Creativity

[firstfallenpanda]

Been musing on creativity lately. I went to this Craft meeting in CT (every month at the Book Lounge) organised via Ravelry. There were 10 ladies there and everyone but me had a creative job. Designers, graphics, hand-made bags, artists and fashion importers. I felt a bit out of it with my boring accounting job. I keep telling myself (and everyone else) that it's boring and not my passion but it pays the bills and gives me money to be creative in my spare time.

One of the ladies I met was Jesse (who, it turns out, live about 3 houses down from me!) and she came to my Sewing Circle last Sunday. I've checked out her blog and she's amazingly creative. An illustrator by trade, she does prints (on fabric and paper), makes bags, knitted toys, lampshades, anything it seems. No wonder my productivity has spiked in the new house, I'm obviously getting runoff from her :P. She even has a graphic novel published! Just wow.

I've spent a lot of time on Ravelry, organising my knitting queue for this year. I've finally finished the Aran of Doom*. Eish, epic. I'm going to knit a quick hat and some booties for a lady at work who's leaving end of June and then I'll do Phleep's dad's things and then maybe something for me. Although, wolverine_nun has recently given me some Sirdar Baby Bamboo (so lush and delicious, I want to purr when I stroke it against my cheek) so I need to knit a baby jersey now. I'd love to knit something for myself from this (although, these are lavender, so probably another colour) but I'm worried the 20% wool will make me itch.

The point of this post, really, was to show you all this wonderful Gorey-esque blog, A Column Inch (via Jesse's blog).

“Someone’s moved my sewing casket”, grumbled

Mother, descending into the parlour with a hisss.

“Mmmmph… mmmphmmm…mmmph” suggested Edgar

from behind the ornamental rhododendron.

Very cute.

Kitteh update: Puff is back to her old evil self**. I think I actually watched the transformation last night: one moment still kinda sleepy and depressed, the next moment leaping on Phleep's foot and chomping him. Obviously the anaesthetic took 72 hours to wear off. She pulled one stitch out on Monday morning but after liberal application of a bitter spray, she jumps back every time she puts her head near her tummy. It's funny to watch but that stuff is gross, it made me gag.



* but I made the button holes too far apart and only discovered this right at the end. I'm still contemplating undoing the whole band and redoing the buttonholes, but the band took me 4 nights to knit. I'll only see the cardigan once a year but when I do all the work I did the past 4 months will be ruined by the too-far-apart buttons. On the other hand (ha), the recipient has developed arthritis, so might never button it up, in which case it won't be obvious. I've got till the end of July to decide.

** I think I preferred the sedated self. She was loving and cuddling and sweet, I think she was feeling sore and insecure and wanting cuddles and reassurance that we weren't punishing her by letting someone cut out her bits. I feel bad that I locked her in the lounge on Friday night, she must've been so lonely and cold, but I didn't want the other kits playing with her or licking her stitches. Poor little baby :(.

Comments

[kadekraan.livejournal.com]

There's nothing wrong with paying the bills and having disposable income (and time) to pursue your hobbies. If you're managing to save, even better. The question is - what is your passion and how do you get from here to there? On the positive side of feeling a bit out of it, it sounds like you're making contacts in the creative industry, which will be handy if you ever want to move in that direction.

Passion of the meh

[first-fallen.livejournal.com]

I don't know if I have a passion (jobwise at least). Ideally it would be awesome if someone would pay me to sit around and knit and fondle kitties but I would probably get bored of that. I can do a lot of creative things and people often ask why I don't have a market stall and I tell them that if I had to make stuff on demand as a job then I would end up hating the stress of it and not want to do that hobby anymore. I think once I've been here a few years I might like to try my hand at being a practice manager. My boss does a lot of hands-on stuff as well as HR and high-end financial management. I see my degree as a road to something, not a defining career in itself. With a BCom I can go do anything, I don't _have_ to be in accounts.

I did want to be a costume designer, but I sucked at that. I'm good at historical costumes but I can't draw for toffee. There are no costume design courses here, you have to do fashion design first and my creations were hardly "marketable" or "popular". Sigh.

[veratiny.livejournal.com]

My Crafternoon group is also all people in creative fields with fine arts degrees, but the sad thing is they never get to be creative just for the sake of it.

It some ways having a job that pays the bills and being creative in your "off time" is preferable because you don't end up with that feeling that you should be satisfied creatively by your work and then are sad when you are not. I am happy in my situation, I have a job in the arts but it is not creative which means all the creating I do is just for me... so selfish I am!

Selfishness

[first-fallen.livejournal.com]

I don't really make things for me. I enjoy the process of knitting, the end product is a happy side-effect. I'd say that 95% of what I make is for other people.

Re: Selfishness

[wolverine-nun.livejournal.com]

Like my lucky girls :)

More small worldism

[egadfly.livejournal.com]

It's not just that Jesse lives up the road from you. It seems that Mrs. Tex Benitez of A Column Inch knows my friend Dolce - they are on each other's "blogrolls" (sounds faintly revolting but I think it's the wordpress equivalent of fwiending) and comment mutually from time to time. I have known Dolce since we were teenagers but only learned about her blog when I saw her in Cape Town on my last visit. As it happens, her house is not a very long walk from yours. (Then again, many of the people I know in CT are in your general area, so that last bit's not so impressive.)

Re: More small worldism

[first-fallen.livejournal.com]

Yes, I saw that nick :). Obviously all the cool people live in Obs.

Re: More small worldism

[ladolcevitasa.livejournal.com]

Yes they do. And hang out in strange Constantia type places. Drinking too much coffee.

They do...

Isn't Mrs B just fabulously wicked.