Perception

I doodled this idea 10 years ago and let it sit until it was no longer deeply personal but something that I was experiencing on a regular basis. Perceptions spin out of control. I was spiraling, and still can. We all can. Spiraling emotion and experiences are chaotic and fragile for me. The weaving alone was too clean, so I eventually decided to add sequins. I found these helped visualize what I was feeling, and were both chaotic and fragile to work with. This piece reminds me of where I was, but also that things get better with time and when I gently move through the chaos instead of sidestep or avoid it.  

I took this piece off of my loom last spring and it took me bout a year to decide and finish because:

1) what else needed to be done with it (adding sequins)
2) what sequins to order, it took me a while to narrow it down to not spending $300 on sequins, this has 5 different style.
3) should I or shouldn't I wash the weaving first?
4) How to sew the dang sequins on and in what way.
5) Finish/hanging work

I have to thank my friend Abigail for asking me if I could create hair pins for her wedding a few years ago. They were to match the beading on her dress which was very dimensional. I had never worked with sequins before or considered that they could do much more than lay flat. I had a lot of fun with that project and it added a new technique to my toolbox. Check out those hair pins here. When I wanted my weaving to feel messier, I eventually realized that sequins were the way to go. 

I did wash this piece. The black portion is woven in twill and the colored is woven in plain weave. Washing helped the twill weave fill in a bit for sewing the sequins on. We won't talk about the amount of width I lost when I washed this though. 

Sewing the dang sequins on. I thought I'd sprinkle the sequins and stitch them on in little sections as I sprinkled. Sequins don't "sprinkle." They are staticky and stick to everything but where you want them to be. Mostly your fingers. This was a process, I kind of shoved them together in sections trying to vary the different sizes, finishes and shapes. I really love how the sequins turned out, but this was not as fun as beading is for me. 

The finish work. I give a seminar talk on thinking ahead of time about how you'll hang/present your work and I did none of that prep work for myself on this piece! I was kicking myself when I got to this part and hadn't looked at the header or bottom in almost a year. What was I thinking? I was so focused on having clean selvages for this weaving that I got caught up in that instead. I was going to add a hanging mechanism for the top and bottom but decided it was fine if there's only one way to hang this. I just like to have options. I'm happy that Perception turned out about like what I had in my head. I'm also glad it's done and I can move on to finishing some smaller projects before getting back to my next weaving.