the internet cannot compete with the smell of lilacs at dusk

I want to give a big "thank you" to all the lovely people who have been supporting me on saturdays at the farmers market. It has been going so well with my own little booth that all this computer world is being neglected. I haven't posted new photos for etsy or this blog in too long.

so here is a quick list of spring delights:
lilacs blooming all over town
warm enough to wear a skirt(without jeans under it)
Dr.Sketchy's figure drawing sessions at the Temple Bar
eating dinner on the back porch
the tiniest swollen beginnings of figs on our tree
sharing comics with my class at three rivers
(class favorites: american elf and craig thompson)



oh!and I got into the Urban Craft Uprising in Seattle this August.

This quote has been my companion lately, especially while I was typing that last post:

Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination.Devour old films,new films,music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water,light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul.If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don't bother with concealing your thievery-celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said:"It's not where you take things from-it's where you take them to."
--Jim Jarmsch

some thoughts on originality and theft and reverse applique

The popularity of crafting right now creates an interesting set of dilemmas regarding originality and ethics. The internet is flooded with tutorials and hot crafters are featured in magazines and glossy how-to books. Now that I am back at the farmers market I am asked questions about my process. Sometimes explaining how I work gives added value to the handcrafted nature of my pieces. But sometimes someone just wants some free tips so they can make something similar at home. So as I'm chatting away in my booth I start to wonder,am I making conversation with a curious customer,is this just the friendly tradition of knowledge sharing within the craft community or did I just give away a trade secret to someone about to bite my style?
I am actually not as paranoid about someone stealing my patterns as I am about being accused of stealing from others. I freely admit I take ideas from everything I see,but I have my rules. There are certain books I won't buy for fear of either accidentally stealing an idea or seeing something similar to my existing work and then feeling like I stole it even though I didn't. I was looking through a book on recycled fabric projects and recognized a particularly great Gap striped sweater that I myself have made animals from. And then I saw their little stuffed bird and it was so similar to the chicks I make at Easter time I just had to put the book down. Because at that point I realized even if not consciously stealing, I am making the obvious choices with my craft. The choices that someone else also made and put in a book and is getting paid to tell people how easy it is to make it themselves.step.by.step.So why would anyone who had seen this book then buy a chick from me?
I struggled with this after purchasing the gorgeous alabama stitch book by Natalie Chanin. I was so inspired by both her business ethics and designs. I wanted to incorporate reverse applique into my cotton projects. After I made a headband from the book for personal use people kept asking me if I was making them for moth and squirrel and I awkwardly explained that I used someone's pattern so, no I wouldn't sell it. But then I felt stumped and paralyzed, questioning if I could authentically use the process at all.
Luckily I remembered I had messed around with reverse applique years ago on my original scrappy rascal wings.

Suddenly I gave myself permission to take this skill further and bring it into my current products. Reverse applique is a process of stitching two or more layers of fabric together and then cutting away sections of the top layer to reveal the fabric underneath.Most recently I have been using reverse applique on the esther amelia cotton hats.

yarn ball studies

I am teaching a small art class art a cooperative school out in the county. It is all about keeping an illustrated journal to document and explore your world. This week we explored the ways that different drawing tools change the way we draw.

logo and taxes

It is surprisingly difficult to photograph my new business cards on an overcast windy day.

You can see the shapes in the original carving a bit more clearly. The new fold cards for my pins and hair clips are really tight, but they are all at the studio and I am at home with the computer finding more ways to avoid my taxes.

oh taxes. This is one of the activities I love and hate about running moth and squirrel. Taking care of the business aspects of crafting usually stimulates the nerdy part of my brain. Something satisfies me about filling in the correct boxes and transferring numbers from one form to another. But I get nervous that I am doing it wrong or cheating myself out of some deduction with my honesty and innocence. I am right in the middle of not making any money (so taxes are simple) and doing really well (where I could justify hiring an accountant.)
My stomach tightened a little just writing about taxes. It probably relates to the fact that I put it off until April every year. Why didn't I do them in february when I was just putzing around in the studio, not in the push of a new market season?
I think it is time to get out of my pajamas (a luxury of an at home business day)and put on my business suit to focus on the task at hand.