Seeing a variety of exhibits, websites, and catalogues can be a source of inspiration for both large works and smaller explorations. After stitching regularly for many years, I am drawn to anything made of thread or cloth the way a dog perks up seeing a squirrel. Each quilt I make has its offcuts, scraps, and seemingly unusable leftovers that I have a) saved in color-coded bags b) become impatient with and discarded c) made into textile balls. The balls take up less room than the bags, and when I look at them they energize me. They also become a kind of memory jog for the quilts, sort of. Of course, then I can't make cards out of the scraps, but then, of course, I don't always create a ball for every quilt or color.
Inspiration for the balls comes from a few sources. One is my continued awe at the work of Christina Kim, whose work was in the exhibition "Scraps" I saw at Cooper-Hewitt Museum in 2017; my blog post is here. Briefly, as a clothing designer, she saves the scraps, then makes the next line with the scraps, and on until the tiniest scraps are made into amulets. The second inspiration I wrote about when I made my "wabi sabi egg" in 2018 here and turned into "enchanted egg pin cushions." I had seen an article with images of "objects of comfort," scrap-wrapped objects by Victoria Gertenbach (this is a link to her website: really exciting work as a whole). And a third was inspired by Japanese temari, thread balls that I first noticed as kits at the kimonomomo store, and thought about more when I saw an exhibition which featured art balls made by Lucy Arai, about which I posted March 2024. A history of temari as a toy is here; it is also traditionally made from scraps. So, my interest has been continuing, and I have been mentally collecting examples without knowing to where they would lead.
And really, I was just moody and restless one day and took a spool of thread (I have a lot of thread) and one of the scrap bags and began to make a ball. It felt good crushing and winding, adding and deciding.
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