2015 THING-A-DAY CHALLENGE

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I have failed miserably at keeping up with my plans for this site.  But now that I have lowered my expectations and gotten over the disappointment in myself (slacker!!) I am starting a new challenge, with no promises attached, just high hopes.

Yesterday was January 1, 2015.  I hadn’t made any big new year’s resolutions and was casting about for a direction.  I have many big plans for the coming year, but they don’t feel “whole.”

Then, last night, I got the news that a wonderful fiber artist and new friend, Sharon Janda, had died suddenly.  She was a wildly talented artist, huge art and craft enthusiast, ardent collector, generous teacher, and obsessive workshop taker.

Her seemingly boundless energy had made me feel slightly inadequate, I have to admit.  I was (a little) jealous of her focus and interest in everything her world offered her.

So, as a tribute to her, I am going to try to make a thing each day for as long as I can.  It can be a very small thing, and it can be something I have made before. It doesn’t have to be complicated, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be my own design, and it doesn’t have to be “good.” Ideally, each thing will be made from reused materials.  I am giving myself permission to miss a day every now and then, but I hope I can channel Sharon’s energy and get this one little thing done each day.  I also give myself permission to finish something I started a while ago as the day’s contribution. While I plan to make a thing each day, I doubt that I will get around to posting an image of each thing, every day.  But I will get there eventually (who knows, I may surprise myself – and you!).

Yesterday, to start things off, I made an origami sampan (this links to instructions) in honor of Sharon’s Japanese heritage.  One of the things I like about this pattern (which I had used before, but not for many years) is that it is fairly simple and flat until the end, when you do the one complicated but and flip it inside out and it transforms into a lovely fluid shape.  I used handmade abaca paper I had made 5 years ago that contained bits of “old” pulp that didn’t take the dye evenly, so it is old paper made out of old pulp that has been sitting in my basement waiting for a purpose. Now it is a boat.

Happy New Year

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