Monday 30 April 2012

Stop procrastinating and start doing!

The time has come when one must take the bull by the horns and take the next step of one's chosen path. The biggest incentive is the prize money of £1,000 - it should be encouraging me to take leaps! Failing that, there's the second prize of £500 and the third prize of £250.

The thing with creating a new design is the inspiration and the nurturing which goes alongside with it; it's no use relaxing in your bed (with your eyes open because if you close them it would be classed as sleeping!) thinking about what you are going to create. You need to actively get out there and do it. You need to look at new ideas, exhibitions, books and visit libraries and places of interest. Once you see a few new ideas, you will be inspired and constantly have a 100watt lightbulb going off in your head at the strangest times and in the strangest of places.

I recently saw an inspiring piece of textile in an exhibition. It was simple, yet effective. It made one stop, look and spend time considering its representation; that is what I want for my finished quilt. The artist had used one picture and repeated it in different media - no image was the same and it produced an overall challenging image. This really made me think about the techniques which I wanted to experiment with on my quilt: log cabin, Roman stripes, drunkard's path... I know you are probably wondering what I'm talking about but I am going to educate you in my journey about some patchwork and quilting terminology. What I have just referred to are a few names of popular patchwork blocks.

Stimuli is good for the brain. Always start with a foundation idea and build on it. When I sent the form off, I already had a vision of how I wanted the finished product to look: colourful, interesting and thought-provoking (albeit that my vision was a bit murky!). What I didn't visualize were the finer details: how the design was going to evolve and repeat, colour scheme, fabric choice and technique. All I knew was by the 25th May my catergory had to be defined, and by the 27th July the product finished. This week, I am going to my local library to immerse myself with books and periodicals in the subject and not leave the building until I have chosen at least 4 blocks, be it flying geese and grandmother's flower garden! By the end of next week, my fuzzy, psychedelic dream will have structure in the form of a plan on paper. Only when I have completed this step will I be able to move towards the pinnacle of my venture.

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