December TIF: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

The concept for Decembers 'Take It Further ' Challenge (appropriate to the season ) was 'Generosity'. Quite difficult to interpret in a textile piece but I wasn't going to give in and go with the colour palette ( Xmas colours) . I've been giving a lot of thought to what generosity means to me and it's taken me in a number of different directions, ideas which were well expressed in my friend Jeanettes Xmas newsletter:
" My Christmas wish is that the relentless pursuit of “economic growth” will cease to be the dominant paradigm by which we live, and environmental and human stewardship will take over"
At work a lot of what I do is 'enabling', training people in conservation techniques either directly or indirectly. The charity we're donating to this year is 'Practical Action' being a firm believer in giving people skills to help themselves. As the project we're supporting is to improve composting, this led onto thoughts of how we recycle and also the other sides of the the triangle : reuse is relatively easy, reduction more difficult. This A4 piece has been made with leftovers and offcuts from 9 projects completed this year, trimmed down and joined with zigzag using thread from a charity shop. Some of the fabrics are from charity shop clothes; from kimonos picked apart; some original Cameroon indigo cloth and a section of painted Durham quilt. Even the 'reduce-reuse-recycle' triangle was printed on a indigo dyed fabric sheet that had already been through the computer printer but kept jamming - it behave perfectly on this occasion. You can spot the component parts a lot easier from the back.

This will be the last item this year to be written up in my sketchbook/scrapbook -by expert planning (ha!) I have just a couple of pages left. The house is cleaned, studio tidied, cupboards and fridge stocked so I'm looking forward to about 10 creative days when I can concentrate on planning and starting some new work ( and a new sketchbook), mixed in with with some walks and visits to galleries for inspiration.

I'm feeling mellow after a mulled wine and 'coconut molehill' (made from the egg whites leftover from Ian's Tiramisu) so time to wish

PEACE AND GOODWILL TO ALL