Decades ago as the ‘creative embroiderer’ I then was, I used stuffed suffolk puffs several times in my art – and one of the earliest workshops in StitchClub 2020 was Clarissa Calleson’s wonderful one on 3D forms, reminding me of the potential of stuffed round and other shapes –

I’m moving right along with the Textile+Glass project now entry deadline February 1st next. Though only 20cm sq., I feel it needs to compensate for the small size with a lot of surface interest meaning some serious texture, and decided stuffed forms would provide that – which takes care of the fabric part of the call. (For the 1st salon entry, I combined glass beads and fibreglass fabric. but I’m not using fibreglass this time, maybe next.)

With the piece for the Second Salon glass+textile art call, I’ve now settled on making some beaded stuffed forms/puffs, surrounded by writhing or cascading lines/strands of glass beads – pretty dimensional or bas relief, as per below – I’ve added seed beads along the top side of one, and will possibly make several more smaller shapes to arrange. I’ve threaded lots of beads as shown and will arrange them somehow.

I joined in a zoom call yesterday for SAQA’s special interest group – Working in 3D. It will be interesting to see what comes up. A list of materials suitable for 3D use is being added to as people make recommendations, but I’m sure few if any will be available here in Uruguay! But there are people here doing exciting 3D or at least bas relief work here, and so I’ll improvise, ask around and try millinery supplies or fly screen mesh to support 3D forms I might be lured into. Then again, years ago I did a series of tetrahedrons using template plastic as the internal structure – and though my stash of that’s running out, I have a heap of old xray photos that I think will be suitable substitutes.

Back in the 90s I did a group of fruit bowl sized vessels I just remembered, so I’ve actually done quite a few small 3D things down the decades. The thing they all have in common is that that there are no patterns for this kind of original design, and for each there’s a certain amount of planning/problem solving before you even start making the object; then if things don’t turn out as well as hoped despite that planning, there’s more problem solving along the way!