the heron and the hummingbird

I was prompted to write this post as a reply to a recent comment on a previous post about my online indigo workshop “Let’s Dye with Indigo“. comments here.

The commenter was suggesting that I apply to teach my online indigo class at Craftsy. This is not the first time someone has suggested this to me.  Now I know that “everyone is doing it”, and before I get more emails asking  why I’m not, I thought I’d try to explain my hesitation to do so.

First, it’s not “all about the money”.  But then again, it is about the money too.   About where the money goes. I prefer it to come directly to me for the work I put into my classes.

Craftsy is great for those who don’t want to or can’t set up their own system of teaching online.  They do it for you.  And I hear they do a fine job of it.  They even do your hair and makeup and send a limo for you.  (Somehow, that just doesn’t feel like me being me.) I’ve seen some of the promos and they are pretty slick.  Again, that doesn’t really feel like me either.  I don’t want to turn my indigo dyeing teachings into something that resembles a morning talk program.  I kinda like it the way it is, personal,real, and kinda funky.  Shot here in my own studio on my trusty iphone and edited in imovie.  Not so slick.

Yes, I probably could sell a lot of classes there.  I might even make more money (but like I said before, it’s not all about the money). But then again I might not.  I have spent a considerable amount of time and even travel teaching, learning, practicing, marketing my own  work and “brand” over the past many years and I’m not so quick to turn that over to someone else to take a cut off the top.  I am not so interested in becoming a class in a category on a site offering everything from decorating cupcakes to pizza making and parenting. I guess I’m a little weird that way.

As I look over Craftsy, I see that since their beginning offerings in 2011 they have grown to encompass so many topics- a clearing house of sorts. They make their money by being that clearing house.  Online learning is here to stay.  That much is sure. Coursera is now booming and their offerings are free!

For some of us that have been at this, teaching craft (or whatever you want to call it) online, for longer than that, I believe we paved the way for this sort of thing. The first one I was aware of was Joggles, where I taught a couple of classes in the beginning as a requirement for having my ribbon sold on the site.  It was a fair trade in the beginning.  Later down the road, I wanted to offer more (was told that it was impossible to teach dyeing online!) and I wanted to include video so I went solo and started developing my own methods and means.  Part of my intention was that I knew there were many folks out there like myself who couldn’t afford the trips to take in-person workshops with great teachers.  Whether it was a time or money issue, I thought that teaching dyeing online was a possibility. I also didn’t want to be limited by geography. I wondered. Things were changing. Technology was offering up new possibilities. I just started doing it.  I learned as I went and I learned from and with others.

Susan Sorrell   stands out in my mind as someone who was in on the online teaching very early on. Maybe as early as 2002 from what I could see on her website! I think my own first online classes were somewhere around 2006.  And of course, we include the masterful Jude of Spiritcloth for bringing us classes online that feed our soul, make us wonder, and have helped us in so many ways-stitch by stitch- by just being herself. There are many more I am sure.  We each have created a small niche for ourselves that supports us and our families. We are not rich by conventional terms, but we are independent and we are entrepreneurial. We also want to be ourselves. I  want to own my own materials, my own copyright.  I like being able to add to my class whenever I like-as I learn and grow with the students. Once a Craftsy class is “in the can” it is what it is.

feathered friends by Peg Mathes Yates

 

Immature Great Blue Heron looking for dinner ©2010 Peg Mathes Yates

I am reminded of a retelling of a Native American myth that I once read called  ”Heron and the Hummingbird” where the two get in a race to see who will own all of the fish in the rivers and lakes. The hummingbird loved to eat small minnows and the heron loved to eat large fish. I think we are the hummingbirds in the story.

I imagine that at some point down the road Craftsy might be bought by some media company larger than itself.  Seems that is how many of these sorts of startups go. Big fish swallowing up smaller fish -the way of the world these days.

