Craft as an equal

So I met this bloke, let's call him Mick, at a bar the other night who was a friend of a friend. And we had the pedestrian "what do you do?" conversation. Him "I'm a painter. And a trader and I do a little teaching". And I felt the thing that I always do when I meet a person that identifies themselves as an artist - I felt an impressed, kind of good-on-you respect. The question was then reciprocated. Me "I'm a parent mainly, but also a crafter, and I run a craft retreat". And he said "Oh". And the "Oh" had weight and a flat, falling intonation. 

I was at the aforementioned bar with my very good friend Anna who helps run The Craft Sessions. Before we met Mick, we had been talking about the dividing line (or not) between art and craft, which as a conversation falls into the oldie but a goodie category.

At this point I want to say that I have no solid opinions, or conclusions, from the many conversations I have had over the years on this topic. Some people seem to be very clear on it. I'm still not. My brain gets in a tangle just thinking about it, which is why I find it so interesting. For example are Meg Callahan's quilts art? Or craft?

After Mick said his initial "Oh", I jumped on my small soap box (or on this occasion bar stool) and had a little bit of a rant. "See Anna, that is exactly what I am talking about. There is discrimination based on my mode of creative expression. There is a respect afforded to art that doesn't exist for craft, unless someone crafts for a living, and therefore calls themselves a craftsperson. Craft as a hobby has no respect." 

I love this kind of discussion with Anna. She is so clever I know if I put my ideas out there, she will help me come up with better ones, and often prove me totally wrong ;). Smart as a whip she is.

Then Mick pipes up and says something along the lines of "well what do you make?". I say "mainly clothes", and he again says "Oh", with a similar intonation. Anna shows him a few of my photos on instagram and he says something along the lines of "Wow" and then " ….but in reality, it is a cardigan. What do you want? Are you asking for it to be called art?" 

A valid question. And no, that is not what I am asking for. I guess I just feel a little frustration over the fact that the divide between Art and Craft sometimes seems to include such a large amount of snobbery. When my new friend Mick says he is a painter people assume he is doing something worthwhile. When I say I'm a crafter I feel people assume I make ill fitting jumpers in acrylic yarn. And maybe I'm being totally paranoid but I feel like there isn't yet an appreciation of just how skilled our crafting community is…. or how things have changed with the rise of the internet and the now global sharing of craft techniques and skills. In my opinion craft should be seen as an equally skilled and valid form of creative expression. And sometimes it's not. 

I spoke to Anna the next morning and she said she had some clarified ideas for me which I can't wait to hear. Sadly we haven't found a moment to discuss it this week, so to continue the conversation I would totally love your opinions and thoughts on this topic.

Do you clearly define art and craft? Does it matter to you? Do you feel the art/craft divide? Or in your part of the world are they a seamless continuum? Do you think that I am totally wrong about the snobbery aspect and getting frustrated/paranoid over nothing? Anything else you want to bring up?

I really do learn something new from the comments with each post - and this is a topic I feel I never really get my head around. I can't wait to hear what you have to say.

Felicia x

PS. You are welcome to enter the giveaway of some of Kirsten's new Shibui patterns. Details in my last post. I've been loving all the suggestions so far - so thank you! I'll close the comments on Sunday night.

Stash Less - The details of the challenge.

The series where we talk about having a thoughtful stash.

So this challenge is all about consciousness, and making the choice to stash less. As I said in the last Stash Less post, I believe in a stash. However, I want to get concious about how purchasing works in this context. Why I do it. What I like about it. What I don't like. How it affects what I make. What do I want to change about how I act.

I loved reading your comments on the last stash post*. So interesting that many of you feel the same, and that many of you had made a decision to make changes. For me I think changes have already occurred just by deciding to do it. Consciousness has been raised. And there will be more to come I'm sure.

But we don't start talking about the good stuff until the next post. This week I want to tell you the details of how this thing is going to go down.

