07/19/2026
This is my mixed media piece from yesterday’s Curveball workshop conducted by Sarah Uys of the Tampa Bay Surface Design Guild. The point of the workshop is that artists create better work when they’re under pressure. Each participant chose a mystery bag of material(s) with which they had to create something using the contents of the bag and items scavenged from the free table or brought from home with no idea what they might HAVE to use. Additionally, each artist chose a number from 1 to 6 that imposed additional restrictions on their work, such as colors, shapes, materials, composition, etc. My bag included nothing but a long piece of pre-used sisal marine-grade rope; my restriction was that it couldn’t be used for its intended purpose; e.g., it had to be used for something other than to tie something together. This is the result—a 16x20 heavy paper board covered with recycled craft paper as the base. The rope was cut, coiled and glued around three 1” slices of pool noodle wrapped with recycled yarn. The smaller centers are cut cardboard TP tubes stuffed with raw sheep fleece and yarn. The small coiled circles are made from unwound pieces of the larger rope with bits of yarn in the center. This was an interesting workshop that was definitely out of my comfort zone—which is exactly why I took it. It was definitely worthwhile and more than met my expectations. I’m calling this piece, “All Wound Up”.
