It will soon be 6 years since I went on-line. At that time my interest was contemporary embroidery and mixed media. After being introduced to feltmaking I had spent several years doing just that, learning all about fibres, possibilities of their manipulation, dyeing with natural and man made dyes and then eco printing with plants. I have always had a tendency to make pieces which can be used and worn. I learned basics of spinning and weaving and have gone back to my very first and probably biggest love, sewing. Sometimes I wonder who I am – craft-wise. Understanding of this I feel can help me to define better where I want to direct my energy in the days to come.
So far my creative process have been rather spontaneous. I would study and learn a new technique, experiment and from the results create one or more pieces, put in my shop and then move on to something else or combine newly learned skill with previous ones. It would often involve lots of searching and learning, a lot of sampling, buying new materials, books.
And now I more and more feel the need to change the whole concept of what I do and how I work. I am not sure exactly how but I think I have a rough idea where I would like to get at the end. Right now it’s waiting for more light so that contours become sharper.
On a practical side, I am going to do some research and keep my hands busy with sewing, felting and knitting. Julia, do you recognize this yarn? 🙂
Red 2 White 
Is that some of the yarn you bought from one of my destashing sales….. years ago!? My eyes love the color this morning! Especially next to the jade green of the plants!
Yes, Julie, the Peruvian hand spun? wool in this burgundy, purple and variegated orange and brown. And terracotta. Can’t wait to start. ps: thinking of you
I’ve been thinking of you too!
I dyed a silk shirt in the most wonderful shade of yellow last week…. and all day at work, while wearing it, I was thinking…. Monika would love this color!
Monika, I resonate with the stop-and-go process in creation and shifting of energy through different media. I wish that you find joy in the meantime waiting for more light on what’s next. 🙂
Thank you, Jean, and yes, joy often comes from unexpected corners.
I hope that something you feel at home with emerges from the process of change. I also have learned a range of different skills and move between them, experimenting, discovering new things and combining techniques as it occurs to me or seems interesting.
I wonder about the question of figuring out who you are. I can see that conceptualising it this way is profoundly meaningful and helpful for others, and has famous exponents like Twyla Tharp (The Creative Habit). But I don’t, personally, feel a lot of affinity to the idea of an essence of who I am that I can dig down to, rather than myself being made of my multiple choices in every dimension of life.
Yours is a lovely body of work, no matter how you tell the story of its emergence!
Thank you, Mary, for your thoughts. I feel the time has come to assess how I work in relation to selling my work; see if there is a different mode I could follow which would work better business-wise and I as a maker would be happy as well.