Ah… A new year. Another year. I know it has been a hot minute since I have posted. But I always seem to come back to here. Do you realize I have been blogging on and off since 2002? I have my old blog archived somewhere, and at some point I intend to post it as a PDF or something. Because It documents my entire journey to becoming a fiber artist. Most people probable could not care less. But I do. It shows how messy and confusing and nonlinear my process was and still continues to be. Maybe I just post it to remind myself, and possibly that one person who is doubting their own creative process. Anyway, I digress…

So here I am, like everyone else a little better at navigating the pandemic, a little more confident about my new career as a real estate agent. I have found it is the perfect job to fit my art time around. The community clay studio opened back up and with the help of my art journal I have been making some fantastic exciting ceramics that are just for me. Something no that is feeding my own creative mojo.I am so grateful for that space. I love my handmade ceramics. 

I have followed my bliss with fiber art and am pulling together a lagenlook capsule wardrobe. I have always liked to make clothes. Like even as a kid new to sewing, it was so exciting to make something to wear. These days it is almost necessary. I absolutely hate how cheaply made today’s clothes are in the stores. And the man made fibers in the current fabrics are horrible and just gross. Everything is made to be so disposable. I even hate the current colors and styles. It all looks so cheap to me, despite being way more expensive than I care to spend on such poor quality. 

My home studio is half in boxes as I refocus on making that space better serve my creative directions. A little disorienting for sure, but I have my current sweater WIP and my art journal to keep me anchored in my creativity. Big change is afoot at Chez Kamison, more on that later in another post.

But for now I am back…blogging in the spirit of Austin Kleon  to share my work…and keep going …and encourage you to steal my ideas, or maybe so I can steal my own at some point in the future. But I have always loved blogging. I have always meant to get back to it.

I am making a very basic go-with-everything-in-my-closet Henley style pullover in some very old (dare I say vintage?) Elsbeth Lavold silky wool I have had since the late 90s when I first learned how to knit and the yarn shop in Birmingham was going out of business. It is a heather grey tweed which will go with the obscene amount of heather grey clothes in my closet. I am 1/4 of the way through the second sleeve. Great pattern, but I did need to drop 4 needle sizes to get gauge. I am an unusually loose knitter, but this is a bit extreme even for me. I would take a picture, but I am honestly feeling too lazy to do so. I really just wanted to test out the new IPad keyboard I got to schlep my blogging to the coffee shop next week. I will post some pics later.

Maybe I’ll even post some art journal Pix. My art journal has always been so very important for me. But the last 2 years it has been instrumental in growing my ideas and being that personal creative space that has held some of my best work. Evolving my art journals has been such a big thing for me in the last 10 years. But I just can not imagine making art without it. It is my safe space to play and explore the what ifs as well as fail epically. I have tried so many different ways to keep my art journals. Some ideas work some don’t. Some ideas evolve to work or not work anymore. I still struggle to let my art journals be what ever they need to be in the moment. My left brain wants parameters. My right brain knows better.

So for now, I am dreaming of my next few months, slow stitching the first sweater I have made in along while, drawing out new inspirations in my art journal and thinking about how to get back to sharing my work. Visual language I have cultivated carefully in private while I navigated the craziness that was the last 2 years along with some extra self care that I have no doubt all of us have been craving.

What are you working on? More soon….