I have been working quite diligently to prepare the pieces for my 50 piece exhibition of the Wave Landscape Patchwork Technique. Of course my students have seen me working on the pieces and they know that I am nearing completion.
2 weeks ago they came to me together and told me that they had decided to each create a piece and would I allow them to participate. Of course my answer was yes, in fact if I had known that they wanted to participate I would have let them make many more pieces.
I told them that they would have to do as I do. Choose fabrics from the scrap pile. Some were happy and some made faces. My philosophy is not new to them. Use what you have on hand and don't waste money.
I explain to them all the time, that an artist can create with anything if they put their minds to it. The art comes from within and we turn straw to gold.
I put the scrap box on the table and told them to choose. My usual rules apply, they choose and can bargain with each other for different colors. All the sewing machines were threaded with white so I told them that they would have to work with that option. A sour face or 2.
I made a cup of coffee and watched them choosing and bargaining.
She wanted a purple look to her piece and this is what she found in the box.
He wanted yellows and asked if he could get the finished piece back so that he could gift it to a girlfriend after the exhibition.
I had forgotten to tell them that they would be getting their pieces back and they could also choose one of mine after the exhibtion.
She chose randomly and said that she would see whether there were other pieces left over when everyone else had finished choosing.
She is a very relaxed student. She never has a specific set of colors that she enjoys working with. Doesn't plan anything ever and comes up with very interesting pieces. she can be holding a conversation and will just put her hand in the pile and pull some pieces out without even looking at them.
He on the other hand, has very specific choices in mind. This time he took all the blue and grey pieces that he could find in the box.
She started out with these, then said tthe mix looked too pink
She added orange and was still not satisfied, so she went back to the box
and took out some pieces of darker pink and said its perfect now.
They were each given a piece of batting and laid their colors out. I don't interfere once they are working. I give them a few guidelines, to decide on the size of the pieces relative to the scraps they found and I give a suggestion to plan the color placement and balance. They could lay the pieces down randomly, some of them do that, but I ask them to think about the end result they want to achieve when laying the pieces down
I am always curious to see what they come up with.
They need a box of colors and some tools and they all create rainbows.