Making a Mess--My Creative Process

I'm not sure of the prospect of snow tonight is making me punchy, but the atmosphere is changing rapidly and it is a wierd day.

People often ask me what is the process I use to create fashion accessories?  Basically my mind is going all the time putting together fabrics, ideas, techniques.  I think having as many interesting and off beat fabrics is essential.
Then I make a mess, on the floor.  All my materials are in boxes,  they are labeled accordingly, such as "French Chantilly Lace" , "Italian Wool Lace" or "Embroidered Velvets".   I pull out what I think I might like to use.

I have one starting point, it can be an object, a fabric, a photo in a book.  I use the colorway of whatever I pick as my basis for combining fabrics and textures.  Most of the time I have no idea of how anything will come out, I just start cutting randomly, nothing is straight, it is very intuitive.   I then start playing with the pieces and laying them out.  Once I've finalized the design, I sew  and sew and sew until I'm happy.  And then it goes through my finishing process that I described in an earlier blog.

I'll work like this until I am bored, then one day it will make it's way back into the organized boxes when I get the urge to experiment.

Here's a few pics from today:

My family is dismayed at the mess I make, there is not one flat surface in the house that I don't cover.  I think they are relieved when I go up to the gallery in Hamilton.