I’m relatively new to textile art – I took a couple of classes last year and it really got me inspired. I decided for 2024 that I wanted to do a challenge – it will help me to create a body of work, and maybe discover my voice with my art. I am not sure the direction my work should take yet, and I feel that just making a bunch of art should help me to figure that out. I can revisit at the end and then figure out what I really enjoyed about the process, and go from there.
For 2024, my challenge is to create 100 mixed media collages. They are mainly going to be fabric-based, mostly with stitch, but I want them to have a couple of different media, even if I use markers or pens for mark-making along with various fabrics.
I started by going through my fabric stash and adding bits to a box – this is where I should be pulling random pieces to make my collages. I can take from other places but I wanted somewhere to start from. 100 collages for the year equals out to about a collage every 3-4 days, so I figured limiting my choices would help me to get started. I’ve actually gone in a couple times and just started selecting random flat-lays, and then setting them aside in another box, so I can grab out one and just start adding things together – to save time and then I don’t hem and haw about what I should create. Each collage is 5×5 inches – I figured that it’s small enough to not take too long, but big enough for me to have room to try some different techniques.
Here you can see the first 6 collages for 2024. I’m having fun with this challenge. I’ll try to show some of the process step-by-step for some future ones.
Jen Powell designs 