I just hope that the future will still hold a place for hummingbirds to flit free and enjoy the nectar. Some days though, it does feel as if the odds are stacked against it. Once, when I was in Mexico, I saw a hummingbird laying dead near a large window. I went over and picked it up and to my surprise it started to move.  It sat there in my hand for a few minutes gathering itself together and then flew right out of my hand- off and away! It had merely been stunned I guess, running into that large window.

I’d never bet against the hummers out there. We’re colorful, we can take a few knocks, and we keep on zip-zipping around tasting nectar from here and there. Plus, as my friend Peg reminds me, hummingbirds can fly backwards! (thanks for the photos Peg!!)

is it spring yet? それはまだ春です？

apricot blossoms’ sweet promise…

there are days.  then there are THOSE days, yesterday being one of them.  i was reminded of the toll mental illness can take and where it leads to in a society with heels firmly dug in against the costs of creating solutions-or at the very least putting into place a safety net for people who are in no condition to make decisions for their own health, safety, and welfare without going to extremes.  but no, once again we must wait for the bottom to fall out before we can affect some sort of solution.   in that waiting period, we trust;  what else can we do?

on another front, i am reminded that even if you do your best work over many years,   you share that work far and wide,  you teach that work, that this does not assure education managers of trade shows won’t pass over your teaching proposal in favor of someone who signed up for your online class a year ago; someone who has no body of work on the subject at hand to back it up but has an “in” with the right crowd.  just know that to be true.  i am reminded to remember this when choosing shows and teaching venues.  sometimes i am naive and forget these things,  being in the bubble of my studio here.

then, as if that were not the end of a very, very long day, a late email arrives effusively deriding (even threatening!) me for a mistake on an order. crestfallen, i make haste in correcting the error, reshipping the order via express mail and emailing back all pertinent info and an even more effusive apology AND refunding the original order (although, admittedly, in the back of my mind thinking- ya know, i really don’t need this sort of treatment from a customer even if i did make a mistake). 

waking up this morning, i see an email from said customer. the order WAS correctly received.  oops.  sorry.  her mistake.

i had sent a small gift of a silk shibori ribbon scrap bag with the order and for some reason she thought it was all she had received. ahh…nice.  a gift turns into this?  perhaps we should not be so hasty next time…beauty takes time. even the buds on the apricot tree are slowly bringing us their beautiful sweet bounty.   

have a little sympathy for us who make for a living.  we are not robots, amazon.com,  walmart, or even craftsy.  we will make a mistake now and again.  we might get a little behind, trying to balance all the things we must do to keep the ship afloat. but the makers i know will go above and beyond for you, making each item by hand.  and we will often tuck a little something extra into your package just because we like to imagine your surprise when you receive the order.

all i can say is, i’m glad it is a new day… is it spring where you are yet?

maybe it’s just spring fever!

in the shop 

back to the future-again

The story goes something like this:

One day Richard and I were emailing back and forth about this and that.  Mostly about textiles and old things he had come across and how they could be saved and utilized.  And about him coming here from Japan to teach another workshop.  And about how he had gone into the attic of an old farmhouse and found some remnants of the family’s sericulture activities.  At the time I was putting together the “Silk Experience, Then and Now” exhibit for last year’s Houston’s International Quilt Festival.  He had found some examples of the straw cocoon bedding and of the cardboard cocoon trays which followed years later.  He saved me some samples that I was able to display at the show.  A couple of weeks later, he emailed me to say that he had come across some washi “cocoon bags”- was I interested?  Without hesitation I said yes! Get what you can, I said, not really knowing what they were but instinctually sure they were important somehow.  If you saw the exhibit last year you saw these remarkable examples of what I consider to be folk craft-handmade objects that served a purpose in daily life. I love stuff like this.  Everyday objects that are used but also are beautiful both visually and for the fact that they fit into the structure of everyday life of the time in which they were produced by craftsman of those times.  Eventually, he had the opportunity to acquire a few more.

