Collaging offcuts exercise

I was recently given a bag of textile offcuts leftover from sewing projects in the late 80s. It is really exciting to have a go experimenting with these fabrics because of their various textures and patterns that speak about a different time and its trends in fashion. I find consideration of textiles as silent witnesses of the past generative for creating contexts in which they can be used as a concept and a language.

The experience of moving my fingers across the bundles of boucle, tweed, corduroy, poplin or voile evoked some of my early memories of playing with different materials that my mother used in her home-based sewing practice. This is enhanced by the sensory experience of smelling them. The offcuts themselves remind me of my mother's practice as she was quite diligent in her patternmaking with minimal waste and I often suspect my awareness of the waste was at some capacity instilled by her.

These reflections that spark new connections between materiality and meanings are what I would call conceptual threads. They are the leads which enable me to articulate my reflections to weave together statements to accompany my works. Memories of experiences evoked by tactility or smell currently seem vital for my attempts to weave together the creative work preoccupied with the personal and cultural histories of women's work with textiles and associated writing.

I have selected three bundles of fabric offcuts with different textures and attempted 'collaging' them into a small-scale composition. The only principle I followed was to incorporate all of the scraps of each of the three fabrics in order to avoid waste.