Thursday, January 28, 2010

Hullo, there.

Well hullo, there. Welcome.

I suppose when most people start blogs, they say a little about why they’re writing, what their purpose is. I’m not sure exactly if anything has real “purpose,” but these are my hopes for it:

I started Anchors Aflight because I have an unsquelchable drive to create, and I thought I might have a place to share those things I create here, and to sell them on my Etsy store there.


Making things is one of those activities that makes me the happiest. When I’m doing anything creative, I get this ecstatic ball of energy in my chest that oscillates between my ribs. I hope to share that kind of feeling with you, even if it is just a twinge of happy, a little squeal of delight, a sigh of awe, or inspiration for projects of your own.

I am a maker of many things, and I am constantly elated to learn new creative skills. Much of my joy from learning stems from my pride in teaching myself and solving problems as they arise: How do I attach fasteners to hair bows? What’s the best way to close up and finish a stuffie? How do you make this buckle work on a leather wristband with limited tools? How do I make this super cool thrift store skirt fit? How do I do a blanket stitch? How the hell do you make a narwhal horn out of fabric? To answer these questions, I usually look to the internet, to other craft blogs like this one. Most of the time, I can find a tutorial that may help, or I can study others’ finished products. Then I fiddle around with my materials, probably making several prototypes and trying and failing a few times before I get it to my liking. I think this process of trying and failing and trying until I get it right is one of the more frustrating but rewarding parts of the creative process. Once I have that finished whosie-whatsit in front of me, I feel this immense sense of pride that not only did I make that, I taught myself how to do it; I made it my own.

Anchors Aflight will be my chronicle of not only my finished products, but how I got to dream them up, learn the skills, and make them come to life. I hope you enjoy it a smidgen as much as I do!