Cavandoli Knotwork

As I have said, I was really inspired by macrame when I went to Argentina a couple of years ago. I went with a half-Brazillian friend of mine, Tanya, and we were both really inspired by the work we saw in Patagonia. She now lives in Rio De Janeiro and makes lovely work with macrame and crystals.

Me and Tanya

Recently she was visiting in Sydney and gave me a wonderful gift - she sold me a load of her macrame thread, which I was having so much trouble finding here in Australia, and she also lent me a DVD by Joan Babcock on Macrame and Cavandoli Knotwork. It was awesome. I learned a great deal that I have been able to add into my own work. I got to experimenting, and yesterday I finished a piece I have been working on for days! It took a really long time to make, so I'm not sure if I will be willing to part with it. But it taught me a lot about what can be achieved if you put your mind to it.

Cavandoli Knotwork necklace - not for sale

Getting inspired for design is a funny thing. Sometimes you have a good idea of what it is you want to acheive, and you just go and make it. But that's not usually the time when things work out the best. More often, it's the times when you don't know what is going to happen, but you have an image of the FEELING of the piece, that is more strong - that is when you do something good, something inspired.

I'm enjoying the process of finding out how to be inspired again. After working for a few years in fashion design, about eight years ago, I became really jaded. I was working for a swimwear company full time and by the end of my time there I felt like I had no creativity left in my soul. It took a long time for me to find it again, and to approach it with a more healthy attitude. When I was a designer full time there was an imense pressure to perform, to be creative every minute of every day. It just doesn't work like that. It's a more spiritual and organic process. You can't schedule it in - you have to make your world inviting enough that it might visit you. Art doesn't have an appointment book! It's a free spirit! I feel like I'm doing a better job of things this time around. Though there are pot holes I need to try and avoid if I can:

1) Don't do it for money over love. You have to love what you design. Don't design for dollars.
2) Be inspired, but don't copy. All too many designers fall into the trap of copying when they have a design block.
3) Don't be afraid to mess it up. Sometimes your best work will come out of a risk you take.
4) Try different things, but don't slip away from who you are and what you want out of your label. Be true to yourself.
5) Keep going. The best designs often come when you persist with something. It might not be working just right now, but if you keep at it, you will create something amazing.
6) Don't overthink it. Feel it instead. Don't have "too many mind" like in the last Samurai ;-) Find your chi, your flow.

Hopefully I can keep this advise to myself in mind :-)