

I had read in a fibre art book about a woman who said she has many pieces of work on the go at once and only ever works on a piece if she feels like it. To my "finish what you start" mentality, this was very foreign. So in an act of doing something very different for me, I put my "real work" aside and lay the ti kouka and korari in front of me. Add to that, a roll of copper wire (found in the cleanout of Avis's garage - Trevor reckons it was part of his Dad's collection and that would make it over 50 years old), put them together with whatu and you have bodice No 3.
I had no idea of what it was going to look like when I started but as I put the materials together I felt like it was happening without me needing to plan it. Kohai Grace (weaver from Wellington whose work I absolutely love) talks about it not being up to the artist to create the design, but the materials will tell the story. I feel like this is what happened. I love the finished piece - it is a simple, strong statement. A celebration of the female form. And a celebration of our natural resources. And it's a celebration of my creativity. It's one of the few times I have made something and felt absolutely satisfied. Usually I see shortcomings or think something could have been done differently. Sometimes the finished piece doesn't match what was in my mind. This bodice is a gift to myself - of knowing that I don't need to plan everything, that I have it within me to create something beautiful just by letting it happen. And I have learnt a valuable lesson - that sometimes the distractions ARE the real work.
I had no idea of what it was going to look like when I started but as I put the materials together I felt like it was happening without me needing to plan it. Kohai Grace (weaver from Wellington whose work I absolutely love) talks about it not being up to the artist to create the design, but the materials will tell the story. I feel like this is what happened. I love the finished piece - it is a simple, strong statement. A celebration of the female form. And a celebration of our natural resources. And it's a celebration of my creativity. It's one of the few times I have made something and felt absolutely satisfied. Usually I see shortcomings or think something could have been done differently. Sometimes the finished piece doesn't match what was in my mind. This bodice is a gift to myself - of knowing that I don't need to plan everything, that I have it within me to create something beautiful just by letting it happen. And I have learnt a valuable lesson - that sometimes the distractions ARE the real work.