free resources: wire

We spend very little money on materials here at our place.

Our house has plenty of open-ended, raw materials and these are used most days and yet most have arrived freely at our doorstep.

Found objects in nature, gifted supplies from friends who are clearing out or upcycled, repurposed and rescued items all are welcome here. 





Engaging with the creative process doesn't need to be expensive or even, truth be told, part of your budget. 

You could spend a bomb - you know those shops full of prefabricated craft supplies and prepackaged "craft projects". They all cost money and apart from their questionable manufacturing and how far they have travelled to arrive on the shop shelf, the step-by-step style of many of them seems a bit of drain. 

Yep, go ahead and fill some time but don't expect to explore any new territory. 

Just saying.



Developing an eye for spotting possibilities takes time. Checking out my nana's fabric stash, repurposing cardboard packaging and regularly going through Gunter's wood scrap bin have been particularly fruitful places to forage. 

These free materials give us a sense of abundance that is necessary in exploring new ideas - if you are always saving the stuff for a "better, more important " project, nothing will get made. Trust me, I know, this was part of my childhood story.

All that said, clutter does nothng for my creative flow nor my peace of mind. 

With all this foraging of materials, I can't deny that I have had to become pretty proficient at knowing what to keep and what to move on out. We live small so it's grown into quite an art in itself :-)



A material we have only recently begun to explore has been electrical cabling. Who knew that cabling was an essential part of a studio? Not me. But I had read a few posts a while back (here, here and here) and been inspired and then a friend passed a pile of the stuff on to us. She had used it in some local floristry work, using the copper wire inside the plastic to bind wreaths and was clearing out.
And so the exploring has begun.

The colours, the different grades, tying options, mounting possibilities, combinations of materials are all areas being worked.
I have visions of floating ships through our living room but for now Ruby and Sky has other plans.
Perhaps I'll sit and explore some wire myself.