I think I might have entered a more settled phase of making. I am keen to wrap as many twigs as I can with the suitable fabric I have to hand… I really don’t want to buy, although I think I may have to take a trip to the charity shops if I want to keep the majority of them cream or white… which I do… I try very hard to not buy new fabric. There’s plenty out in the world and plenty getting sent to landfill without me adding to it. Occasionally though, I can’t find something that functions the way I want it to, in the quantity I need, so I relent. But I don’t like it. Hence the impending charity shop haul.
The last few days in the studio I have sat with a tray of twigs to the left, a basket of fabric strips to the front, and a box of completed, wrapped twigs to my right. I then spend the day being the conveyor belt, select twig from left, wrap, add to the box to the right. Each evening I go home satisfied that I have added to my selection.
Now I have lots of twigs, several hundred I think, possibly not into the four figures quite yet, I have enough to start playing with them.
I have plain cream silk (wedding dress remnants) some muslin (old curtain and baby cloths) some scrim (hospital loose-weave swabs) some cotton lawn (Liberty and otherwise, old clothes, reclaimed) linen, blue and green (old table linens) and plain white frayed cotton (old pillow cases)
I have to say, aesthetically, the silk are the best, they are a creamy ivory colour, they hug the contours of the twigs beautifully and together they look like old bleached bones. But each “family” have their own character… the pinkish lawn ones look like sweeties, rock sucked until the colour fades and shape distorts… the muslin looks like bandages… so of course now I have loads I can play with how to display them to convey different narratives, and make some decisions.
I have in my head a sound piece to go with this, but I need to think and play a bit more before I start on that in earnest. I am not quite sure what I want it to say yet.
But these twigs, these children, have personality, they have a life beyond what I am doing with them, I feel it in my bones.
