Using What You Have

Are we more creative with infinite resources, or is necessity the mother of invention?

My golf ball shelf of precious scraps

This week, we decided to both write about the same topic. Meghan wrote her article first, and Lydia wrote hers in response. We love discussing these topics together, and hope you enjoy this format as well!

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Part I: Meghan

Last week, Lydia and I chatted about making while in flux. Part of that conversation veered toward reducing/downsizing our making supplies while preparing for a big move, and also being without access to materials for extended periods of time. There have been various moments in my life when my access to materials has been limited, and I often think about how those limitations affect my and others’ work.

Having worked at a yarn shop and also a craft magazine, there have been moments where my access to knitting and crochet supplies has seemed almost infinite. In times like that, while it feels like a luxury, exciting, and full of possibility, I sometimes found it paralysing too. In the shop, I would stare at a wall of yarn and spend hours or days considering a palette for a single project. For the magazine, it would also take a considerable amount of time narrowing down fibres, brands, and colours for the knitting and crochet patterns in each issue. That time spent didn’t always lead to a result I was entirely happy with either.

While being thoughtful about these projects isn’t without merit, and is even fun, I find some of my most creative work happens when I have limitations. We talked a little about Gee’s Bend quilts last week and how scrap fabrics are used to great effect in those quilters’ work. Coming across their work was one of the seminal moments in my creative life. In the early 2000s, as a student in Boston, I worked in the gift shop for temporary exhibitions at the Museum of Fine Arts. At the time, the museum’s major exhibition was Ralph Lauren’s classic car collection. I am sure the cars were beautiful in their way, but I felt no connection to that show, which felt like a display of extreme wealth and excess. One day on my break, I wandered around the galleries in a different part of the museum and came across the much less busy, less heralded exhibition of Gee’s Bend quilts. I can remember standing there in awe. I had never seen work like this in a major art museum and I was instantly mesmerised by how much was made of so little; the worn clothing and other textiles they had on hand worked into these exhilaratingly beautiful masterpieces.