It’s an experiment, it may not work

It’s an Experiment, it May not Work
President’s Letter
October 2014

John Cleese, the great, um philosopher, of Monty Python fame once said that “nothing will stop you from being creative so effectively as the fear of making a mistake”.   I’d like to encourage you to play, to experiment and take chances with your weaving and spinning.  Dare I say it? Sample!  Put on some warp and see what happens.  How about trying to combine to colors that don’t ‘go together’ and seeing what you can do to make them work?  Maybe try a treadling system from one weave structure on the threading of another.  Play around with sett and see how your weaving changes if the same yarns are sett closely or further apart.

So often we get hung up on what the product of our weaving or spinning will be– and that can hamper our growth and learning.  It’s an unfortunate side effect of our art or craft that we have these THINGS when we’re done.  My husband is a musician, he can play for hours and there is no record of what he’s done, it all just goes into the ether.  But when I weave I’ll have several feet of evidence afterwards! And none of us want a record of something ugly, do we?  Maybe let’s forget all about making something and just think of making good, creative, inventive weavers!

That’s my challenge to you  — find something you’ve never done before, maybe something that no one’s done before and give it a whirl, or whorl, as the case may be.
(you can read John Cleese’s essay on creativity here)