collaboration project that had a deadline, I decided to incorporate my "play" into my piece. I used embroidery to free draw flowers into the piece. The flowers were not pre-drawn so  I just trusted my stitches.

Week 3: Abstract Painting

I am definitely not a painter but I love working with painted backgrounds.  I have been playing with abstract painting to create some interesting bases for collage and stitch. Some have turned out better than others, these are a few of my favorites so far...

Week 4: Gel Plate Image Transfers

I love playing with Gelli Plates to make monoprints but I had recently seen artists using their plate to create image transfers! I decided to try it out for myself. While I had some success with it, I think it will take more experimenting. There are a lot of factors which can affect the outcome such as the best image to use, the amount of paint on your plate, rubbing pressure and the surface you are transferring to. Since I like to work with fabric, I was trying various fabrics and all of the artists I had seen use this technique were working with paper.

It has been a fun first few weeks but I need to remind myself that the goal is play. The goal is not finished results. Since my last year long challenge was all about creating a finished piece each week, I need to remember that the focus this year is process. To try new things, to explore things more fully. My true reward from this year is hopefully adding new skills to my arsenal to pull from when a piece I am working on needs it.