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| The Lovely Claire.... |
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This could be the new business card...what do you think? That was after Wednesday night at the WiRE meeting (Women in Rural Enterprise). So enthousiastic about our ideas! So positive and interested! Made me feel that yes, we could do it! Spent most of Thursday playing with Mr. Vistaprint and came up with the above. Then I had this email from BayTree Cottage inviting me to have a stand at their open day next Saturday. To sell the teacosies! Imagine, I am so excited, it feels like the bigest gift and may be I'll sell a few and then I'll be so thrilled! And this week-end was the great Wrest Park Craft Show near where I live and it again, was amazing! All these artisans I talked to who patiently explained stuff to me, encouraged me, told me to email them if I needed help and generally were the most generous people in the whole world. I have no money so was not buying much. I was spotted as a "Maker" (by the way isn't it a wonderful job to have...what do you do...I am a Maker...sounds just grand doesn't it), anyway that was a possible rival you would think but no, oh no...the sharing, the offers, the friendship were amazing. I want to mention the lovely Claire Louise who makes amazing felt bags. Here is her website if you are interested www.clairefairall.co.uk. It is not everyday that you can discuss the joys of Bamboo knitting needles with a total stranger and get excited by their excellence! Also, she has an Etsy Shop. In case you don't know, Etsy is the big forum website on which "Makers" sell their stuff. I registered with them months ago but have never managed to get the courage to open my shop. She was so amazingly encouraging and said I must do it, what could she do to help, etc. etc.... so thanks Lovely Claire and I'll take you up on your offer! This has made me muse (as I am usually doing of a Sunday evening) on what the world would be like if everybody was as generous and friendly as that, how people could share skills and information freely, without feeling threatened, how we could all be "Makers" and make together, weave and spin a better world. I wonder if this happens when you work with your hands. Working with your hands is so different from other workings. I have learnt over the months not to blame the flour/the yeast for not causing my bread to rise, not to complain to the wool for the shape of a garnment to be all wrong. I have learnt to accept that sometimes...it just does not turn out right. There are no rhymes nor reasons to it, it just does not happen. The bread does not rise, the tomatoes do no ripen or there is too much/not enough water. Whom to blame... there is no one to blame when you are a Maker. You need to be true to yourself and get on. If something goes wrong you just have to unmake it and start again. And there will be dragons....  |
It was a joy to meet you xXx
ReplyDeleteI think that each project which does not become what I imagined is an opportunity to look sideways and see a new possiblity. (even if it is another lesson in patience)
love and light to you
Claire Louise
Hi Baya
ReplyDeleteSo true. The satisfaction and wholeness of being a maker is such a different way of being from being a "consumer" of unethically mass produced items in our current "who dies with the best toys wins" paradigm.
Using wild yeast in breadmaking has been a real discovery in the way that temeperature and other variables affect the rising of the dough. I think that we are too used to "perfect" supermarket fruit and veg and to myriad copies of the same item. Making or growing is an opporunity to experience something different.
And if the tomatoes don't ripen, you can always make chutney :-)