Upside of ...Collaborating

Something clicked late last year. Possibly from the ends of my fingertips. A throbbing need to make something with my hands was pulsing from deep within. Unannounced a project came up. My friend Grant Heaps was looking for someone to help with a big, big, big sewing project. I accepted with a jump. I've taken a basic sewing class and my mother has always had a machine, which I stealthily moved to my lodging. And for the last nine-ish years the machine has lived with me. But only on occasion would I play around with her. A small messy project here, some quickly hemmed pants there. And yet I jumped. I told Grant I'd love to help out and so we began. Now to clarify: I only really did maybe 5% of the entire piece, but I really, really enjoyed it. It lit some dead spark. I think a lot of it is because of Grant and his encouragement, but I'm itching for more. The photo included is of Grant's Garden Chairs from the Radiant Dark show put on by Made. They are truly beautiful and need to be seen in person to appreciate the detail and care and passion put into this band of six.

A couple of weeks back I also attended an artist talk by Tobias Wong and Cynthia Hathaway at Harbourfront Centre. The talked of their collaborative work and how strength and clarity come from more than one viewpoint. Cynthia spoke of her works with Platform 21, especially the Repair Manifesto; an amazing project she worked on helping folks mend the broken bits of loved things. Tobias only does collaborative work now, and it's inspiring to see an artist/designer embrace a real sense of community in his or her work. His ideas wouldn't develop into much without the help of many other hands. And how humble is that, an artist that can admit his own flaws, that can move forward and seek out the right people to get the job done, and done perfectly.

And so I can't help get the fever. I want to make things, beautiful things, and I want others to make it with me. I think it would be great to start a creative community that people could help connect and complete creative projects, kinda like a craigslist for skilled people and interested apprentices (maybe this exists already?). So I will be writing some posts on the projects I’m working on. I figure it's also a good thing to talk about on the blog, bringing light to the people I'm so grateful to work with. I don't have it all figured out just yet, but Project 1 will tie in to men's accessories and an interesting way of producing them. Confused? S'okay, so am I.

mike.