Within days of being told of the commission Ill be working on, I was invited to visit SAMS – The scrap arts materials store in Blackburn.
I hadn’t even had the chance to get my head around what I was going to do, before this came up. It made me slightly nervous to just jump in like this – to gather materials , not knowing what I wanted or how much I’d need. I was so used to having my ‘thinking time’ and it was hard to adjust.
I’d already gotten rid of my car and studio when I left work as I found them unnecessary expenses. I now realise that transport and storage are going to be challenging, but I’ll play it by ear until it does become a problem. Last thing I want is to be paying out for things.
So I got a cheap train up to Blackburn and was met at the station, by Harriet – the event coordinator.
The store room was pretty amazing – full of , well, scrap arty things as the name suggests.
The idea was to fill a shopping trolley and pay £25 ( which Harriet would pay) I didn’t know what to choose, so I had to work out the basics of the installation as I walked round, trying to find things that would be useful.
As I’m used to working with paper, I initially picked up a wallpaper sample book with amazing colours and designs in, plus some rolls of coloured paper and some calendars . Then I got bolder, choosing metres and metres of material – net, lace and ribbons. No ideas were forming with those, but again, I’ll see what can be done. The trolley was full in no time.
Harriet loaded up her car and said she would store everything until I found space.
The train back had my head pounding – what to do with the stuff, where to store it…and how on earth I’d get it back to mine.
Anyway… one day at a time as they say.
