I have been way too busy the last few days to do anything fiber-ish. Between straightening out last-minute snafus with loan documents for our house, and going to a full-day class on project management while staying on top of things at work, it’s been a busy time. Today is going to be just as busy, but I managed to carve out one precious hour to play with fiber stuff – if I don’t get to create for more than a few days I start getting really cranky, so I make time for it even if I’m totally behind on everything else.
So here is the result of one precious hour: a new skirt prototype.
This is constructed from squares of china silk, folded over at the corner and then gathered and hung on the bias, with bias-cut strips of silk organza and china silk dangling down in random places.
While this is undeniably rough, I like the idea and will be developing it further. I also plan to develop another version of the “thin strips” approach you saw in prototype #1, but I like this one for a couple of reasons. First, it uses bigger pieces of fabric. This will allow people to see the pattern I am weaving into the cloth – with thin strips there isn’t much reason to weave pattern into the cloth because you don’t see enough fabric in any one piece. Second, it offers more variety in the shape of the rags, which I think adds visual interest.
Here are two also-rans:
In this one, large yellow squares are put on, then smaller squares of varying colors are attached in random spots. I didn’t like it for two reasons. First, it doesn’t make visual sense, since the squares are put on at random so there is no sense to the colors. Second, it’s bulky at the top, since there are more layers of fabric there.
Then I tried putting on layers of random-sized squares, arranged in color order:
Didn’t like this either. While it’s not too bulky, it’s way too orderly, and not enough variety. Boring.
So I added some bias-cut strips of organza and china silk, in random colors, to arrive at the final prototype, which I’ll repeat here:
I like this. There is an underlying color progression (predominantly red at bottom to predominantly yellow at top), which saves the piece from total chaos, but the bias-cut ribbons break it up a bit and add variety, and also unite the layers of the skirt by providing the eye a vertical route from top to bottom. The organza also adds some textural variety.
I found it interesting how much visual impact those few bias-cut strips made! There’s a huge visual difference between second and final versions, and it’s all because of a few ribbons. Fascinating.
Okay, my hour’s up. Back to work!