So I'm going to restrict my spending. But because this isn't about deprivation, but rather about exploration, I'm going to allow a little spending. I don't want it to be too hard. I do want it to be thoughtful.

I'm thinking of a budget of about $50 per month but there are some guidelines about what and how it can be spent.

Stash Less - The Guidelines

1. The $50 is inclusive of spending on tools, materials including things like cottons, needles, etc, and….oh yes…..books! Ouch!

2. I will be making from stash. As such I can only purchase supporting materials for projects that are majority made from the stash. For example - I make a frock using stash fabric but don't have a zip, or buttons. Or I make a quilt from stash but need something special for the binding. I see myself buying things like cotton, interfacing, buttons, etc.

3. I am able to buy yarn for one adult sweater for me during the year. This needs to be concious and thought out. And this money comes from within the budget.

4. I'm going to keep track of and report on what I spend once a month. I'll be posting I'm guessing every two weeks or so about how it is going. I promise to be totally upfront about my successes and my failures. 
 

More guidelines may come and/or these may be subject to change depending on what I discover. I'd love to hear from you if you have thoughts on my proposal or if you feel like joining me. 

Felicia 

* I'm so sorry I haven't got to answering them yet. Busy week with school going back!

Stash Less - A challenge.

The series where we talk about having a thoughtful stash.

First up today I want to say a big big thank you for all your suggestions about classes for next year. Many things you suggested are already on the list but there other things I hadn't even thought of. So thanks. We start planning for next year this weekend....

The winner of our giveaway - that receives the lovely Tessuti pattern bundle - was Robin Spencer. Congrats Robin - I will be in touch!

Stash Less - A challenge.

So one of the things that came out of being away this year was some thought about, and awareness of, the daily choices we are making about the way we live. Living out of a bag, a tent and a car meant we were often thinking about stuff; what we needed, how much we needed, and what we could do without. Arriving home a week ago brought into focus the stark contrast between the tent and our home, and highlighted that at home we have been perhaps a little less conscious about what we are bringing into our lives. Walking in to my sewing space clarified that there need to be some changes. Today's post is about one of those changes. I'm starting a year long challenge to stash less. I want to talk about how stashing helps and hinders us, and I want to regain my consciousness. And I'm taking you along for the ride - in part to keep me accountable but also to further the discussion about "stuff" through the lense of handmaking.

But first a little bit of context.

Consciously creating objects of utility and/or beauty for myself and my family has been part of my life now for nearly ten years. I think something up, a combination of materials and a form, and then I make it. Sometimes I don't even do the thinking part. I pick something up as I walk past the sewing space and find that 5 minutes later I have a hat on the needles. There are sparkly things in that room. Things that sing to me as I walk past to hang out the washing. So much possibility.

The lovely Maura from Folk Fibers recently captioned an instagram post with "In the presence of good materials, hopes grow and possibilities multiply."

And I truly believe that is so so true. But I also think that there can be too much of a good thing. And that maybe that is where I am at.

When I started making things I started with nothing - no materials, no supplies in a cupboard. I remember purchasing my first pattern, yarn and needles in a department store in the UK and setting off on my first project. I was excited and light. I didn't even own a knitting bag as there was no way I could knit anywhere other than my couch due to the sheer force of concentration required to get the string around the sticks.

But then slowly something happened. Over time I made things and wanted to make more things. I purchased a metre of fabric here, and some yarn there. Sometimes it was on sale but more often because it was pretty and I wanted to make X with it. And sometimes I purchased even though I knew I didn't have time to make the X, because I wanted the option to make it as soon as I had the time. But the time never came.

And things add up. And now there is a room. And there is stuff. Too much stuff.

Stating the obvious - daily life involves many choices. Choices of how to spend our money, what to bring into our home, what to eat, where to buy our food from. We talk about it a lot in our family; one of the main messages we are always trying to get across to our kids is that "Stuff doesn't make you happy". The excited feeling you get when you get something new only lasts a fleeting moment for most things. And then you start feeling desire for something newer.

