Christie: only marginally insane

For about as long as I can remember I’ve been making things – I guess the very first thing I remember making is a little Indian village with tiny paper teepees scattered across a table. It started with paper and glue, but these days I’ll undertake just about any kind of project: sewing, woodworking, cooking, baking, decorating, and mostly that undefinable category that involves a little bit of everything to achieve the finished product (I guess that’s the et cetera). This doesn’t mean that I excel at any of the above skills, only that I’m not afraid to play around with whatever’s necessary to create in three dimensions the project that already exists in my head. Always I have more things in mind to do than there is time to make (and certainly to finish) them all. You’d think working on actual full-scale, bricks-and-mortar things these days would be enough for me now, but there’s always something in the back of my head I can’t wait to get home and work on.

Starting with that first little Indian village, there’s been the perpetual issue of what to actually do with all the various things I feel compelled to make, but that very rarely discourages me from starting something new. Lately, though, it means I try to redirect my creative tic towards either ephemeral things (edibles) or into things for other people. (December is a really busy time for me.) I won’t say that I ever regret giving away months of work, or watching a knife slice into one of my “masterpieces”. Sometimes, though, I do wish that I had better documentation of my projects either for my own memory or (I’ll admit) for showing off. That’s why I wanted to start this blog – a way of hanging onto all my various projects without taking up any more space in my apartment, but also a sort of portfolio of what I’ve done that just might inspire other people to make little Indian villages of their own. Not to mention, this blog is really yet another little project for me (and Carrie, and Julie) to work on, and goodness knows we’re always in need of another project.

You might or might not find this all as interesting as I do, but maybe there will be a few ideas you can use, or modify into your own unique project. Welcome to the insanity …