cocoon bags at exhibit

Now,  I have been to the main sericulture/silk museums in Japan as well as seen the collection of items at the Tokyo Silk Science Institute associated with Tokyo University.  I had never before seen anything like these washi bags!  I wondered…

cotton cocoon bag with markings

I started researching online.  Couldn’t find anything.  In fact, vintage or antique washi itself was rare to find.  Mostly now you find a scrapbooking product claiming to be vintage washi tape.  An image search of “vintage Japanese washi” comes up with this page.  Not e x a c t l y…

this is washi

What we have surmised so far is this- that these bags were made in Mino City-known for it’s papermaking and it’s close proximity to where they were discovered by Richard.  That they are easily over 100 years old. That some are treated with kakishibu (persimmon tannin) and others were dyed with tumeric (the yellow ones or yellow patches on them).  That they predate the use of cotton bags for silk cocoon transportation and storage.  That they were regularly sent back for repair and patching when needed and in the end, they were abandoned in favor of cotton bags.  Since Mino was a center of papermaking, they may be a somewhat regional object-using what comes naturally and is close at hand.  Hence, why I have yet to see them in other areas like Gunma or Yokohama which are more north.

Imagine!  Giant gusseted cocoon bags made of thick fibrous paper, patched, repaired and saved for tens of decades.  I have saved one out to give as a gift to the Yokohama Silk Museum if they are interested.  I have not seen one there.  I have saved myself one and have it hanging on a wall where I can see it every day and wonder.  Some people have expressed an interest in using the paper itself in their own artwork.  Either way, these pieces have ki or 気 which is another way to say vital life energy.  That they have resurfaced after all these years is so interesting to me.  We have several of them available in the shop.  It’s a joint effort between us to find these pieces good homes where they can continue to produce 気.

in the shop now

intention

Seems like lately I’ve been in the employ of words ending in -tion and -sion. words like:

instruction, concentration, immersion, connection, destination, impression, revelation, fermentation
and the main one:

intention

All through the recent couple of weeks these words rolled around inside my head and I find that they apply to so many things throughout my day.  All of them though, bound up by intent. I am focusing more on intent these days. Maybe focusing isn’t the right word really.  At least being more conscious of it, wondering about it, taking it into consideration . Noticing it, within myself and beyond.

I think that the silks that Richard brought over made it ever clear. These fabrics have intent. Working with them I can feel and see it. Even though most were produced many decades ago (and maybe especially because they were) the intent seems clear to me.  They are still here.  They were saved all this time. The intent was carried on through many hands into their present form.

old silks

And over time here, I have been wondering not only about silk, but about indigo too. Last year I grew indigo-cut and dried it, even saved the seed.  Eventually I composted the leaves into a claylike mass. Now, I have made a fermentation vat with the homegrown indigo.  I think the past is about to meet the future, blending the past with the future, sustainably.

silk boro indigo

This intention has been brewing in me for a very long time. Some days I think maybe since the dawn. I am only beginning to recognize it as such. I can be a slow learner…

mon 紋 もん

mon are emblems used in Japan to identify groups or individuals.  also know as Japanese crests, Wikipedia states that mon

may have originated as fabric patterns to be used on clothes in order to distinguish individuals or signify membership in a specific clan or organization.

some indigo itajime pieces i have been working on remind me of these mon.  perhaps a shibori no ai mon 藍搾り纹 is in order. will be wondering more about this.  i think they would make nice pillows…

these pieces are an outgrowth of what i have learned from Richard, who is due to be here shortly.  we will have some more time together, standing on common ground, and under the same moon.  we have 2 spots still open if you are in the neighborhood…

meanwhile, Susan over at ito de has been incorporating thoughts of kanji into her work.  lots of good posts over there.