And that is the thing. I know this and yet for some reason where crafting and craft supplies are concerned I give myself a free pass. I'm not conscious. I am not considered. I make decisions based on desire. And I want stop because I think there are problems associated with where I am at. Problems that affect my creativity, the feeling I get when I walk into my sewing space but also simply how I feel about myself when I am purchasing. It's starting to not feel so good.

Many an article has been written about the optimal size of a stash. And I believe in having one. But I know for me I will feel lighter having gone through this process and I believe it will do good things for my making, forcing me to be more conscious about my purchasing choices and the materials I use to create.

I'll explain the details of my challenge next week - I have set myself some rules to follow - but in the mean time I'd love to hear your thoughts about stashing. Do you do it? Do you like/love it? Do you feel overwhelmed by it? Does it affect your making?

I'll be back tomorrow with a new weekly-ish segment. Happy days.

Felicia x

In an atmosphere of growth.

The best source of books we found while travelling was in secondhand bookshops in capital cities. It makes sense – they are places where there are lots of English speaking travellers. A couple of weeks ago while perusing what was on offer, I stumbled across The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. It was published in 2009 and the jist of it is that Gretchen spent a year testing out different theories around how to be happier. Pretty early on in the book she comes up with what she calls her First Splendid Truth. 

“To be happier, you have to think about feeling good, feeling bad, and feeling right, in an atmosphere of growth.”

— The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin

That last bit struck me as a really interesting part of why I (and you?) make and create. It’s the learning. The nutting stuff out. The not-understanding that then becomes understanding. Such an all-consuming, sometimes frustrating and ultimately joyful process. 

A lot of the craft that I’ve done while I was away was craft as comfort. Easy, thoughtless, habit based craft. It’s kept me company and helped me stay calm through the chaos, and lately, the queues that have been part of many of our every days. 

But the craft that really made my heart sing was the colourwork jumper. I made mistake after mistake (I’ll show you some of them another day in a post about colourwork) and the finished product is far from perfect. But I learnt things about colourwork technique (which at the start I didn’t know anything about) and about combining colours. The exciting part was not that I achieved perfection (I didn’t) but that I worked it out. As my friend Anna’s friend Gina would say – It was the piece you need to make, so that you can make the piece you really want to make.

Something else I heard in a podcast this week was that "clarity comes from engagement not thought". Such a useful idea. I often spend way too long thinking about projects rather than getting starting. While project planning is really important, it was a great reminder that I can’t always learn what I need to learn, to make what I want to make, just by thinking about a project. I often have to make to learn, and through the making the idea takes shape. There is something about the physical process of working with your hands to make an object from materials, that clarifies an idea in a way that just thinking about it can’t. Even if that means that the thing I really want to make is still one more project away. Practicing in the gap has taken me a step closer.

Growth requires focus and in the focus we find the joy.

Felicia x

PS. There are only three days to go!!

The post with some swearing.

Alrighty then. So this isn't what I was going to post about AND I don't want to actually say it out loud, but it was suggested to me (by my friend Tiger) that maybe if I blog about it I might feel better. I'm sorry to say that I can't see how that would be possible but I am going to give it a go. 

I bl*&dy well just totally bl$#dy f*&king well felted my favourite ever knit. Just now!!

I spoke about James here but you don't even need to go to that post to see just how perfect she was. She was the perfect sweater. I wore her all the time. All the time! I loved her and I am sad.

And just a tad angry with myself. An experienced knitter and handwasher and I f#$king felted her. FELTED!!!

Perfect fit and she was made from Blue Sky Metalico which is the most beautiful naturally shaded Alpaca Silk blend.

Perfect amount of flare.

I know all of you lovely knitters must have done it at some stage in your knitting life. So I'm putting the call out -  can you please tell me some felting stories to ease my pain…. Make them painful. Make them funny. I don't mind….

yours in solidarity and pain.

Felicia x