Stitch Club: wire and wax leaf

Series: Stitch Club no.8

Stitch Club from TextileArtist.org
Workshop: Sculptural textile art
Host: Priscilla Edwards website – Instagram
Aim: Explore imaginative ways of working with wire, lightweight fabrics and wax to make a sculptural piece.

Sometimes I feel bad about the amount of stuff in my stash (usually when I’m trying to find space for something else that “might come in useful”), but I refuse to feel guilty about any of it, even the stuff that hasn’t been used at all, because I know it all has the potential to be the one thing I need for a new project.

This workshop demonstrates that perfectly. Not only did I already have some encaustic wax beads and a cheap wax melter (I think I had got as far as testing it but didn’t actually use it on a project), but I also had a selection of florist wire that I bought years ago (checks Amazon order history, yep, January 2017) that has never been touched.

Then there is my small button stash, somewhat larger bead stash, the coloured jewellery wire, and fabric scraps. All of which have seen some use over the years but could hardly be called regular supplies.

All of these things, along with embroidery threads and gilding flakes (both most definitely in regular use), came together to create a four inch long oak leaf. Everything I needed was already in my stash.

So rather than feel guilty about the unused accumulation of random art and craft supplies, I say thank you to past-me who was curious enough to pick up something she had no immediate use for.

And that is why my least favourite blog post — which turns up regularly — is the crafty clear-out one. The one that advises people to go through all of their supplies and get rid of anything they haven’t used in the last year. This advice is often targeted at card-makers. Now, I don’t make that many cards these days (apart from Christmas) and I do have a lot of stamp sets, many of which haven’t been used at all, never mind in the last year, but I would still find it hard to go through and pick any that I could definitively say I will never use.

Could I do with the extra space that I would gain by getting rid of even half of the stuff that hasn’t been used in the last year? Absolutely. But I would lose so much more flexibility and potential for creativity by doing that.

So I would change that advice. Keep the first part and ditch the second. Yes, do go and look through all your supplies; just the act of going through them reminds you of what you have and can spark ideas. By all means get rid of the things that are broken or dried up or no longer useful, but, as long as you can find a corner for the rest, keep it for future-you.