planting seeds and wondering into the new year

seeds.  i’ve written about seeds a number of times this past year. and things related to seeds.  seeds are the beginning of things. they contain the wonderful possibility of life,  sustenance, beauty and even of freedom.   i’ve always been a seed saver.  when i was a kid it was fun to collect seeds to play with-to make things with. i remember having great fun collecting nasturtium seeds- so plentiful and easy to gather.  all sizes, shapes and colors.  string them,  glue them, count them, eat them, plant them.  seeds.

edible nigella seeds from the summer garden.

a couple of months ago i had the good fortune to be in Santa Clara for a family wedding and came across the Luther Burbank  home and gardens.  if you are ever in Santa Clara try to make time to stop by (the docent tour was also fantastic). I was so intrigued by this man- i bought this book -A Gardener Touched with Genius and have been reading it off and on…so interesting! The place is beautiful, gardens diverse and the house is quaint and wonderfully restored.  but my favorite thing was this:

Luther Burbank’s seed vault

this is how he thought of his seeds.  precious. so much so that they were kept in a vault. there also was a small shed with a little window from which he sold his seeds to neighbors and to the public. a walk around the neighborhood reveals that many of the yards still contain plants grown from his seeds. charming!  he also had an experimental farm at nearby Sebastopol. i hope to visit it sometime this year.  this video really speaks to who he was:

now i have mentioned once or twice before that silk moth eggs are called seeds by the Japanese.  and they do look like seeds.  i have a fair collection myself in the butter compartment of the fridge. i wonder if and when i will have a chance to raise silkworms this year?

silkworm eggs-seeds

of course i will grow indigo again, in fact it is already growing! seeds that dropped while collecting the flower stems have already sprouted in this mild climate of ours.  we had some nice soft rain that coaxed them…  i gave away most of my extra indigo seeds -i like to send them out into the hands of those who take the indigo workshops. i wonder how many will plant them?

sometimes seeds are dropped- sprout and grow! we don’t always know how or where they will bloom

I am also growing something new this year- madder.  i will be experimenting with it. with combining  madder and indigo.  i thought it might be about time to add a second color to the natural dyescape of my studio.  i’m not one to try anything and everything- i like to delve into things fairly deep and that means taking my time with it and not rushing.  madder grows rather slowly and it will take  couple of years for it to mature to the point where it can be harvested.  honestly, i wonder if i will even get to that point with it.  but i have some madder root here now that i have purchased and watching some grow will only add to my knowledge base.  i was intrigued by madder several years ago when on the silk study tour we visited a natural dyer who showed me his experiments with it and some madder he had grown. he planted a seed in me that started me wondering.  it’s taken a while to germinate… i wonder what new things will come of this.

Natural Dyeing Master Youjiro Takezawa shows us his madder root from the garden (Mr.Takezawa passed away 2 years ago. His wife succeeded his studio)
4-388 Umedamachi Kiryu city, Gunma japan japan,silk

seeds are a good way of spreading wonder i think.  that is what i intend to continue with this year. spreading wonder  and planting seeds in small ways.  there’s a lot to wonder about. may the ground be fertile!

happy new year!

a few announcements-

First- I forgot to mention that the daily dyer subscription will cover the time during the upcoming Silk Study Tour to Japan. So the added bonus is that if you sign up for the full 6 months you will get to see a bit of the behind-the-scenes tour.  Sometimes dyers have to go to Japan!  We are gathering a great group.  There are still a few spots open so if you have been imagining yourself in the land of the rising sun…come on along! Not that you need a little tempting or anything but here is a fun flickr set of photos of past trips- and a little video just for fun…

silkworms 1-5 instar stages

►

Next- there will be a new in-studio workshop announcement next week. Dates look like they will be end of January/ early February.   It will be a combination workshop featuring Richard Carbin’s mandalas and my arashi shibori techniques.  Day one will be mandalas with Richard and myself (assisting) and day two will be with me learning arashi shibori techniques and Richard assisting .  Day three will be a free dye/play day to practice some of the skills you have learned.  We are still working out the details but you can sign up for day one, day two, day one & two (a little discount), and day three will be reserved for only those who have taken day one or two or both (both days will get you a nice discount on day three).   We will work with procion (Richard’s fave), colorhue, and acid dyes and even the indigo vat.  It will be limited to 6 people each day. I’m just getting things set up so I can list it in the shop sensibly. So much going on right now.  Does it ever slow down?  I wonder…what if we combined arashi and mandalas….

