October 20, 2006
Material Choices

creative perspectivesDo you have trouble choosing materials for your projects? I do.

I can easily draft up the plans whether I’m doing a sewing project or some woodworking or jewelry or even a painting. And while planning, I get an idea for what I wood, metal or fabrics I want to use.

Then I go to the store and see everything that’s available - all the possibilities I didn’t even think about - and I get stuck wandering the aisles for hours, rethinking my plans. “Gee, if I did it with this fabric, I could use that scrap I have a home as a pocket.” “What if I used a heavier guage copper, would I gain durability at the expense of flexibility?”

Or I realise that what I want doesn’t exist. A couple of weeks ago I drew up plans for a small wooden shrine. The proportions are great and the size is just what I want. But the boards I spec’d are non-standard sizes, so the shrine is not yet built.

Today I went to Okadaya to get three meters of lightweight indigo linen and maybe one other fabric. It took me two hours and I ended up with my three meters of blue, plus 2.5 meters of novelty print cotton, 2.5 meters of brown cotton gauze and two meters of cotton plaid/stripe. I will sew them all up into skirts and pants this weekend, but that’s not what I’d planned.

So when you go shopping for materials, do you have a firm idea, or do you change plans mid-stream?

Posted by kuri at October 20, 2006 05:25 PM

Comments

This happens to me all the time - especially with fabric - oh the possibilities… I found a heap of gorgeous wool suiting at Salvation Army the other week that I just had to buy.

Plus I am a manic shopper of kitchen gadgets.. if something has a specific purpose I need to own it just in case that purpose presents itself. Ash laughs at me but he has used most of them - especially the boiled egg slicer.

Don’t get me started with hardware stores…

Posted by: T on October 21, 2006 05:52 PM
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