Evaluation of the silver arts award

The time has come for me to evaluate the silver arts award and how I think it has been. Whether I would have changed anything or improved on anything.

Overall I think the arts award has gone very well and I am pleased with the results, however it hasn't been without its mistakes and downfalls.

 Take for instance the warping disaster which resulted in me having a smaller cushion than planned, it turned out ok but something I would have done differently is I would have been more careful with pulling the warp in at the edges when weaving so the warp may have been fine. Having said that, I did end up with a cute little flower on my cushion which people have commented that they like.

There have been a few changes along the way to my projects, for example, I was going to knit a scarf but after discovering that knitting is a lot harder than it looks, and my scarf was more holes than yarn, I decided to stick with crochet. This did work out for the better as my scarf would have probably looked a lot worse had it been knitted.

Of course, my original plan was to make a crocheted bowl but I then decided that a crocheted handbag would look a lot better and would have a much better use. Going back, the one thing I would have changed about the handbag is I would have made a longer strap and sewn it all the way down the two side seams which would have made the bag bigger.

The felted picture was a bit of an impromptu decision to make but I am really glad I did as I think it completes the collection of pieces nicely. 

Overall I have thoroughly enjoyed taking part in the arts awards.  It has lead me into different areas I had not done before (felting) and now I want to take that further.  It has shown me where some of my weaknesses are, and I have to say, at this time, I am not interested in knitting!!!!  I love that it has given me a push to explore new ways of working (the weaving piece was a really steep learning curve) and consolidated my love of all things fibrey.

So, it is now official, my silver arts award is completed. Nick said he would email me as to when the moderation date is, it should be sometime in November. I will let you know when it is and how it went.

Speak soon

Meghan