+

who knows?

 

 

rainy monday

but a nice rain. a rain that doesn’t drown us but one that feeds and wets everything to the core.  the  plants seem happy and thankful.  since it was rainy yesterday too (and for several days before that) i stitched up some holiday reds that will go out in orders today.

if you need one or two, just visit the shop.  i’ve got my poinsettia groove on at the moment.  (also available as a kit with video instructions)

and since i was working on video too, i made this little “movie trailer” for the daily dyer. we aren’t very  far from Hollywood you know…

i would embed it here for you but for some weird reason Youtube is messing with me.  it keeps inserting the wrong video despite restarts, browser clearing, and all other sensible fixes.  so just click the link- i’ve got other stuff to do…it’s Monday.

daily dyer trailer…

the daily dyer

something new…

Lately I’ve been so very thankful to everyone who has been turning out for classes both online and in person. It is a real pleasure to see so much interest in dyeing, silk, indigo and just general interest in what I do.  It is wonderous to see you the students come to these classes with your own intentions and desires and then take the information off to create on your own.  Some of you create just for the sheer pleasure of it, some with the intention of starting your own small business.  It is great to know that many are thinking in that direction-thinking independently. Just keep going is what I have to say about that.  It takes time.  Do not expect things to happen immediately, instantly, or forever. Start small. Grow it.  You are the seed. You have to keep plugging away at it. Inventing, creating, wondering on a daily basis. Seeds need nourishment and so will you.

This leads me to the next thing.  With this level of interest the daily emails with questions grow. The requests to go here and there increase. Some of the questions sound like this:

-when is your next class?(working on that…deciding…figuring out finances…)

-will you be teaching near me soon?(dunno-where are you?)

- can I come work for you-for free-so I can learn! (surprisingly, many of these offers! thank you so much for the offer-but I can’t do that for many reasons)

-can you come teach here in Israel/Japan/Canada/? (wouldn’t that be cool?)

-I’m in your neighborhood, can I stop by? (uh, sorry-no)

-we’d love to have you at our show will you come? (unlikely-many to consider and many financial considerations are involved)

-I need to turn in a report on my favorite artist-will you answer these 20 questions?(most of which the answers can be found by reading a few pages on my blog-but thanks for thinking of me)

-and myriad questions about dyeing,shibori, silk, indigo, growing indigo, seeds, shows, orders (YAY!- helps pay the bills!) and so much more. Time!  I need more time (maybe time traveling is an answer)!

I wonder how to divy myself up in enough pieces to satisfy more- to spread my growing knowledge further and the daily practice of it in a way that serves us all? In a way that helps me and helps you.

I tested this idea out some time back but I wasn’t quite ready for it.  I am now.  Things come with their own time and place and I think now is the time.  So here it is:

the daily dyer

-a place for daily snippets of dyeing for a living- which is what I do. Even I don’t know what each day will offer- that is part of the lesson. But come along and get a glimpse. This doesn’t take the place of the other more technique based classes or in person workshops (or the blog here either). It’s meant to teach in a different way.  And I think we all know that there are many ways of learning and that people learn in different ways. Along the way. Yes, along the way. As I write that, I realize that is what this is about. Globe trotting is very costly- the teachers costs must be covered-  and thus workshops for those sorts of events are expensive and understandably not in the budget for everyone.

