Alternatives for silk as wearable art

  I love being challenged to do something others are not doing.  At least when it comes to silk and shibori, there are out-takes.  In my mind I had a vision of the pattern, the colors, the full picture….but something just did not work out.  So I have a few pieces of silk that are out-takes, things that need to be repurposed.

And a challenge to produce soft silk sculptured wearable pieces for a lovely  spring gallery show at The Log Cabin in Peninsula.   I did make a few for Textile Art Alliance and they were a hit.  So I looked through my out takes….

One such piece was a 3 ft square that I dyed in a blend of oranges, deep golden yellow and hints of a deep chocolate brown. Had the dye flowed as I hoped this would have been vivid…instead it was not so much.  The colors even had a hint of washed out chartreuse.  But it became an orphan piece… Until last night.  

Initially I was trying to sew together a sunflower for a brooch by clipping strips of that piece of silk and tacking it to form petals…. A splash of glass beads, and I realized it was too big for a brooch….. 

And so here is my final product:    So what do you think?