I am filling out time here, because the place where I buy my fibre is closed until the 14th of January. This gives me heaps of time to get the design ready before the spinning starts, and felting and crochet and all the other things I am going to do. This project will be made into a pattern, so if you want it, I’ll post a link for it. It’s going to be part of the business thing we are doing, and on our etsy store which we have set up and on it goes.
There are so many in’s and outs of design and setting up a business, that I am going to write about here, so you can follow along with us. I spent hundreds and hundreds of hours trawling the web, reading blogs, seeing what people do, how they talk about it. So I have decided to chart our merry go round trip from here. So if anyone else is at the same place in their crafting experience, they can see how we do it.
I am feeling way mellow at the moment. I had a grand night sleep. Brent has our Empress at the park. I had a shower, washed my hair, spoke to my sister and here I am. Sipping caffeine free diet coke, listening to Charlie Parker, and blogging. Ahhhhh, life.
Onward and forward! Design journals, here we come! I am going to real honest here, I used to think keeping a design journal was a lot of bollocks, but, and don’t let my husband know, I was I wrong. Design journals are a vital tool for the design process. I currently have four on the go, one for quilting, one for knits and fiber arts, one general and one for mixed media art. My knit/fibre arts journal goes everywhere with me. A lot of famous artists and designers use journals. Poiret , one my personal fav’s used a journal, so did William Morris.
So why do it? Well, for starters it will save a bunch of trees. at least get all your trees in one place. Scribbling ideas down on a piece of paper, results in hundreds of bits of paper with scribbles on them being used for writing phone numbers or shopping lists. Add worse still, they can be chucked away by accident. So a journal is a place to get all your ideas down. It also serves as a place to develop your ideas. Add colour, play with features, move it around, tweak it. And then you have a group of guidelines to use while you set up your actual pattern.
There is a lot of talk on the web about the value of patterns and I have read some absolute rants about not needing them. I am adding my 2 cents in here, all of that is cobblers. My grandmother taught me everything she knew about fiber arts and sewing, she used patterns and also did her own thing. She was giving and kind and I am forever greatful to her and miss her terribly. Patterns are about sharing what you have done. Not everyone can share. Stick a pack of three year olds in a room and see what happens. And to be fair, you may have come up with something that you would never share in a million years because it means too much or has great business potential. That’s all good, and I do it myself. BUT … venting about folks who use patterns isn’t nice. Implying that there isn’t any skilled involved with using a pattern is rude. I have seen plenty of stuff out there made by self proclaimed designers without using patterns who have no skill technical or otherwise. This goes right across the fiber arts, art spectrum .
All of the famous artists did, look at leanardo Da Vinci’s journal. Holy Moley, now that’s a design journal. Anyways, a design journal is somewhere for you put in your inspiration, techniques, colour ideas, quotes, etc in effect becomes your very own crafting cook book. Give it a go if you haven’t already. You may like, you may not. At least it gives you a record of what that fertile brain of yours can come up with. For what it’s worth, I love mine. (The pic above is of my Mixed Media Journal, I bought it on the Rialto Bridge in Venice, hand made in the shop I bought it from. I have the address and contact details of the place I bought it from if anyone is interested. See, I can share!)
Ashford Joy = deposit pending this week.
