African Collage

The other thing I did at Gibsons, besides enjoying the colour and energy of all the fibre artists, was to teach the class, "African Collage. Participants started with a selection of lino prints and a group of African and North American and batik fabrics that worked with them. They constructed borders and fillers for each of the prints, then tackled the challenging job of how to put them altogether into

one piece, that was balanced but not overly symmetrical. It was pure pleasure for me to be in the midst of such a creative group of women.There was enormous variety in the settings, and each one created a unique wallhanging. The possible variations on this kind of piece is endless, and provides a wonderful way to showcase African handwork and fabric. Some chose to add a little beading to their finished pieces, others included embroidery, and one person incorporated mask designs found on ancient African artifacts.
When I have photos of the finished work, I will be sure to post those too, so you can enjoy them. By the way, if there is anyone out there who would like to take on a similar challenge, I am willing to make up more kits and send them out with class instructions. It would be a great thing for a few friends to get together to work on. The kits would be $50 each, and include 10 fat quarters, 3 lino prints, some beads, and two borders.