Yesterday I visited our local SCRAP PDX store and stumbled upon a barrel full of rubber gaskets.

These are soft grey rubber, about  3/4″ diameter and 1/32″ thick.  As soon as I saw them I knew what to do with them.  I bought a handful and made my way home, thinking of all the different ways I could use them.

I colored one side and the edge with markers and let them dry.  I then stitched them onto a scrap piece of canvas-like material using perle cotton.  Each gasket has 4 or 5 spokes to hold it to the fabric.  Once they were stitched on,  I wove another color of perle cotton through the spokes.

I’m looking forward to adding more and changing the elements, perhaps beads and sequins on top.  I’m off to explore more ideas.

Cheers!