Creative Goals For August

What's brewing in the studio this month...

Hello, happy August, and welcome back into the studio ~~ I hope you are well. It’s a full moon in Aquarius as I write this, and I’m hoping to channel some of that strong full moon energy into this letter, as well as my overall creative intentions for the month.

I see August as a liminal time. As the last month of the summer, its a bridge between seasons where we wave goodbye to the summer with one hand and hello to the fall with the other. Some of what I hope to create this month will inevitably reflect this.

Lately it’s been bothering me that I haven’t been using the materials I have at hand to their full potential, so that’s something I’m hoping to work on this month. For example, I have a ton of scrap fabric to repurpose, as well as a ton of paper and colored pencils that I can use to draw out ideas in more detail.

From the left: couching by Claudia Moody, pumpkin embroidery by Hiroko Sei, free zine pamphlet by Carolyn Swiszcz & page from the 100 day stitch book by Ann Wood. Paintings and napkins are mine.

Creative Goals for August

• Free Form Couching

  

  I would like to do some slow stitch couching to use up some materials and scrap fabric I’ve accumulated that might otherwise go to waste. I have a lot of blue and white colored fabrics that would work for this and especially suit my current vibe since it’s summer and I’m in Athens. I don’t want to do too much planning for this project, allowing it to be more of a practice in intuitive embroidery and automatic stitching. I’m not seeking any specific visual outcomes, which honestly is something that’s been difficult for me because my minds default way of operating is to make a plan and work around structure. A practice like this feels radically against what feels comfortable to me creatively, but I do believe there’s value in being new at something and in pushing your boundaries. It’s important to have a mold, but it’s also important to break it when the time is right.

  That reminds me of two sayings:

  1. Rules were made to be broken, and 2. Life is a process of learning and unlearning, and then learning and unlearning, over and over again, forever.

  I see experiemental projects like this as a way to stretch my creative capacity rather than limit myself to one way of operation and style.

• Start a Stitch Book

While I find comfort and familiarity in using the same stitches, I would really like to challenge myself by learning new and more advanced ones. The idea to make a stitch book came shortly after that thought. I would be happy to have at least one page done by the end of the month, which feels very doable considering I would start from basic stitches and what I already know, eventually building up to more complex styles. A finished stitch book would also be a great resource to have present at workshops as a reference, too.

• Laptop Sleeve

  

  If you were with us last month you’ll know that this project was also on my July inspo list. The reason it’s on this months list is because it took me much longer to source the fabric than expected, which didn’t leave me much time for actually working on it. The good thing about that is that the delay gave me more time to reflect about what I wanted this project to be. Around the time I was making these reflections it also happened to be the new moon in July, so the two naturally merged. My intentions I set at the new moon became woven into the design I drew for the sleeve. The overall theme is related to grounding, growth and magic, and the imagery that felt symbolic of those traits to me were roots, a heart, flowers, an eye and, of course, the moon.

• Make a zine to go with my next article style post

  

  A very messy first outline

  This months written post is going to be about how to build a more handmade life, and I had the idea to make a zine to go along with it that would highlight some of the points made and also help me to make it more of an embodied practice. When I finish the zine I will mail out a physical copy to paid subscribers!

• Fall Embroideries

  

  I think sunflowers match both the summer and the fall

  As we’re just a stones throw away from the fall, I would like to start making small fall themed embroideries. I know it seems really early, but embroidery is a slow craft, so if you ever want to be on time, naturally you’ve got to be early. For these embroideries I’m thinking of stitching simple things like pumpkins, witch hats, spider webs… I’m already feeling very much into the whimsical air and color scheme of the fall and can’t wait to start on these smaller pieces.

• Painting

  

  Some of my paintings from last year

  My recent endeavour into mixed media art via embroidery on watercolor paper has made me feel excited about painting again, so I’m hoping to get some painting done this month. Although, I can’t say what the subject matter will be yet…

That’s all for now. Thanks for reading!

More updates to come.

Zoya xx

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