Something New: Dumpster Diving
Technical difficulties have prevented me from blogging, emailing, etc, but here I am! Let me show you what I have from last week:
I definately tried something new. As I walked my dog one morning, I came across a pile of rubbish at the curb, waiting to be taken away. In the midst of it I saw some carpet padding that had the most wonderful collection of colors within it. I've never really looked at carpet padding before, but in the early morning light and perhaps, because I was a bit sleep deprived, the padding looked very interesting -- so I pulled off a piece to take home. Dumpster diving (in its suburban form) is a new thing for me, but I was proud I was trying to make art by recycling trash.
This padding really is a mishmash of colors; does anyone know why that is? Anyway, I thought it would be fun to use it as the background for some multi-colored circles. (Clearly I haven't gotten circles out of my system.) I had a plan but as it turned out, it simply wasn't going to be. I discovered that the padding was way too thick to fit under my presser foot. I obviously hadn't thought of that. So I took the foot off, but the needle couldn't go up and down completely. That, as they say, was that.
In the end, I still used a collection of circles as the design. I ran a simple running stitch around the edges to secure the pieces. I couldn't accomplish more than this because again, I hadn't realized how thick and stiff the padding is. It's tough to stitch through!
Was it worth it to create such a simple piece with unconventional materials? Well, this certainly counts -- for me -- as taking a risk and trying something new. Is it a successful piece? I think it's better than my previous week's piece with the silver "6" and I do like the colors. Will I do it again? No way! My fingers are still sore from stitching this! The remainder of the padding is back where it started: in the trash.
I definately tried something new. As I walked my dog one morning, I came across a pile of rubbish at the curb, waiting to be taken away. In the midst of it I saw some carpet padding that had the most wonderful collection of colors within it. I've never really looked at carpet padding before, but in the early morning light and perhaps, because I was a bit sleep deprived, the padding looked very interesting -- so I pulled off a piece to take home. Dumpster diving (in its suburban form) is a new thing for me, but I was proud I was trying to make art by recycling trash.
This padding really is a mishmash of colors; does anyone know why that is? Anyway, I thought it would be fun to use it as the background for some multi-colored circles. (Clearly I haven't gotten circles out of my system.) I had a plan but as it turned out, it simply wasn't going to be. I discovered that the padding was way too thick to fit under my presser foot. I obviously hadn't thought of that. So I took the foot off, but the needle couldn't go up and down completely. That, as they say, was that.
In the end, I still used a collection of circles as the design. I ran a simple running stitch around the edges to secure the pieces. I couldn't accomplish more than this because again, I hadn't realized how thick and stiff the padding is. It's tough to stitch through!
Was it worth it to create such a simple piece with unconventional materials? Well, this certainly counts -- for me -- as taking a risk and trying something new. Is it a successful piece? I think it's better than my previous week's piece with the silver "6" and I do like the colors. Will I do it again? No way! My fingers are still sore from stitching this! The remainder of the padding is back where it started: in the trash.
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