sportivetricks (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sportivetricks) wrote2020-06-27 10:15 am
sportivetricks) wrote2020-06-27 10:15 am
Entry tags:
craftsmanship
I. Will. Finish. This. Fic. THIS. WEEKEND. !! Hopefully.
Meanwhile...
Sometimes I see something — a bag, a jacket, an embellishment — and I just have to knock it off. I can't rest until I've figured out how it was made and tried to make it myself.
I've been deep-diving crochet on Pinterest, and I kept seeing these bags by Italian designer Daniela Gregis. And every time one popped up, I would stop scrolling and marvel enviously: How did she *do* that?? Structurally, they are the most basic of designs, but her use of color and texture and pattern is remarkable.
I knew I could get close. And I just couldn't rest until I'd made my own version. And here it is! (Albeit with much worse photography. Edited because my pro designer husband was bored and took pity on me and hauled out his digital & tripod.)
Back view. Had to go my own way on the back! But I think it works well overall.
Writing is a craft, so you must know the feeling I'm talking about, if you write. You read a story that floors you, and you feel this compulsion to figure out why it floors you, to recreate that feeling for yourself, to make the story and yourself and your own craft better. And sometimes you even go for it out of a cocky sense of ambition. I could do better than *that*, you say to yourself.
But of course, you're not doing it better per se. You're doing it your way. And that's what makes craft so great, right? We all harvest from each other and feed each other and work individually towards this alluring ideal that wouldn't actually be possible for any one of us alone. Unless we're Shakespeare. ;)
I haven't been able to find much information on Daniela Gregis, except that she's based in Bergamo, Italy. Bergamo, like much of northern Italy, was ravaged by the coronavirus. An entire generation, gone in a month.
It may seem vacuous and tone-deaf considering the scope and tragedy of this moment in history, but the situation in Italy has weighed heavily on me as an artisan. Italy was on its last leg, and now it looks to be gone forever as we knew it.
Italy is artisanship. Textiles, yarns, mills, design. Secrets passed down from the Middle Ages, always pushing towards the newest technology while preserving the heart of the craft. The best fabrics I've sewn have come from Italy. They're unparalleled. Denim I've worn for over 3 years, and it's never lost its stretch or dye. That's craftsmanship. That's pride. It's a cheeky smirk to a high-speed world that seems to have lost its reverence for both. Those yarns, those fabrics, those carefully guarded trade secrets — are they gone now, too? I hope not. Maybe it will open the door for new possibilities, new opportunities.
There's something I've thought about so much during this crisis, something that's kept me going at those most frustrating, nihilistic, anxiety-ridden moments:
There would have been no Renaissance without the Plague.
Meanwhile...
Sometimes I see something — a bag, a jacket, an embellishment — and I just have to knock it off. I can't rest until I've figured out how it was made and tried to make it myself.
I've been deep-diving crochet on Pinterest, and I kept seeing these bags by Italian designer Daniela Gregis. And every time one popped up, I would stop scrolling and marvel enviously: How did she *do* that?? Structurally, they are the most basic of designs, but her use of color and texture and pattern is remarkable.
I knew I could get close. And I just couldn't rest until I'd made my own version. And here it is! (
Back view. Had to go my own way on the back! But I think it works well overall.
Writing is a craft, so you must know the feeling I'm talking about, if you write. You read a story that floors you, and you feel this compulsion to figure out why it floors you, to recreate that feeling for yourself, to make the story and yourself and your own craft better. And sometimes you even go for it out of a cocky sense of ambition. I could do better than *that*, you say to yourself.
But of course, you're not doing it better per se. You're doing it your way. And that's what makes craft so great, right? We all harvest from each other and feed each other and work individually towards this alluring ideal that wouldn't actually be possible for any one of us alone. Unless we're Shakespeare. ;)
I haven't been able to find much information on Daniela Gregis, except that she's based in Bergamo, Italy. Bergamo, like much of northern Italy, was ravaged by the coronavirus. An entire generation, gone in a month.
It may seem vacuous and tone-deaf considering the scope and tragedy of this moment in history, but the situation in Italy has weighed heavily on me as an artisan. Italy was on its last leg, and now it looks to be gone forever as we knew it.
Italy is artisanship. Textiles, yarns, mills, design. Secrets passed down from the Middle Ages, always pushing towards the newest technology while preserving the heart of the craft. The best fabrics I've sewn have come from Italy. They're unparalleled. Denim I've worn for over 3 years, and it's never lost its stretch or dye. That's craftsmanship. That's pride. It's a cheeky smirk to a high-speed world that seems to have lost its reverence for both. Those yarns, those fabrics, those carefully guarded trade secrets — are they gone now, too? I hope not. Maybe it will open the door for new possibilities, new opportunities.
There's something I've thought about so much during this crisis, something that's kept me going at those most frustrating, nihilistic, anxiety-ridden moments:
There would have been no Renaissance without the Plague.
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Yes, absolutely! I've spent a lot of time trying to "reverse-engineer" stories and learn their inner workings. This sentence took my breath away, but why? Was it the sentence itself, or the context of the rest of the paragraph? If you reworded it this way or that way, how would the effect change? The craft of writing is endlessly fascinating to me.
Good luck on the fic! *waves pompoms*
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But of course, you're not doing it better per se. You're doing it your way. And that's what makes craft so great, right? We all harvest from each other and feed each other and work individually towards this alluring ideal that wouldn't actually be possible for any one of us alone.
GAH. How are you so incredible? *hugs* This is so, so true.
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That's a lovely bag and some great thoughts as well. Especially about the fic. Sometimes people do say 'well I'd write this but it must have been so many times before' and you think but it hasn't been done by you! And that's a good enough reason to write if you want to.
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