The thing about love…

I fall in and out of love with everything I make. Always have, always will. Traditionally I fall out of love about five minutes after I finish a project; I’m already on the the next seven things and have no room left in my mind/heart/whatever. What I actually love is the idea, the problem, not the object itself. Once finished the challenge is over; the piece just sits there, a dead thing.

At least that was how it used to work. Fabric is different. I find myself falling in and out of love with different prints almost daily. That’s the joy of designing fabric; the cloth itself is not really the finished thing. Every day I see someone (often myself) using it in a different way, and see a print anew. Each time I see it somewhere I get to see it through someone else’s eyes, I get to see the small connections someone else has made…

At first I struggled with this whole process of designing intermediate things (the fabric), but now I really appreciate what it can mean to me as a designer. Everything you all make is an opportunity to re-see, to renew my relationship to what I have done, to learn about the fabric from and through you all.

I’m never going to love everything I’ve made. Heck, I’m unlikely to ever like much of it at any given moment, but right now I’m pretty okay with falling in and out (and back in) love with it.

So, please keep sharing what you make. I have a handy-dandy Flickr group and would love to see what you are up to, to see how you see the fabric and maybe fall back in love…

Yay fabric!!!

Yay you!!!

-T