Silk!
When your hand touches it you stop and want to touch it a little longer. Well, I do anyway. It's such an incredible material, difficult to work with, and one that seems so precious with all those little silk worms eating, munching, spinning, twirling, dying for us to use.
I love to collect secondhand resources and come up with creative ways to put things together. I collect and hoard many used saris and shirts, scarves and skirts. I shred and chop and satisfyingly rip to then have a unique colour palette ready to use to form a new kind of fabric. I save every tiny piece. Even the smallest fibres can morph into something wonderful.
As a labour of love and excitement I spent 10+ hours on each of the creations you see below to bring the fibres together and make it into something of use. Each cushion is completely unique and made from only secondhand materials. Some are still available in my etsy store at virahiggins.etsy.com
They feel quite incredible - the sort of thing your hand is compelled to touch (and repeatedly stroke). Trust me, those who've come to see them in my little studio find their hands moving in the patterns beneath their fingertips.
There's great satisfaction in the journeying of fibre. When I make in this way I keep the scraps, add them to more offcuts, and add those in to the next project so that each cushion forms the part of the next... and on it goes. I look forward to the time their fibre journey continues into someone's lounge.
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