Fabric bombs…

I met up with a friend recently who has just completed an MA in fine art (she's been a practicing artist for the last twenty odd years but decided to go back to college–brave woman!). Part of her final show concentrated on the idea of seed bombs, and visitors were invited to take seed bombs away, use them, and send Jane photographs of the results, it was an interactive art project, and you can read more about it here.

Anyway, it got me thinking. What if we did the same with fabric? What would you do if someone threw (not literally, of course) a small bundle of fabric and thread at you and said 'make something of that, see what happens, then show me the results'. Would you be freaked out? Do you prefer the comfort of a brief, where you're directed towards which fabrics to buy and how to put them together? Or would the opportunity to be totally unrestricted, and let serendipity take its course, excite you and get your creative juices flowing?

As with Liz Christy's seed bombing initiative, which led to the guerilla gardening movement, perhaps fabric bombing could produce similar results? Passing on, or receiving, unwanted stash would be better for the environment than simply buying more fabric every time we got the itch to sew. And, to use the gardening analogy, fabric bombing could test the creative fertility of our imaginations. By playing with fabric, rather than aiming for a specific finish, new ideas might spring up, these might grow into wildly creative efforts to be proud of.

I'm aware, that bloggers and fabric manufacturers often feature giveaways but these are usually with the caveat that anyone entering the draw has to do something with that range and blog about it, or follow a blog to be eligible to enter the draw. But what if one person gathered a little bundle (small enough to fit into an A5 envelope) of threads, fabrics, beads–whatever–and sent them to another person, who in turn made their own little bundle and sent it to a third person, and so on, and so on? Eventually, perhaps thousands of little bundles would be whizzing through the mail and we'd all be sewing creatively.

So, would anyone be interested, not just in receiving but also in passing on a fabric bomb, and hopefully getting a chain reaction going? I need to sort out a few more details such as where senders can be expected to post to and possibly create some kind of fabric bomb button. Perhaps I should also set up a flickr page where we can show our creative sewings/sowings? But if you are interested, let me know, and I'll organise a fabric bomb and a draw.

Elizabeth,
x.

PS: I felt it would be cruel to force an unillustrated post on you so have included random pics that feature a few of my favourite fabrics–some might find their way into a bomb.