You have to leave the city of your comfort and
go into the wilderness of your intuition.
~ Alan Alda ~
My very first steps into crochet...
~ Alan Alda ~
My very first steps into crochet...
As I am just taking the first steps into crochet I thought this would be a good time to start a blog about intuitive art. I have found my way into every craft I have learned, whether knitting, weaving, spinning, spoolknitting, various forms of embellishment, freeform knitting, and more, by learning a few simple stitches from books, videos, or friends, and then, with the barest of any concrete knowledge, and with the simplest of stitches to begin with, I have entered into a new artform like a newborn babe learning to walk and talk and find their way into a whole new world. I have taken these most basic stitches and worked at seeing how far I could go with them, improvising along the way, probably horrifying traditional artists with my forays into the madness of working with no patterns, probably making mistakes that would startle by-the-book artisans whose work I highly admire, and going happily on my way with what I have long called my Wabi Sabi Fiber Art.
Wabi sabi is the Japanese aesthetic that comes out of the Japanese Tea Ceremony and celebrates the imperfect-perfect in life. When I say that I celebrate imperfections, I do not by any stretch mean to say that I am sloppy at my craft and use "wabi sabi" as an excuse to create a work that is just plain awful, with, say, big gaping holes that cause the work to fall apart. No, I mean that along the way to learning a craft, and even after becoming fairly proficient at it, what one might view as a "mistake" is often a path into a whole new way of looking at something, learning a new way to use what was formerly viewed as a mistake as a new way of adding something special to the work, and most of all, learn the basics, but then let the imagination just run wild, and let your intuition take over. In the end it is as you are following the work rather than it, you. No, I don't use patterns, and I don't even have one that I have created in my own mind, I simply start and am as surprised as anyone where I end up.
The picture at the very top of this site is a piece of knitted freeform for an exchange on my Women's Artistic Soul list. All of my pieces so far have been knitted freeform, but I have for years wanted to learn how to crochet, have many books, yarns, crochet hooks in many sizes and types, and have been ready to take off with it when some inner urging led me there. It finally came last week, and the first evening, after watching a little video on single crochet to just lay the foundation and get started, I leaped in and did what you see in the picture above. I improvised the doing of some of the stitches by adding extra chain stitches in subsequent rows in the yellow to make it lay flat, just to see how it worked. I hadn't read or seen that anywhere, but it just felt like it made sense along the way and I was happy with the results. The wonderful thing about freeform work is that is will allow this kind of intuitive work, and I think will be the way that I work from here on out, even if combining pieces with several techniques: knitting, weaving, spoolknitting, embroidery, embellishment, and yes, now crochet.
And while I don't follow patterns, I love to look at the pictures in books. I become inspired, and while I am not trying to copy any patterns, something may lead me into trying something new. The first book to the right covers all of the basic stitches and more and is very straightforward and simple. When I am ready to learn a new stitch, I use that, and I think you've got to have good books at your side no matter how freeformy and intuitive the work is. You need to learn a craft before you can play with it, but you can just, as I do, learn a few basic steps and take off with it. This is what I have done with this first piece that I am crocheting, and while I'm a little past this point, this is the piece above as it looks today...
I am alway a few steps ahead with color in my mind, with various yarns sitting around me (I am a fiend for playing with lots of colors and textures), but I don't know what I am going to do until I work the new color in and keep crocheting round and round. I am finding crochet so enchanting, so much fun, that I can barely put it down. Often sitting here with a grey parrot on my shoulder, a cup of tea at my side, a black dog on the floor beside me, listening to music or watching a cozy mystery from Netflix, my hands have found their own rhythm and I feel calm, peaceful, utterly delighted as I have finally found my way to crochet and now am allowing myself to play with it, not following any patterns or rules, just like a young child making mudpies in a sandbox, I am just leaping round and about with the material at hand and no one is more surprised than I what might come out on the other side. This is a true delight, a deep pleasure, and as much as I love knitting, weaving, spinning, and all the rest, I have honestly never had as much fun as I am now with crochet. I have always been self taught, with little helping hands when I had specific questions along the way, but I was too serious and worried that I was doing it wrong. That not only got me nowhere fast, it froze me up so that, fearing I would make a mistake, I often laid the work aside and didn't have the nerve to touch it again for some long time.
