On today's deadlines and creative inspiration
Dear clients of today, who have ordered work from me and are waiting excitedly for it to be finished.
I remember and have written down all your wishes, special requests, agreements and deadlines as well. Nobody has been forgotten or set aside.
But... my company is only 11 months old, and there are periods when, alongside commissions, I devote myself to constructing a new product or model, that is to finding, testing, unpicking and redoing different or better solutions. So when there is complete silence on my blog for days or even a week, it does not mean that I have thrown the sewing machine or the design folder into a corner and forgotten the commissions. On the contrary: silence on the blog means that I am surfing yet another high, foaming wave of inspiration, the wind rushing in my ears and joy in my heart.
Sometimes I scold myself: was there any need to start drawing a new design again? I could take an old, tried design, measurements or materials. But that is boring. I always want something better, more beautiful, more original or simply more practical.
Some commissions give such a strong jolt of inspiration that the temptation to start on them right away blinds my sense of reality (read: my work schedule). Because on the previous piece the colours, the patterns and the materials are already settled, the pieces cut out and partly sewn together. Carrying on with that is no longer so exciting. Then it takes a strong dose of self discipline to zip the new ideas up for a moment and finish the earlier work first.
It also happens that when half the work is done, some mental block appears and I simply cannot see how to carry on. Some particularly fine end result flashes in my mind's eye, but how to achieve it stays somehow unclear and hazy. I think about it for a day, and for two, sometimes part of a third as well, but what is not there is not there.
Then there is nothing for it but to take up new work and let the stubborn thought wander. In a difficult case like that I always get in touch with the client and ask whether the deadline can be extended a little.
That was the case, for instance, with the commission "12 chairs, beanbags of good thoughts". I am ashamed to admit it, but I made them over a good few months. But however long it took, they were finished, and the head of the local village school mentioned recently that those chairs are very popular. From elsewhere I heard that people actually come to see them. 🙂 That is a great joy to hear and to know. 🙂
The second commission that took an especially long time was the 10 kannel bags. They are simply so different, and I did not want to make anything that would be the same as everyone else's. Always something more original, more beautiful, better.
But I do keep trying to stay on schedule, because bread is needed and the electricity wants paying. 🙂
I am enormously grateful to you all for noticing my work, valuing it and wanting it for yourselves.
What is on today, that is from November 2014 to February 2015? Let me open my sewing folder for a moment, so you know to look forward to new pictures and posts.
Work to come (the links go to the portfolio page for that subject, where there is similar work):
* new kannel bags, smaller than the previous ones, still of waterproof PVC fabric with a strong interlining, but with foam padding and a cotton lining as well;
* a drum bag for a small handmade drum;
* a few more quilts with power animals (the so called dream animals) for both girls and boys;
* pet mattresses for a small army of dogs, all waiting impatiently for Father Christmas;
* a new model of kannel bag, with a patchwork pattern, a wadded lining, washable, soft and affordable but not waterproof;
* themed beanbags for a children's day care centre: a beanbag of feelings and emotions and a beanbag of colours and shapes;
* one especially large and beautiful quilt;
* four large quilts from reclaimed material, that is quilts made from a father's dress shirts for his four children;
* in addition I have a few lovely designs for Christmas presents, small but practical textile products for grown ups (above all for teachers and office people) as well as for schoolchildren, to take part in one lovely charity Christmas fair.
I wish you all everything beautiful and plenty of sunshine.
