While strolling through my tie collection awhile ago - and it seems to me all things one collects are worthy of being appreciated with frequent admiration - I chose eleven to somehow turn into a garment that could be worn.
Cutting up a tie somehow feels wrong to me so I wanted something that would allow use of the whole tie.
The ideas I had in mind did not work and had to be discarded one by one: a flared vest with front opening; an apron 'skirt'; a hooded scarf.
Finally I draped the sewn- together ties here and there about myself and got out the trusty safety pins and came up with this.
Gabby (in an introspective way) the Giraffe is doing a saddle model to give breadth to the shoulder shawl because it does not drape on the flat mannequin as it does on a person - um, that would be me , still- lacking- skills- to -photograph- while- wearing.
While sorting through the tie collection prior to this latest major move of simplifying and fine-tuning I counted 146 ties. When I was finished the culling I had 15.
I now know that 131 ties in a green plastic bag put on the passenger seat of one's car sets off the seat- belt- not- fastened warning beep which gets louder and louder and so I had to stop and seat belt the bag of ties and drove grinning the rest of the way to the local thrift store where the ties were donated.
I have made many things with men's ties over the years and will likely make more. This is one . It was in a local art show and got an honourable mention. I particularly like how men respond to the piece: it does seem to 'speak' to them, which is great, because ties certainly 'speak' to me and this will keep me browsing through them at garage sales and church thrift stores and free boxes by the side of the road.
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