Weekly Challenge - Week 35

Welcome September! Bring on the fall weather- the warm, bright days with the sun a little lower in the sky as i complete my morning commute, and the crisp evenings that require a light sweater or an artsy scarf (like the one i made this past Sunday at the Scarf-in-A-Day workshop i took from the Memphis Guild of Hand Weavers)

My lovely scarf hand woven on a table loom 

I've been working on a special order for several weeks and i finally created the perfect pieces. I thought i had finished them last week- i did final polish, took photos and everything.. but i sat down last night and completely re-did them and i have to say, i'm impressed with myself. :) i like to think that my (re)new(ed), positive (no complaining) POV has something to do with the creative breakthru.. as well as spending a day doing something creatively different.

There are times when i just want to make something completely useless but beautiful- i often find myself making things that are 'useful' or 'wearable'. and i put those in quotes because they're subjective terms- wearable to some people would be unbearable to others and then again some people really do delight in the art wearing them...

usefulness is one of those things i find myself struggling with constantly-- we have 2 sets of flatware- one is a lovely set of stainless steel that andy and i picked out together and it's our 'daily' use set. The second one is my grandmother's sterling silver set. it is beautiful and glowing and i try to use it on the regular, but i find myself pulling out the steel more than the silver because i don't want to 'mess up' the silver. However, as it sits in the drawer, unused, it becomes tarnished. regular use keeps it glowing and silver. How do i toe the line, as an artist, of creating unique and beautiful works that are useful- that are sturdy enough for daily use, should the owner wish to do that? I don't want to make things that just sit in a china cabinet and never know the touch of the family that owns them, never bears witness to special events, or even daily events... and this is the quandary of being a somewhat grounded person that learned making as a way to provide useful things, repair things and upgrade existing things rather than going the fine art route.

Weaving the scarf felt very familiar to my hands- self-sufficiency is something that i ponder often. If i lived in a tree house in the woods, would i be able to provide myself with all the things i need to survive? what would my life look like if i lived off the land as much as possible? How would being a metal smith fit into that life? (i can see it now- off the grid, growing my own food, living in a tree house and getting regular deliveries from Rio Grande! LOL!)

I still have a dream of a little artist commune where we create art and the things we need for day-to-day living... i joke that i'll do it when i win the lottery (gotta remember to buy a ticket), but i find myself turning more and more towards that as a goal for normal, real life..