The Creative Journey - Beginnings

New ideas...they can be as cute as a pile of puppies. All shiny and cuddly you just want pick 'um up play patty cake with those cuddly-wuddly little faces! Whoo doggy!

So last week I wrote about the beginnings of a new project. Well I put in my yarn order, and I got a total score, some odd ends of the finest cashmere from Todd and Duncan. It's gonna suit my needs smashingly! Here it is.

Pretty pretty pale blue!

Fearsome furnace red orange!

Of course the thing about beginnings is that everything is all new and exciting. You're the pioneer starting out cross country in your covered wagon. It isn't until much later, mid to late journey, after you've eaten your horses and are sizing up your neighbor for tonight's dinner, that you discover if you have the resolve to finish.

Fortunately, I know that I have what it takes to finish. I have been knitting for well over half my life now and I've been spinning wool for over a decade. I have faced many a creative crisis with my yarns (he he) and lived to see the end of my journey.... my poor poor neighbors though...

Anyway! What remains to be seen is if I will be able to bring these particular ideas to life, and if after all my years of experience I can make something that my uneaten peers would acknowledge with $$ as a triumph. That's a pretty big if.

What I've observed when it comes to wearable art is that it's value is often discounted. In an age of machine made fabric and desperate overseas labor...well...it's harder than ever to get your fiber talent honored with a paycheck. Much less one you could live off.

On the other hand there are designer clothes.

Boy oh...I don't know if I have what it takes to be the next Valentino or something, much less any idea where to even begin to breaking into that elite club. Yet I like to think that there are a few patrons out there that might be willing to support this artist. I suppose we'll see. However that turns out, IMO the story of creation is a big part of any finished work. Really, would Guernica be the same if it was just the picture? Like many great works, the story itself is intwined with the finished object.

So here begins this story. I'm going to work on it in the off hours from my other stories...my writing. Let's see where it goes. Have you started anything new lately?

PS. No neighbors were actually eaten for this post, but I have watched more zombie movies than a depressed teenage vampire.....*burp*

Photo by flickr's Soggydan