Week 52 Taking Vows

This is a wonderful way to wrap up what has been such a labour of love for me. A year of creative living, limited only by my own constraints. Playfully exploring and deeply thinking, all the while sharing the process with my writing and photographs. 

I am incredibly grateful to have had the leisure and luxury to delve into each creation, each week and let inspiration guide me. Then to be able to quietly reflect on each experience, one week at a time. It has given me insight and direction that I couldn't have foreseen when I undertook this goal a year ago. 

This all began as an attempt to refocus myself. After many weeks of job searching and resume building, I was reminded of a certain personality test. Armed with a better understanding of myself and my many, many big ideas that often battle it out for my undivided attention, I was told to pick one and focus on it. So I did, but I made it as all encompassing as I could. So here we are, a year later, and a little more experienced. 

I am much more forgiving and appreciative of the skills that I've been able to practice and of the new skills I have recently learned. From this, a few techniques and styles dominate my thoughts and request of me more intimate exploration. It almost feels like a deeper commitment needs to be made with a few of these emerging ideas, in a move to understand them more expertly. 

I said it in the first week and find myself thinking again, how all the coincidences or little repetitions of ideas surround me and I am reminded how we are all connected, artistically and energetically. I am currently reading Elizabeth Gilbert's Big Magic. "Taking Vows" is where I find myself tonight and in this coincidental moment, or not, I can say how wonderful it has been to take a year to finally explore who I can be as a designer. It still feels so childish to acknowledge yet the eight year old in me still dreams about becoming a fashion designer. It has very rarely been something I have spoken about, but rather something so sacred to me that I have held it as close to me as possible.  But like anything that one wants to learn, one must stop just thinking about it and practice it often. 

This is also a celebration, perhaps, after a year of novice education and to what ever comes next. And many people have asked, "so what happens next?"  

I love that these ideas have been put out into the world and now they are no longer my own. Where they will travel and if they return to me is beyond any control that I have. Already they have circled the globe ever so quietly. All I can do is continue to give what time I can to the ones that still sing the loudest in my mind.  Reemerging slideshows of how to approach sustainable design, crossroads of design thought and shades of grey, to name a few. 

After all this, I still do not claim to understand Eco fashion. It is too big a concept for me to swallow whole. But what I do believe, is that Eco fashion encompasses a multitude of ideals and any clothing that supports any number of these can be classified as Eco fashion. 

Will we see zero-waste design trend in the Eco fashion industry. Selfishly, I hope so, because how exciting would it be to "invited to the party!"? 

Lastly, what role has hemp played in all of this? My passion for the plant is still strong and after a year of sewing with the same fabric, I am excited to apply some of these rough styles to other hemp fabrics.  I am confident, finally, that hemp has a prosperous future. Just ask Hemp Traders. 

With love, Kerri

I am that I am.