Perhaps it comes with years of experience with many crafts, this ability to let go, not worry, not be ashamed and nervous about making mistakes, and just leaping into the project at hand with wild abandon and untold joy. That is what I am doing now, and it feels good.
One thing that I do know about myself is that I have an inner sense of shape and form, usually coming from ancient sacred symbols, that rise in the work without my thinking about it. Circles, spirals, and labyrinths have been appearing in my work for some time. I just wrote a blog entry about spirals and more on my other blog ~ Gathering, Yielding, Opening, Ripening... The piece is about these symbols rising in our subconscious mind at a time we really need them, and they help us understand our life at present, and turn up in our art work in many different ways. I find this fascinating. I will be exploring this sort of thing here as well.
For some pictures of my previous fiber works, you can click on the flickr pictures in the right colume and it will take you to the flickr site that has a whole folder of my fiber pictures. You will see many pieces, knitting, weaving, spinning, making batts for spinners, dolls, and other kinds of work, all of which I have learned in the manner in which I approach crochet today. And so learning crochet, which I will share with you here along the way, will become a metaphor for the way I have learned all of the crafts that I do in the past, as well as how the way I do my art guides the way I live my life, write my books, and more.
I have a fiber blog that came before this one but was having technical difficulties with it. There is a lot there and it is still extant, and will remain so. This blog follows that one, and represents a maturation and deepening of my work and my relation to it. The old blog you will find at Notes From A Wabi Sabi Fiber Artist. And any information about my work here at Dragonfly Cottage Fiber Studio you will find on my main website, Dragonfly Cottage. I will be redoing my page of works for sale in the near future, and adding to them ongoing in the months ahead.
I hope you will leave comments, sharing with me, and other readers, your own forays into intuitive art and freeform work. Feel free to leave your websites and blogs with your comments so that we may all share in this marvelous journey. And watch my crochet unfold in the weeks and months ahead, as I learn new techniques, a few new stitches, and continue to find my way joyfully into this new craft along the way.
Warm Regards and Deep Blessings to one and all...
Maitri
Wabi sabi is the Japanese aesthetic that comes out of the Japanese Tea Ceremony and celebrates the imperfect-perfect in life. When I say that I celebrate imperfections, I do not by any stretch mean to say that I am sloppy at my craft and use "wabi sabi" as an excuse to create a work that is just plain awful, with, say, big gaping holes that cause the work to fall apart. No, I mean that along the way to learning a craft, and even after becoming fairly proficient at it, what one might view as a "mistake" is often a path into a whole new way of looking at something, learning a new way to use what was formerly viewed as a mistake as a new way of adding something special to the work, and most of all, learn the basics, but then let the imagination just run wild, and let your intuition take over. In the end it is as you are following the work rather than it, you. No, I don't use patterns, and I don't even have one that I have created in my own mind, I simply start and am as surprised as anyone where I end up.
The picture at the very top of this site is a piece of knitted freeform for an exchange on my Women's Artistic Soul list. All of my pieces so far have been knitted freeform, but I have for years wanted to learn how to crochet, have many books, yarns, crochet hooks in many sizes and types, and have been ready to take off with it when some inner urging led me there. It finally came last week, and the first evening, after watching a little video on single crochet to just lay the foundation and get started, I leaped in and did what you see in the picture above. I improvised the doing of some of the stitches by adding extra chain stitches in subsequent rows in the yellow to make it lay flat, just to see how it worked. I hadn't read or seen that anywhere, but it just felt like it made sense along the way and I was happy with the results. The wonderful thing about freeform work is that is will allow this kind of intuitive work, and I think will be the way that I work from here on out, even if combining pieces with several techniques: knitting, weaving, spoolknitting, embroidery, embellishment, and yes, now crochet.
