The abandoned mates of those socks mysteriously lost in laundromats and dryers have finally found a home.

Last spring, fabric design students created a work of art using socks as a material. Students spent the semester collecting socks for an unknown reason, and then, with the help of a visiting artist, created a tapestry from the collected socks in just three days.

“Usually our art is about our own work,” said Daisy Whelan, a fourth-year fabric design major. “But this was a collaboration. We had to figure out how to work together.”

After brainstorming ideas of what to create with the socks, the students worked in small groups sewing socks together and then combined the smaller pieces into one large tapestry.

“You see a lot of individual handiwork in individual spots, but it all comes together,” Whelan said. “[In the tapestry] you see the transforming nature of socks. It’s not what you think at first. You [have to] look closer and see it’s socks.”

The finished product was larger than any of the professors and students imagined. It was hung from the second floor of the art school’s front lobby and spanned one entire wall.

“I love how something so small could come together and be so visually impactful on a large scale,” said Malorie McCloy, a fifth-year fabric design major. “I liked working collaboratively with other students and being able to bounce ideas off of each other. [For the project] there wasn’t a lot of criteria. We just knew we were using recycled socks as a material.”

Though only a few classes of students helped create the sock tapestry, many students from the art school donated socks and enjoyed seeing their socks part of something so impressive.

“It’s the idea of making something so beautiful out of something you throw away,” McCloy said.

One of the main focuses of the project was the idea of recycling and using materials already in the environment to create art.

“Sometimes art is about creating something new from what we already have, which is important, especially now thinking about the economy,” McCloy said. “For a lot of students, it has pushed our work to think about using reused materials.”

Michael Radyk, an assistant visiting professor in the fabric design department, said the project came out of wanting to get visiting artists more involved during their stints at the art school.

In the past, visiting artists gave lectures, and that was all.

Radyk talked to visiting artist Liz Collins about becoming involved in a project with some students that had to incorporate the idea of “reuse” as a theme.

“She immediately came up with idea of socks,” Radyk said. “She had been thinking about the idea for a while. These socks with one mate, what happens to the mates? Where do they go?”

Though it was Collins’ idea to use socks, she mostly gave moral support, advice and critiques during the process.

“It’s great to work with an established artist,” Whelan said. “It’s important to see a different perspective and idea about things.”

Moon Jung Jang, an assistant graphic design professor, is helping create a book to outline the process of creating the sock tapestry.

“The students learned many things through the process,” Jang said. “Now not only the students who worked on the project, but all art students, teachers and staff can learn something through the process.”

The book will have essays from students and professors about creating the sock tapestry.

There will also be original sketches, drawings, ideas, paintings and photographs of the process and finished piece.

It will appear in its first printed version around November. Jang and Radyk hope to raise more funds to have the book professionally printed in the future.

“Many people think the process of art and design is a little bit mysterious,” Radyk said. “The book will show people we’re thinking, researching and collaborating.”