The other day I found an interesting image called “Ruffles” from Peggy Ostercamp’s weaving on Pinterest. It consists of a core some fibre covered by a sleeve of her diaphanous hand woven silk fabric which is much longer than the core, so as it hangs it settles into wrinkles. Intrigued, I pinned the image to capture the essence of what inspired me at that moment, and immediately made a sample of a core with wrinkled fabric around it. I used firm plastic for my core and covered it with a tube of plain cotton, then added a few little needleweaving things – because when I saw Peggy’s work it immdiately struck me that this could be a framework/canvas for some kind of needleworked construction.

I’m busy oversewing fabric strips with gold onto a black background which I hope to finish today, but now I have this little sample kicking around, I can think about some possibilities:

• use something non-crushable like nylon organza or some glittery fabrics I have in my stash?
• make a soft rollable or foldable core rather than firm plastic sheeting?
• hanging arrangement – sleeve? grommets?

Making a sample can show if an idea works, and may even lead to an unexpected ‘aha moment’ a long time after you make it. It can also eventually show that just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should !!!