I know that it's been ages since I updated this blog. My brain has actually been feeling like the butterflies I've been obsessed with! It flits from one thing to another, settling just long enough to drink the nectar and use the joy and excitement of that first flush of enthusiasm to dance off to another thought! It's very creative, but also very tiring and frustrating at times! (Not only for me, but for those around me too!)
The problem comes when the flitting doesn't provide sufficient nectar, and I just get tired. The collapse of a butterfly is one of the saddest sights.
That said, my recent obsession has as least surrounded me with fabric, colour, stitches and a path forwards! I've always romantically thought of myself as Tesla or Plath, but somewhere inside there is always Darwin or Edison:
Tesla on Edison: "If he had a needle to find in a haystack he would not stop to reason where it was most likely to be, but would proceed at once, with the feverish diligence of a bee, to examine straw after straw until he found the object of his search. I was almost a sorry witness of such doings, knowing that a little theory and calculation would have saved him ninety per cent of his labour."
—New York Times, October 19, 1931 (the day after Edison died)
The first 2 months of 2024 have felt a bit like being caught in a tumble dryer, or at least, being caught in that very necessary fluff which collects in the trap.
Sometimes my commitment to The Stitchbook Collective feels onerous, but actually I do, over time, realise more and more, that it is that which contains the nectar for my creativity. Without it, the light from my own candle becomes very dark and far too intense. These two images (made in the same week) really sum up how I feel on a regular basis. Thank goodness for the medication, and my friends, without them, the highs are too high and the lows are too low. I am happy to keep refocussing on the green shoots of growth.
As you probably know, a large part of that focus comes in the form of fundraising projects for MIND, and I will shortly be updating the Untangled Threads website to give an overall idea of what I hope the new project is looking like. It's coming in several phases. There will be the opportunity for people to get involved at many different skill levels. Hopefully, the project can live up to it's title 'The Butterfly Effect' and my one small action can set off a tsunami of support.
Thanks for being here, and for being part of it.
x x x x
