Batch Of Black

Over the weekend, I reread Malcolm Gladwell's book The Outliers: The Story of Success. This is an eye opening book. It'll make you view how people achieve success - including your own success - in significantly different ways. The first time through, the big take away for me was that no matter how hard you worked, or how good you were, success was not an automatic guarantee. That was counter culture to the talk I grew up with.

The second time through, I was impacted by how often Malcolm talked about you can't do "it" alone, that behind every successful person is not only a string of lucky coincidences but an incredible support group. At the end of a discussion about Chris Langan, a man with an unbelievably high IQ who by many standards wouldn't be considered a success, is the sentence: He'd had to make his way alone, and no one - not rock stars, not professional athletes, not software billionaires, and not even geniuses, ever make it alone.

In June, while I was waiting in the Portland airport between dropping my friend off at her flight and picking my husband up, I talked to one of the sales clerks at The Real Mother Goose, a store that sells fine American crafts. In particular, we talked about some beautifully made garments and scarves for sale between $500 and $1,000 and discussed the artists, the price range, and how often one of those pieces sold. One every couple of months. That's good information considering that a lot of rich, bored, and shopping people go through an airport.

I've been getting a lot of pressure from numerous people to have my purses in New York or in Carmel or in Vancouver or in Toronto or in _______. Fill in the blank. It's a long list. I've had to debate am I being realistic or am I overlooking what would be my string of lucky breaks but the difference between what Malcolm describes in the book and what I'm experiencing is an idea versus an affirmative action. I've experienced affirmative action.

Several years ago, I received a call from one of the galleries that carries my work. When the caller identified herself as a gallery owner and said that my photographer had called her and shown her my work and that it was amazing and she would like carry it in her gallery, I darn near fell off the couch. It's SO RARE. What I know for sure is that that gallery owner loves my work and supports me and the sale of my work in numerous ways and that at a lower price, there isn't enough money in making purses to make a living and at a higher price, there aren't enough buyers buying often enough to make a living but if I put all my eggs in the purse making basket, that's the only thing I'd be doing - making purses - which is why I have made a decision to let making purses be a fun activity and let selling them through the two galleries that want to carry them be a way of moving them along. Good and enough.

While the price may go up as a result of numerous things, my expectations can remain focused on having fun, on exploring the concept of zero waste, and on creative expression. All the way through reading The Outliers I wondered if I had a silver ball and was looking at my life would I see that here is where I zigged when I should have zagged. Possibly. But we can only make the decision we can make with the information we have when it's in front of us and I'm very tired of the struggle for financial success via creativity.

Creativity equals money is a question I want to put down to keep creativity fun. That is something I need more than money. I don't want to spend all of the time in my studio making the same thing for the purposes of selling it. I've done that before and I refer to it as my prostitution phase. What I want is to explore other creative directions and answer numerous creative questions.

The fabric I made this second version of V8691 with is wonderfully drapey and a nightmare to stitch through. Any top stitching creates a white jagged looking line where the needle and thread split the fabric - no matter what thread you use - no matter what needle you use. I ended up wrapping the neckline and sleeve hems in an alternative black. I tried that for the hem as well except it then stood away from the body and made me look pregnant instead of slim and shapely. Since I prefer slim and shapely, I cut the binding off and went with a raw edge.

The black t-shirts I bought earlier this year have not lasted like they normally do. The fabrics have faded and stretched and the neckbands are pulling out of shape. Since I have a lot of black fabric in stash, I've decided to sew my own batch of black t-shirts this fall. The back of V8691 has princess seams that are incredibly flattering. After I'd cut out the back piece of my T & T, the thought occurred that I should have morphed those lines and experimented with more shaping so I lay the V8691 back pattern piece over the T & T shape, and cut off the exposed black bit and then cut the side back pattern piece out of the fabric remnant. We'll see how that goes.

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - eventual sunshine