Before the Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) conference last month, participants were asked to bring with them "studio droppings," snippets of fabric, threads, embellishments and other detritus from a recent project. They were to be sealed in a small plastic bag with two copies of your business card. At the conference, they were swapped and redistributed. We were to go home and create a small piece using these materials. My bag came from Mary Stardt, whom I do not know. Inside were embellishments, cottons, rayons and silks. SILK! This was one fabric I had wanted to try working with, but had been afraid to try. This was the perfect opportunity.
"Pauses Between the Notes" (13" x 16") is the result. All the fabrics at the center of this piece (the hot pinks and royal blues) come from Mary. I added additional silks around the center. A quote by Austrian composer and pianist Arthur Schnabel (1882-1951), included in Mary's bag, provides the name of the piece, and the theme I had in mind when I created it:
"The notes I handle no better than many pianists. But the pauses between the notes — ah, that is where the art resides!"
Although I was skeptical about participating in this challenge, I'm glad that I did. Not only did I lose my fear of working with silk, I also discovered that working with materials I do not preselect and carefully choose can boost my creativity and push me into a more improvisational zone. I can't wait to see what someone else did with my bag of scraps!
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