I want to go back in time and tell my college graduated self, with her billion pimples, that she is right to be secretly happy about not being able to find a job and getting to spend so much time exploring her hobbies. But of course I do not really want to do this; it would take out all the excitement in not knowing. For today, I am sharing here my new collection, Mawusi FW16: Nitsowi: It owes much to my failure to find employment after college, and I owe it my current state of calm and gratitude.
I got the beautiful alpaca yarn for this collection late in July and started knitting, slowly, in August. I finished the last piece on the morning of November 7th, and shot the whole thing that afternoon because I prefer working with natural light; I love its effect on images. Thus I was lucky that the light was very good and the shoot went smoothly. I didn’t have to do much editing except a little cropping here and a tiny contrast adjustment there.
This collection was a patience experiment which yielded a surprising result. I was under the impression that I would be driven, quite constantly, to rush my forehead into a good solid wall, repeatedly, until unconsciousness claimed me. But it was the contrary! What happened was a lot of humming, a lot of long breaks, and my hand hurting in new interesting ways.
The designing part was a lot of fun. I always start a collection wondering what is going to be created. I go with more questions and feel for answers. The designing part is crazy because it depends mostly on faith. The making part is when imagination shares a bench with rational to discuss such things as limited hands, limited experience, time, cost of materials, and a frothing-at-the-mouth budget.
I like to have a general pattern for a collections and the ‘popcorn’ stitch felt right for this one. Since I did not know how to knit it I watched video tutorials to learn how to knit it. The first video I watched was not very encouraging and the second video was even more complex. But I wanted, very much, to work with the stitch and thus felt the need to not give up without making some real effort. In the end I took lessons from both videos and came up with my own way of making the seeds in an easier and faster way.
My favorite piece in the collection is the Zia Scarf, which you see in the pictures above. It can be worn in a few ways because it is made to be quite versatile. But my favorite thing about it is the weight and the soft feel of it. It feels like nothing yet provides so much warmth.
Designing and crafting for Mawusi has taught me a lot. Some people won’t get your work and it is alright. Some people cannot believe in what you do and it is alright. You will have to learn how to promote your work, and it may not be easy but if you keep going, it gets easier. There will be a LOT of rejections and what you do with that is learn from them, and learn to not take things personal. The worst thing is not that many will dismiss your craft or that it may take forever for it to be financially profitable, the worst thing is giving up on yourself and not trying, in your own way, at your own pace. The worst thing is not having faith in your gift and not practicing patience with yourself.
Every time I finish a collection, I am blown away by how much is inside one which one may never get to know unless one makes some effort to unearth. I am grateful for that which gives me the strength to keep trying. It makes me very happy!
Please find the rest of the collection under the collection section on Mawusi.
Be a blast!
j