And while I don't follow patterns, I love to look at the pictures in books. I become inspired, and while I am not trying to copy any patterns, something may lead me into trying something new. The first book to the right covers all of the basic stitches and more and is very straightforward and simple. When I am ready to learn a new stitch, I use that, and I think you've got to have good books at your side no matter how freeformy and intuitive the work is. You need to learn a craft before you can play with it, but you can just, as I do, learn a few basic steps and take off with it. This is what I have done with this first piece that I am crocheting, and while I'm a little past this point, this is the piece above as it looks today...
I am alway a few steps ahead with color in my mind, with various yarns sitting around me (I am a fiend for playing with lots of colors and textures), but I don't know what I am going to do until I work the new color in and keep crocheting round and round. I am finding crochet so enchanting, so much fun, that I can barely put it down. Often sitting here with a grey parrot on my shoulder, a cup of tea at my side, a black dog on the floor beside me, listening to music or watching a cozy mystery from Netflix, my hands have found their own rhythm and I feel calm, peaceful, utterly delighted as I have finally found my way to crochet and now am allowing myself to play with it, not following any patterns or rules, just like a young child making mudpies in a sandbox, I am just leaping round and about with the material at hand and no one is more surprised than I what might come out on the other side. This is a true delight, a deep pleasure, and as much as I love knitting, weaving, spinning, and all the rest, I have honestly never had as much fun as I am now with crochet. I have always been self taught, with little helping hands when I had specific questions along the way, but I was too serious and worried that I was doing it wrong. That not only got me nowhere fast, it froze me up so that, fearing I would make a mistake, I often laid the work aside and didn't have the nerve to touch it again for some long time.
Perhaps it comes with years of experience with many crafts, this ability to let go, not worry, not be ashamed and nervous about making mistakes, and just leaping into the project at hand with wild abandon and untold joy. That is what I am doing now, and it feels good.
One thing that I do know about myself is that I have an inner sense of shape and form, usually coming from ancient sacred symbols, that rise in the work without my thinking about it. Circles, spirals, and labyrinths have been appearing in my work for some time. I just wrote a blog entry about spirals and more on my other blog ~ Gathering, Yielding, Opening, Ripening... The piece is about these symbols rising in our subconscious mind at a time we really need them, and they help us understand our life at present, and turn up in our art work in many different ways. I find this fascinating. I will be exploring this sort of thing here as well.
For some pictures of my previous fiber works, you can click on the flickr pictures in the right colume and it will take you to the flickr site that has a whole folder of my fiber pictures. You will see many pieces, knitting, weaving, spinning, making batts for spinners, dolls, and other kinds of work, all of which I have learned in the manner in which I approach crochet today. And so learning crochet, which I will share with you here along the way, will become a metaphor for the way I have learned all of the crafts that I do in the past, as well as how the way I do my art guides the way I live my life, write my books, and more.
I have a fiber blog that came before this one but was having technical difficulties with it. There is a lot there and it is still extant, and will remain so. This blog follows that one, and represents a maturation and deepening of my work and my relation to it. The old blog you will find at Notes From A Wabi Sabi Fiber Artist. And any information about my work here at Dragonfly Cottage Fiber Studio you will find on my main website, Dragonfly Cottage. I will be redoing my page of works for sale in the near future, and adding to them ongoing in the months ahead.
I hope you will leave comments, sharing with me, and other readers, your own forays into intuitive art and freeform work. Feel free to leave your websites and blogs with your comments so that we may all share in this marvelous journey. And watch my crochet unfold in the weeks and months ahead, as I learn new techniques, a few new stitches, and continue to find my way joyfully into this new craft along the way.
Warm Regards and Deep Blessings to one and all...
Maitri
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