For you, it will give you a part of me and my work that hasn’t been available so far. It will give you another way to learn. $60 for 6 months. That’s about 35 cents a day- the cost of a daily good cup of coffee when I was born-over 50 years ago…or the cost of two overpriced cups of coffee a month now ( I may have been listening to too much public radio these days..).

For me, it allows me to reach further, deeper, and continue serving in another affordable way for all of us. Also, it’s a daily commitment, a practice of daily teaching and learning.

But really, what have you got to lose? You can sign up for a one month subscription for $25 which can be applied towards the 6 month subscription if you add it before the one month ends. (kind of a layaway plan of sorts.)

The daily dyer begins December 15 and continues through June 15, 2013.

Subscriptions for the first 6 months will be available now through Dec 15th only. I’ve also added the possibility of gift certificates in the shop- and some are conveniently set at the price of a daily dyer subscription.   I wonder if you’ll check it out…

restoring faith and wonder, creating solutions

It was a rough weekend here in shiboriland considering the energy that had to be expended to sort out the problems created by someone who’s complete lack of ethics and honesty ended up with her taking all the materials from my online class and using them as her own.

Adele at A for Artistry responded quickly and became part of the solution by removing the class and communicating with me to complete resolution.  I thank her for that.  She further sent me the class materials that were to be posted for this online class-and guess what?  They were all my materials! My samples, my words, even photos of my own hands demonstrating the techniques!  I was blown away.  I thought that it was likely that she was using the materials in some way but jeeze. All she did was remove my name at the top and the copyright notice at the bottom and replace it with her own name.   Can you imagine?  Adele of course was horrified and feels terrible.  I will be taking further measures tomorrow by informing sites such as the Dyerslist, the Dyers Forum, and several other sites where she has been posting her workshops and let them know what has been going on. It will be up to them as to whether they remove the posts or not.

I will also be changing the nature of my online classes.  The class that was most affected was the older shibori techniques class. Most of the lessons were PDF based.  The blog featured other videos and such but the PDF’s are easier to steal.  It looked to me like she just printed them out, cut and pasted them and recopied or scanned them back in.  When I get a chance, I will be reworking that class in a way that makes it more difficult to steal.

We are both interested in creating a solution! That is how we can feel better about all of this-by creating a solution.

In yesterday’s post, I created a list of guidelines for those who want to teach…even Martha in the comment section chimed in with a very good addition to the list.

Today, I made a list of the things I would want from a teacher if I was hosting their class. I’m sure there are things you would add (please feel free to do so in the comment section). I think these sorts of things would help protect the host, other teachers, and the students from fraud of this nature occurring in the future.

•  All teachers would need to have a decent online presence. Look, if you want to teach online, then it is essential that students can see your work and get a sense of who you really are. Blogs and Facebook pages are great for this.  They are free and simple to create.
• Teachers would have a website or a flickr account where more information about them can be found as well as a collection of their own work for all to see.
• Teachers would have email and respond to it in a timely fashion.
• All this would be very transparent and easy to find-not “in the works”.
• Class postings would include these links to the teachers sites.
• I would want some references -past venues, student references.
• I would probably do a skype interview. Or at least a phone call.
• I would Google their name, their email address and review it all.
• I would have them sign a contract stating that all materials submitted for the class are their own works and that necessary attribution is given when referencing the work of others. (this addition suggested by Adele in the comments below)

This would be a start.  What would you add?

This is the world we live in now and we better get smart about it. Mediocrity will become the new norm if we let it.  Things are changing. It’s awfully easy for this to happen if we don’t take precautions.   Remember this piece?  I am still working on it…it is about transparency…and hope…and seeing on through to the other side.

trans boro window covering-indigo

I do want to thank everyone who chimed in on this past post-especially those who offered solutions and ideas.  I know we are all outraged by this sort of behavior, but in the end it’s what we DO about it that will count. We can’t just sit around being outraged and exhausted by it all. That’s not gonna change a damn thing!