Unfinished objects are a way of life for all makers (or maybe it’s just the makers I know). As far as I’m concerned, there are various reasons for this. Usually it’s feeling dissatisfied about how something is turning out and not having the time or headspace to work out why or how to improve it. Or making it is fiddly or tiring, and I get bored. And sometimes I just run out of materials – I currently have a “piece on the go “work in progress” that I started over a year ago and ran out of the right raffia.
Sometimes work needs to sit on the table for a while, where I can see it regularly and let it trickle through my subconscious (inspiration inevitably strikes while I am in the bath or driving and not able to write it down!). At other times I get ideas on how to proceed by seeing something in an exhibition or magazine.
But sometimes I have to clear my workspace and stuff gets put away and I forget about it completely. Last week I was sorting out some twining samples for an upcoming workshop, and I came across an unfinished twined piece I started more than three and a half years ago. This was while Covid-19 was still around but after the lockdowns – I suspect that the virus provided inspiration for the form. There wasn’t much left to do on it, so I finished it.
As I worked on it, I remembered why I never finished it previously. It’s made of paper yarn, which works beautifully for structural pieces like this but is quite tough to work with. Finishing the borders and threading the ends away is hard work on the fingers!
I originally made a similar piece in hemp, which is softer and easier on the hands.
I also went on to make a more complex piece for my City Lit course, exploring fractals, in paper yarn. I actually developed tennis elbow after making this, and was unable to do any twining for about six months. So you can understand my reluctantance to go back to finish the paper virus!
What’s your longest ever “work in progress”?
