My erosion bundle ...revealed

On August 5, 2010, I bundled together fabrics, photos, tea leaves and various papers, and placed it on my fence to weather for a year.

I wrote about the Erosion Bundle project a few months ago (here); I meant to open my bundle exactly one year later, but life (and Irene) intervened.  So, better late than never, here is what I found:

The bundle itself was in pretty good shape.

The fabrics definitely faded where they were in the light, but showed little wear in the areas that were encased in the bundle.

I decided to make a table runner with my weathered fabric.  I wanted to make something that looked like it had been used for years.  My husband, very tactfully, asked me if I had experienced some problems making it.

...He doesn't get "wonky:"

I didn't photograph the back, but I used the pojagi method of piecing, which encloses the seams so front and back are interchangeable. Victoria, over at The Silly BooDilly, has a very clearly-written tutorial (and if you search for "pojagi" on her blog, you will find some gorgeous examples.  Pojagi is a Korean form of patchwork that can be interpreted in so many ways -- see videos of Korean artist Chunghie Lee
here, or here).

My erosion bundle also revealed some gorgeous papers.  The photos I included discharged their ink in interesting ways.  I can't wait to use them as backgrounds in collage:

Some of the papers look like they are covered in black mold.  I had painted them with black tempera paint -- it's not mold, so no health worries here!!  Actually, I wish I had used a more permanent acrylic paint, since the tempera brushed off the surface after everything dried out, leaving a more subtle charcoal effect than the black streaks you see here.

I put some tea leaves in the bundle, too.  They really didn't have much of an effect at all -- in fact, you really can't see them:

I think this was a pretty successful effort overall.  I am going to do this again, but this time I will include rusty items among the fabrics.  I will add some threads and laces, too, and lots more photographs.  I really like the way the inks ran.... I wonder how they would run on fabric? Hmmm... lots to think about here.  Any suggestions?