A Focus on Fiber Arts: New experiences at Torrington’s Five Points Gallery

Last Saturday, I took a little break from my usual fiber work, and tried my hand at collage. Five Points Gallery was offering a free three hour workshop on collage, which was being taught by three of the recent artists displaying their works, Rashmi Talpade, Deborah Wadsworth, and Nancy Doherty.

Armed with stacks of magazines, glue, and scissors, I was guided by my instructor, Rashmi Talpade. Talpade’s works were large and impressive.

My favorite was one set in Bombay, which featured doorways, upon doorways, opening out to the viewer. With encouragement, that “the waters were warm”; I began with great trepidation to cut, and very cautiously place my pictures.

Using the glue felt like I was setting my work in stone, so I felt I had to be very certain, that I was placing them in exactly in the right place. To say I was out of my element was an understatement.

Working with yarn, in pretty much any fashion, is second nature to me — so it’s times like these when I find myself out of my comfort zone. I find that it allows me to feel even more empathy to my own beginner students, that they must most certainly be feeling the same way. So I quietly fussed with the images, perplexed at whether to cut or not, and if so how much.

The glue, was messy, and well, quite sticky, and that didn’t exactly set well with me. I guess I was probably one of those children that didn’t like to get dirty, and would have to wipe their hands a lot. So as the glue dried, I kept rubbing my fingers together to slough off the dried glue. Paste, slough, and ponder. It wasn’t till about half way through that I had a glimmer, that maybe this was kind of cool looking. It looked different than all the other pieces, but then again, each piece looked different from the others.

There was a constant drone of voices throughout the afternoon. I however am a pretty much silent worker, and I just cut and paste quietly. Even though I was working with larger elements in my piece, I still decided to cut my board down some.

I’m also one who believes that less is more, except when it comes to my personal workspace, and how little problem knowing when I was finished. I gave one last critical look, decided on a few final touches of what I considered well placed color, and declared my work complete. At this point, finished works were being pinned up on the wall to be admired.

I have to admit, they all looked pretty great. I was even pretty pleased with my own.

It was a great opportunity, and it made me consider wandering out of my comfort zone again sometime in the future. Painting….. perhaps.

Virginia (Ginger) Balch knits, weaves and spins in all things “fibery” at her shop In Sheep’s Clothing at 10 Water St. Torrington www.in-sheeps-clothing.com or phone 860-482-3979