Sunday 30 July 2017

My friend Prudence Mapstone


brought together fibre artists from all over the world on an amazing piece of collaborative work called "50 years of Flower Power" - google that or her name and you can see it and other extraordinary pieces of work - like her rainforest piece and much more. Prudence "scrumbles" and her crochet skills are extraordinary, as is her ability to use colour and texture.
The Flower Power piece is big, very big. It has thousands of pieces in it. Yours truly has a tiny piece in it. It was a piece I had kept from years before. I meant to actually do something for Flower Power itself but other things got in the way.
That was a bad move because two people then said to me, "Bet you couldn't do anything like that Cat!"
Mmm....no...it's been done for a start and I am not going to try and compete. I am not interested in competing with something like that. I told the pair I was NOT interested thank you very much. All bets are off. 
But....I had an idea - of course I had an idea. I have a head full of hopeless ideas. My paws will never do even a tiny fraction of those ideas. Time is against it. If I did nothing else all day and all night I still wouldn't get those things done. I have to have priorities - and I have to decide what it is I want to do most.
So now I am making what I will call the "not-exactly Flower Power vest". No, you are not going to see a photograph yet because it isn't finished. I also have,  because of the way these things are done, have to work on it from the back rather than the front, so there is not much to see except a lot of loose ends. I have actually crocheted the "flowers" for this thing - in all colours and sizes - out of left over cotton. It will look distinctly peculiar when it is finished. I may never wear it. Ms W says it is "weird". The Senior Cat keeps asking me when am I going to finish it. 
Putting it together is the hard part. Making a knitted patchwork vest is much easier. (Those of you belong to Ravelry can prowl over and see those there.) 
But, I am working on it. I can't take it with me so I have been knitting ultra simple fingerless mitts that I can take with me.
And while I am working on it I am also thinking about another idea, one I hope to teach. The nice thing about teaching is that your students can carry out your ideas. 
You don't have to do all the work yourself!

4 comments:

Momkatz said...

What a uniquely beautiful piece of art. I can't imagine the skill it would take to put together all the free-form crochet pieces. Prudence is a genius!
Thank you for sharing with us, Cat.

USA Sister Cat

Adelaide Dupont said...

Cat:

I've had a vest idea as well.

Take that point on priorities!

catdownunder said...

She is very, very talented
And go for that vest idea!

Jodiebodie said...

Don't worry about what other people say. If you like the vest, wear it!
This winter I have had people comment on my bright colours but I wear them to make myself feel happy. It doesn't hurt anyone else and the more you wear bright colours or fancy florals or polka dots or pink stripes etc. (whatever is your thing), the less unusual it become. Soon your friends and colleagues will expect it from you and before long your floral vest is not weird at all! :-)

I often look back on that spectacular piece of work (Prudence's Flower Power) and wonder where in the world it is currently exhibiting. Do you know, Cat?